J&K schools sans computer, science labs

Vikas Sharma

Tribune News Service

Jammu, December 6

The government secondary schools in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir are struggling to provide science and computer laboratories to their students.

The government schools, both in urban and rural areas, are in poor condition. Even the shortcomings pointed by the Central government during its various surveys were not enough for the UT authorities to address them.

As per data available with The Tribune, of total 1,503 secondary government schools, including 1,054 in rural areas and 449 in urban areas, only 1,234 schools (818 in rural and 416 in urban areas) have the facility of science laboratories but they lack equipment to conduct experiments.

Only 425 government schools in rural areas and 346 in urban areas have adequate science laboratory facility. As far as computer education is concerned, of the total 1,054 secondary schools in rural areas, only 136 have access to computer education but they have insufficient computers. A mere 87 government schools have adequate number of computers available for students.

The situation in urban areas is slightly better as of the total 449 schools, 220 government secondary schools have access to computer education. Adequate number of computers is available in only 195 schools.

“Despite claims by successive governments in J&K over the years, the students in government schools are lagging behind in computer-aided learning process. More than 450 government schools are yet to establish Information and Communication Technology laboratories even after its sanctioning by the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry,” an official said.

“The construction of already sanctioned 172 science laboratories in government schools has not started till date. Due to lack of science laboratories, the students are suffering badly. The issue has been taken up the authorities concerned a number of times but except verbal assurances, nothing significant has been done,” the official added.