There is a need to provide basic amenities such as drinking water and toilets in schools as many of them lack these facilities.  In fact, 62  per cent schools do not have girls’ toilet, said Department of School Education and literacy secretary Champak Chatterjee on Thursday.

“This year, we have extended mid-day meal scheme to all primary classes. After the food, if the students need water to drink where will they go. Providing basic amenities is essential,” he said, adding that around Rs 10,000 crore is required for providing basic amenities in five lakh schools.

He was speaking at the interactive session on `New Perspectives on Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan - Education for all’ organised by Bangalore International Centre.

Mr Chatterjee said that there are three areas Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) is concentrating on--universal access, universal retention and giving satisfactory quality education.

Under the universal access,  importance is given to bridge gender and social gaps in schools. And, one way to achieve access,  he said that primary schools should be set up at 1 km radius and higher primary school at 2 km radius.

Other measures would be providing Education Guarantee Scheme (EGS) and  Alternate Education Centre (AES) as alternate for the students who have not enrolled in formal education.
“The aim of EGS should be to attract more students to formal education,” he said.