The Hindu : Temporary sheds in schools to go

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Dec 26, 2003

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Temporary sheds in schools to go

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI DEC. 25. It will soon be goodbye to schools running in temporary sheds and tents. Taking a serious note of the practice to put up temporary sheds, which are also unsafe, the Delhi Government has directed that all such infrastructure should be removed and replaced by porta cabins by the beginning of the next academic session. It has also been decided to ensure that environment would be taught as a separate subject from the next academic session.

Giving this information here, the Education Minister, Arvinder Singh Lovely, said in addition to this, steps were being taken to ensure that adequate teaching staff was available in the Government and aided schools for teaching Punjabi and Urdu. He said directions had been issued to take necessary steps to recruit teachers for this purpose on temporary basis till permanent arrangements are made by the Government. Ever since he took over, the Education Minister has received representations from various minority institutions about the need to ensure availability of adequate teachers in schools to teach the two languages that were granted second language status in Delhi a few months back.

Mr. Lovely said it had come to his notice that students were being taught in accommodations that had temporary roofs, as they were unsafe for children. It has been decided to put an end to this practice and orders have been issued to the Directorate of Education to draw up a plan for establishment of porta cabins till permanent structures are built. He also hinted at outsourcing of building construction work for new schools buildings in order to speed up the availability of infrastructure and ensure that time bound implementation of the projects takes place. "I have sought the direction of the Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit, on the issue and on bringing about reforms in the Education Department. I will be presenting her with some of the priority points and then seek her permission to go ahead with the plans so that some of it is in place before the beginning of the next academic session," he added.

In fact, taking further the agenda of creating awareness among children about the importance of environment as an issue, Mr. Lovely informed the Delhi Government has decided to include "environment" subject as part of the syllabus from the next academic year in all the Delhi Government and aided schools. It has also been decided to lay total emphasis on quality education with total focus on improving the skills of the students.

"As per the directions of the Supreme Court, the Government has decided that environment would be taught as a separate subject as part of the syllabus and necessary changes in the entire course and books would be incorporated so that everything is in place before the next academic session begins. All the books being taught in the Delhi Government schools from 1st standard to VIIIth standard would have environment as a subject from next session," he added.

The Education Minister said that he had also written to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) asking them to carry out necessary changes in the syllabus and the books for the next session. As 9th standard onwards, the syllabus comes under CBSE, we have written to them and sought their cooperation in implementation of this directive of the court. We are hopeful that they would put in place the entire required infrastructure for this purpose," he remarked.

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