Only 68 per cent of the total 2.12 lakh classrooms are usable

The collapse of a classroom wall at the Government Higher Primary Girls’ School in Yamkanmardi near Chikkodi on Monday, which killed two students and injured eight, exposes just how dilapidated the school building was. This is not an isolated case.

As many as 66,017 classrooms of the total 2.12 lakh spread across 44,101 government primary schools in the State are in need of repair. Of this, 32,959 classrooms require major overhaul and 33,058 need minor repairs.

As per data from the District Information System for Education 2015-2016, only 68 per cent of the 2.12 lakh classrooms are usable. For the most part, classes continue to be held in these weak structures, but in many schools they are in such a bad state that the teachers are forced to conduct lessons by combining two grades.

Classrooms in government high schools seem to be better with 83 per cent of the total 25,551 classrooms being in good condition. While 1,649 classrooms in high schools require major repairs, 2,636 require minor repairs. On Tuesday, senior officials of the Education Department convened a video conference with Deputy Directors of Public Instruction and asked them to identify classrooms that were in poor condition. They were asked to ensure that classes were not conducted in these rooms.

Many teachers pointed out that lack of adequate funds was responsible for the poor condition of schools. “Sometimes, we find it difficult to even pay electricity bills, so demolishing classrooms and building new ones is out of the question, unless we are able to get zilla panchayat or MLA funds for this,” a teacher of a school in north Bengaluru said.

While the school grants given to aided and government primary schools are Rs. 5,000 and Rs. 12,000 per school, the maintenance grants range from Rs. 5,000 to Rs. 20,000 per school.

Niranjanaradhya V.P., chief patron of School Development and Monitoring Committee Coordination Forum, said there was a need to enhance the school and maintenance grant.

“Currently, the government allocates a specific amount and schools have to make their development plans as per that. It will be ideal if the government releases funds based on the requirements of the school,” he said.

While the State government has released Rs. 41.6 crore as school grants, it is yet to release more than half of the Rs. 49 crore as maintenance grant for this academic year.