J&K among states with poorest infra in schools

Vikas Sharma
Tribune News Service
Jammu, January 20

J&K is among the seven under-performing states of the country in terms of poor infrastructure in government schools where students have no access to basic facilities like electricity, playgrounds, drinking water, etc. The other six states lacking such facilities include Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and Rajasthan.

A parliamentary standing committee has expressed concern over the pathetic state of affairs in the education sector of the state. It asked the state to ensure complete utilisation of allocated funds meant to strengthen the sector.

As per data, around 17,112 state-run schools in J&K are without playgrounds of which over 5,000 government schools are in Jammu province. Further, 17,000 government schools have no boundary walls. 

In Jammu region, the strength of schools without boundary walls is over 7,500. In terms of electrification, a little over 5,000 government schools in J&K have electricity facility whereas more than 17,000 are still functioning in the dark. 

There are around 6,351 government schools in J&K without toilet facility for girls and 8,098 schools without toilet facility for boys. 

The Department of School Education and Literacy, Union Human Resource Development Ministry, had recently approved an amount to the tune of Rs 71.59 crore for various infrastructure interventions.

Sources said the committee was appalled to see the strength of untrained teachers in active service in J&K and termed the situation alarming. The committee also felt that no amount of words could elaborate the state of quality of education in J&K and other states having most number of untrained teachers. J&K is ranked sixth in terms of number of untrained teachers with a strength of more than 27,000. Other five states ahead of J&K are West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Assam and Tripura. 

Alarming figures 

As per data, around 17,112 state-run schools in J&K are without playgrounds of which over 5,000 government schools are in Jammu province. In terms of electrification, a little over 5,000 government schools in J&K have electricity facility whereas more than 17,000 are still functioning in the dark.