Dozens of govt schools still run in rented buildings

Paucity of land in city to create own facility among hurdles

The State and Union Governments release crores of rupees to provide basic infrastructure in government run schools. But the money is not being spent on having permanent facilities. This problem has been there for many years without any solutions, and seems to continue. The condition of rented buildings in which the ‘future citizens’ are studying is quite shocking. In fact, cattle sheds are better than those classrooms. In this situation, how will the children study and prosper?, is a million dollar question.

Till date, over a dozen of government higher and lower primary schools are still functioning in rented buildings, beginning from post independence which holds mirror to the apathy of officials concerned.

According to sources, Government Higher and Lower Primary Schools at Haleemnagar, Nizamiya Block, Udayagiri, Nazarbad, A G Block and Pattesvar Mandva in N R Mohalla are still housed in rented buildings in Mysore North Education Division.

The classes are conducted in rented buildings at Wellington lodge, M P Ugrappa Higher Primary School in Kailasapuram and Ominiyar Block in Narasimaharaja Assembly segment.
In Mysore South Division, the schools that are functioning in rented building are at Nachanahalli Pallya, Ittigegud and Ashokpuram. A majority of students who are studying here belong to lower strata of the society.

Shortage of land

Sources in the Education department told Deccan Herald that non-availability of land is the main problem to have permanent buildings for government schools in the city.
The demand for land is very high especially in the city area and the department is not in a position to buy property at the rate quoted by private persons. Gone are the days of people donating land to start government schools in their locality.

Now everybody sees from the commercial angle because of which it is very hard to find a piece of land in urban area.

In dispute

A number of land donated by philanthropists for the cause of education, is now caught in legal wrangle.  The children and grand children of the philanthropists are reclaiming ownership of the said lands. The department has been fighting such cases in courts for the last somany years.  Recently, the relatives of a person won the case in local court and got possession back of a building in which a government lower primary school was functioning for many years. With this, the education department lost a prime property due to non-availability of pucca records and copy of letter of donation.

Shifting opposed

The other problem that the department is facing has been opposition from parents against shifting of schools to other locations. They want their wards to study near their houses and are not ready to send them to schools located elsewhere.

There are some owners who are ready to rent out their property to run schools by the department as rent is fixed on prevailing market price and also revised once in two years. The department is paying lakhs of rupees as rent everymonth. But the best thing is to have permanent building, opined an officer.