Rasoolpura govt school beset by many an issue

Rasoolpura: Lack of basic amenities in government schools is a cause for major concern among students, especially girls. Water scarcity, shortage of teachers and lack of toilets and the like give nightmares to the students at government schools. One among these is Rasoolpura Government High School.

A major reason for several issues remaining unresolved is that there is no headmaster to take care of the school and address the problems facing the students and the faculty. Jeevan Prakash, a senior teacher and Maths teacher, said, "There are 11 teachers as against a sanctioned strength of 15 teachers in the school. The post of headmaster has been vacant for several months. Though there are computer labs and science labs, they are not fully functioning. The reason: There is no computer instructor to teach. Due to these issues, we teach a few students well and then they have to further explain it to their classmates."

With a total of 300 students in the school, only 4 washrooms are allotted for the students; 2 for boys and 2 for girls. However, there is no sanitary worker to take care of cleanliness of washrooms. Due to this, the boys go out of the schools while the girls have to control till they go home.

Fathima, a Class VIII student, said, "During periods, there is no option to change and dispose of sanitary pads on the premises. We avoid drinking water during school hours and refrain from using the toilets until we reach home. We also don't have any basic amenities, including access to clean drinking water in the school."

Sanvika, a Class IX student, said, "There is always an unpleasant smell due to which we hesitate to enter the washrooms. There are very less washrooms in these schools which do not have proper doors, which lead to avoiding the use of toilets by the students."

Sagar, a Class 8 student, said, "Due to the poor condition of toilets, we are forced to go to the nearby grounds. There is always an unpleasant smell that comes from these washrooms even when one passes from here." Teachers also alleged that the compound wall has been broken for the past several months due to which many locals dump the garbage near the compound wall. The water from the taps overflows after every two months.

"Due to the lack of funds given by the government, we teachers had to collect an amount of Rs 40,000 to repair the broken water pipeline and drainage issue in the school. There is also no electricity supply on the second floor of the school for which we have to collect another specific amount," adds Prakash.