305 city schools without electricity

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, November 8

More than 300 schools in Srinagar are without electricity, official figures have revealed, puncturing the tall claims of the authorities that the infrastructure in the schools are being developed.

All these schools are government-run in the city. In Srinagar, there are 204 primary schools, 211 middle schools, 74 high schools and 30 higher secondary schools.

It includes 301 boys school and four girls’ schools, show the figures of the Department of Education.

GN Itoo, Director of School Education Kashmir, said it was their priority to provide electricity to the schools that are without it.

“Earlier, there was paucity of funds, but now the funds have been approved,” the official said.

The power problems are also faced by many higher secondary schools in the Valley and in most of the schools there is electricity connection, but there is no back up system. In the ongoing board exams of Class X and, XII, the students of Class XII were made to write their papers under candlelight. The pictures were shared widely on the social media, which invited criticism from the people. The timings of the exams were then changed.

“The attention is not being paid to the problems of government schools, that is why the students are dropping out. There is no motivation for them,” said Abdul Hamid, from Razi Kadal in Srinagar, who is a hawker. “I had admitted my son to a government school two years ago, then he left the school because there were no facilities and we could not afford to meet his demands.”Locals also say the Department has failed to equip the schools with basic facilities.

The government three years ago, issued instructions to the Education Department to install electrical connections in the schools, but the directions were not followed.

An insider in the department said the laxity was because the authorities felt electricity was not needed in the schools during the day.”.

“We have many schools without toilet facilities and drinking water,” the official said, adding even the Centrally sponsored schemes have not been implemented properly.