The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : School education in chaos in Chittoor district

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Aug 06, 2007
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

School education in chaos in Chittoor district

Special Correspondent

Nearly 3,000 schools lack minimum facilities

4,550 schools without power supply, 3,256 implementing noon meal scheme without kitchens
Students sit in the open due to lack of adequate classrooms, especially in remote areas

TIRUPATI: Even as the Government is shouting from roof-tops that it has been giving top priority to school education, the ground reality, especially in the rural areas appears to be entirely different.

According to reports, out of 14,995 sanctioned posts, as many as 2,000 teacher posts are lying vacant in the district even as there is said to be a need for another 5,000 teachers to cope with the increased number of schools and the admission rate.

Disquieting factor

According to further statistics, another disquieting factor is that nearly 3,000 schools in the district are said to be lacking in minimum facilities like arrangement for drinking water, more so when they are implementing the noon meal scheme. This literally leaves to students high and ‘dry’. Further, of the schools implementing the noon meal scheme, as many as 3,256 are without kitchens with the result that the food is being cooked either in the open or under make-shift pandals.

No power

Nearly 4,550 schools are without power supply, though strangely they were reportedly supplied with television sets for the telecast of tele-school programmes. Further, viewed from the point that 2,857 schools do not have even toilets , the fact that 812 schools do not have laboratories does not appear to be a serious deficiency. Students sitting on the floor in the open is a common sight in most schools, especially in the countryside due to lack of adequate classrooms. Will the Government launch a special drive to address all these problems comprehensively in order to achieve its goal-‘cent percent literacy’.

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