Over Rs 600 crore spent in five years, yet J&K schools lack toilets, drinking water, classrooms

High shortage of disabled-friendly facilities hurt children with special needs

Jammu: Despite spending over Rs 600 crore for infrastructural development in the past five years, the government-run schools in Jammu and Kashmir continue to struggle with inadequate infrastructure, including separate toilet facilities for boys and girls, drinking water, ramps for children with special needs (CWSN), and adequate classrooms.
According to the official statistics provided by the Union Minister of Education Dharmendra Pradhan while responding to a question in Lok Sabha on Monday, it was revealed that there were 23,173 government schools (as per UDISE+ 2021-22) in Jammu and Kashmir, out of which nearly 4,000 schools did not have boys toilets, while over 3,000 schools lacked girls' toilets.
Similarly, only little over 11,000 schools had ramps for CWSN and over 10,000 schools had inadequate furniture to cater to the needs of young children studying in these institutes. There were thousands of schools where there were no hand-wash and drinking water facilities for boys and girls.
What was quite surprising was that the government schools had a high shortage of disabled-friendly infrastructure such as CWSN toilets and ramps with handrails. “There were just 1,236 government schools where there was toilet facility for CWSN, while only 4280 schools had ramps with handrails to assist the specially-abled children,” the statistics revealed.
Asked about the funds allocated and utilized, including spill over to upgrade schools in Jammu and Kashmir during the last five years, the Union Minister disclosed that the funds to the tune of Rs 968.53 crore were allocated to the Union Territory, out of which an amount of Rs 607.35 crore was spent on upgrading the physical infrastructure in these schools.
“Under Samagra Shiksha program the components like, construction of additional classrooms, toilets for girls and boys with running water facilities, boundary walls, major repairs, drinking water with RO Plant, Paintings to Schools, Supply of Furniture, Green Chalk Boards and IFB panels for digital education etc are also being covered,” Pradhan said.
Pertinently, the government schools even don’t have playgrounds for young students, notwithstanding the claims of authorities to give sports and physical education an important place in the curriculum.
More importantly, sports and physical education have been given a lot of emphasis in the new National Education Policy (NEP). Sports and physical education are mandatory under the Right to Education Act (RTE). Playground is one of the eight physical facilities that schools are mandated to provide under the RTE Act.
If the official sources are to be believed, nearly 40 percent, mostly primary and high schools, have no playgrounds for students. Even thousands of institutions don’t have the facility of electricity, thereby causing a lot of inconvenience to teaching staff and students during harsh climate conditions.

Updated On 11/26/2024 10:28:43 AM