Poor infrastructure in rural schools
Whatever the level of publicity given to policies and programmes, time to time, meant to uplift standards of education, the gaps remain; and certain gaps are very huge. The news story by this newspaper on the government schools across our rural areas is a timely reminder to the policy makers, and those who implement those policies, that much needs to be done if our rural population has to be provided with decent opportunities to educate their children.
Though we have much stuff these days in regular and social media about schooling, it is mostly limited to some top notch schools. Unfortunately this too is about some emotive issues, without a granular understanding of what schooling is all about and how schools are finally run. In the process we miss focus on a vast population whose children are not given a worthwhile environment where education could happen.
If multiple classes are held in a single room, one wonders how children connect with teachers. When you have more than one class going on in a single room, who talks and who listens. We might have drawn documents like NEP-2020 or laid out frameworks like NCF, but if even the minimum infrastructure required is not available, how is all that going to benefit anyone.
If an analysis is done on how many children finally avail education from schools that have good infrastructure, it would certainly be a shocking percentage. Majority of the students, not just in rural areas but urban as well, are in schools that are struggling with resources. We are way behind in the availability of human as well as material resources, and we need a serious intervention in this regard.
The government schools in rural areas are particularly in need of upgrade, and there are no reasons why government shouldn’t have a singular focus on this. Rather than high end events or high sounding statements, it is better for the government to arrange basic facilities for our rural children so that they can get decent education. After all education is the fundamental right, and that is what the constitution says. Now if such a constitutional value is not upheld by government itself, where can you go from here. Providing education is a matter of duty for government and it cannot escape this responsibility.
