JOIN USLocked toilets, no water in schools
Fifty per cent of government schools in the city do not have proper toilets while 202 schools, mostly primary ones, have uncovered manholes and almost all had open wiring.
These are the findings of a survey by Aam Aadmi Party volunteers conducted in 826 schools.
The reports on all these schools have been sent to Education Minister Manish Sisodia, after which he wrote a letter to the Directorate of Education.
“The minister asked the directorate to fix critical issues such as open wiring and uncovered manholes within three to four days,” an aide of the minister said. “The other issues can be worked out over a period of one month,” the aide said.
Praveen Deshmukh, who has been coordinating the volunteers, said their target is to cover all 990 government schools. “We have almost covered all the government schools in the city and the rest will be covered on Thursday,” he said.
Shyam Lal, a volunteer who visited schools in Dwarka, said every school is plagued by lack of cleanliness and stinking toilets. He visited Government Co-Education Senior Secondary School in Sector 6, Dwarka.
“Only staff toilets are open and a little clean. The urinals for boys were locked and there were sanitary napkins everywhere in the girls’ toilets,” he said. “I have never seen such a pathetic state of affairs in government schools. I would not want to send my children to go to such schools,” the 39-year-old volunteer said.
He also inspected Government Co-Education Senior Secondary School in Sector 23, Dwarka. “The condition of this school was also the same. Our government education system is in a really poor state,” Lal said.
In the first phase, the volunteers are assessing whether schools have basic facilities such as water, clean toilets, benches and electricity supply. In the second phase, the teams will assess dropout rates and academic issues.