From CK Nayak
NEW DELHI: Education Minister Lahkmen Rymbui has threatened to stop government support to the schools faring poorly at the board exams, but an official survey has revealed that many schools in the country, including Meghalaya, are in a pitiable state, lacking even basic necessities.
The two-year-long national survey conducted by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), assessed 26,071 schools — both public and private — in 201 districts across 12 states including Meghalaya, known to be an educational hub.
In total, 22 per cent of them had cracks in buildings, said the survey carried out at Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Odisha, Mizoram, Uttarakhand, Meghalaya, Jharkhand and Chandigarh.
Operating from an old, cracked, dilapidated building can be fatal and immediate steps should be taken to ensure that the building is safe enough for the children, it noted. The situation is worse in case of earthquake zones, which include North East, the survey said.
“Therefore, there is a need to make school infrastructure earthquake-resistant. Necessary to orient and train teaching, purpose of this study, it was felt important to gauge if earthquake safety was being considered as one of the important safety parameters by the schools or not,” the study said.
Only 33 per cent of total schools had trained disaster management group available in school for initial response and that the school was in touch with the local disaster management authorities for training, it added. It is also crucial for schools and educational institutions to assess their situation and take preventive actions for safeguarding and protecting staff, children and infrastructure against such natural calamities like flood and cyclone, the survey said.
“We found that only 24 per cent of the total schools had a contingency plan in place for meeting floods, cyclones, cloudbursts and heavy rains,” it added.
Conclusion of the survey said that over 22 per cent of schools are running in old or dilapidated buildings, 34 per cent do not have separate rooms for every class and 54 per cent did not provide mid-day meals as per the stipulated menu. It also studied about psychological aspects like dealing with trauma and bullying.
More than a quarter of school toilets did not have running water facility. Operating from an old, cracked, dilapidated building can be fatal and immediate steps should be taken to ensure that the building is safe enough for the children and they get all basic necessities like water, it said.