Classroom crunch takes toll on students in sarkari schools

Hyderabad: This academic year, through the ‘Badi Bata’initiative, the state government has tried to increase admissions in government schools but is failing due to a lack of proper infrastructure such as classrooms, clean washrooms, among others. Despite parents’ willingness to send their wards to government schools, they hesitate to do so due to lack of basic facilities. One such school in the city is Government Girls Primary School, Masab Tank which doesn’t have adequate classrooms.

Daily, students of the school are facing hardshipsdue to lack of classrooms. They are seen sitting in anovercrowded classroom, while others are forced to sit under the open sky and take their classes.

The Hans India team, uponvisiting the school, witnessed that four students were sittingon a single bench in the classroom, and few groups of students were seen sitting outside in an open area. It was also found that a classroom was left locked for more than a year, and the reason was not known. Apart from classroom shortage, due to lack of sanitary workers, the school premises and washrooms are never cleaned.

Few students pointed out that during their language classes, they face hardship.“If the Telugu class is taking place inside the classroom, then the Hindi and Urdu students will have to sit outside,” they said.

On the condition of anonymity, a teacher of the school said, “Compared to last year, our school strength slightly increased this year due to students’ inability to pay the high fees in private schools. Currently, the school strength is 300. Last year also we faced the same problem, but we could somehow manage.But this year we are unable to manage because of the increased strength.We have only five classrooms and there is a requirement of five more classrooms. In the ground floor, there is a classroom that has been locked for the past one year.We have been requesting the education department that if they open the lock and handover the classroom to us, students will not be forced to sit on the ground.”

Despite the schools getting appropriate fund, they are failing to take up renovation measures that include fixing the un-functional toilets, providing benches in classrooms, cleaning the washrooms and the schools premises, and constructing new classrooms.