BANGALORE: A good number of government primary schools in Karnataka continue to have only one classroom and one teacher. The buildings are of poor quality and they have no tap to supply drinking water, not to speak of toilets and other basic amenities. The programmes aimed at changing this situation remain only on paper, according to National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration, New Delhi, in its report on "Elementary Education in India" (2006).

The implementation of the World Bank-aided District Primary Education Programme (DPEP- 1994-2003) and the Sarva Shikshana Abhiyan (since 2001) had not improved the facilities, the report said.

Two rooms needed

It said 23.56 per cent of primary schools in the State were single-room schools in 2005, almost double the nation's average. Many of the one-room schools had only one teacher. Unless all the schools were provided at least two classrooms, meaningful teaching-learning interaction was not possible, the report said.

As many as 648 primary schools were without a building of their own in the State.

The percentage of lower primary schools with pucca buildings was 85.06 and upper primary schools 83.18 in the State. None of the States in the country had provided a pucca building to all primary schools, the report said.

A good number of schools, both in rural (1,38,606) and urban areas (5,487 schools), in the country had only one teacher.

In the State, 8.75 per cent of schools had only one teacher as against 20.25 per cent of such schools in Madhya Pradesh, 16.28 per cent in Uttar Pradesh, 11.36 per cent in Bihar and 5.73 per cent in Andhra Pradesh.

About 34 per cent of primary schools in the State did not have drinking water facility while schools with common toilets were 27.3 per cent in 2004.

About 49 per cent of schools in the State were located beyond five km from the Cluster Resource Centre (CRC).

It was believed that if a CRC was located within a distance of 1 km from the school, the same would ensure better co-ordination of activities within the schools and between schools falling under a CRC, the report said.

The good news was that Karnataka was one of the eight states almost near achieving the goal of universal primary enrolment, the report added.

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