23,000 schools in India don’t have roofs

When education reforms are said to be a primary focus of the central government, a HRD ministry document has revealed that nearly 23,000 government schools are running under an open sky.

To be precise, 22,762 schools including 7,827 run by local bodies have no building, while 1,757 others across the country are running from tents.

Students in Madhya Pradesh are the worst sufferers as more than 4,400 schools are running in the open. While 3,424 schools in Bihar are functioning under similar conditions, the same is the fate of over 2,200 schools in Uttar Pradesh.

Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura are some of the states where no school is functioning in such pitiable conditions. However, in Tamil Nadu 300 schools are running in tents, the highest figure among states.

The HRD ministry also said that there are over 8,13,000 government schools in the country of which 6,61,117 havepucca brick and mortar buildings. At least 97,479 schools are partly pucca and over 30,000 schools have kuccha buildings.

“Under Sarva Siksha Abhiyan, grant for major repair was given to 6,483 elementary schools during 2008-09,” the ministry document said.

Source:  Hindustan Times

High on education

One year after it began, India’s first tribal university continues to battle bureaucratic delays and local politics

When Chandra Dev Singh was asked where he would stay in Amarkantak, a remote tribal town in Madhya Pradesh, the immediate answer that occurred to him was: “A tent.”

That was in August 2008. The university he was going to launch in the town located on the border of Chhattisgarh did not have any official land allotted, no administrative staff, teachers, or even students. Yet it was, by all official pronouncements, India’s first central university for tribals, being launched to promote education and research among tribal communities.

Chamru Singh Banjara of the Baiga community studies by the light of an oil lamp at his cousin’s hut, where he lives. Difficulties with his eyesight prevent Banjara from studying at night, and he can’t afford a doctor’s fees.

A year on, Singh prefers to focus on the triumphs rather than the challenges he faced when launching Indira Gandhi National Tribal University (IGNTU). Half of the university’s 282 students are tribals from the neighbouring remote villages, and the university has a good record of marks and attendance despite several operational hurdles.

“We are getting somewhere. There are no regrets,” he says, pointing to a full classroom.

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