Sorry state of government schools

Yielding to concerted pressure, the Director of Public Instruction was recently forced to provide to the Karnataka High Court, in the suo motu PIL on out-of-school children (WP 15768/2013), the list of schools not fulfilling infrastructure norms as per the Right to Education (RTE) Act 2009. According to the list, it is regrettable that 4,122 schools out of 47,068 still do not meet the RTE norms more than 10 years after the passage of the RTE Act. In all, 745 do not have adequate classrooms, 865 do not have ramps, 1,224 do not have a playground, and 737 do not have a boundary wall. Though it was stated earlier that 464 schools did not have toilets and 87 did not have drinking water facilities, it is claimed after re-verification that only 38 schools do not have toilet facilities and all others have drinking water.

One has to view these numbers in the context of the fact that the RTE norms themselves are not very stringent; for instance, they do not prescribe how many toilets there should be for how many students. Even if there is just one toilet for hundreds of children, it meets the RTE norms, and this one toilet is often kept locked, to be opened and shown as a showpiece only to inspectors!

However, reacting to the report, the Karnataka High Court used strong words about the state of the toilets in government schools. It has said: “The photographs annexed to the said report, least to say, shock one’s conscience. …. In the report of the Government in respect of LPS Kyatandoni Tanda school, it is clearly stated that there is no water facility. Another feature reflected in the report is (more) painful than shocking for us. …. On perusal of photographs of the government primary Urdu School, the condition of the toilet is pathetic. We can only say that no parent would like to send their wards where such a toilet facility exists. ...It will not be out of place to state that expecting a building as per the standard provided (under the RTE Act)... would be a distant dream for the parents who are desirous to send their children to the government schools”.

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The RTE Act had prescribed that all infrastructure norms should be met within three years of the Act coming into force in a state, and the recognition of a school should be withdrawn if it does not meet the norms after the deadline. The Act further says, “Any person who continues to run a school after the recognition is withdrawn shall be liable to a fine, which may extend to Rs 1 lakh and, in case of continuing contraventions, to a fine of Rs 10,000 for each day during which such contravention continues.” Are government schools exempt from these provisions?

Further, it has been shockingly reported in newspapers by the Karnataka State Primary School Teachers’ Association (KSPSTA) that the government has not been providing adequate maintenance funds to schools for paying electricity and water bills for four to five years. Hence, schools are facing disconnection from BWSSB, and teachers have to pay electricity bills from their pockets! Only Rs 2,500 to Rs 3,000 are being provided in place of eligible amounts of Rs 10,000 to Rs 1 lakh, depending upon the number of students. With this meagre amount, they are only able to provide for drinking water and the cleaning of toilets. The KPSTA’s plea to the government is to provide free water and electricity to government schools.

Pressed to announce a timeframe within which the infrastructure norms will be met and to allocate the budget required for the same in the above-mentioned PIL, the Director of Public Instruction has stated in his report of March 13, 2023, to the Amicus Curiae that “basic amenities in government schools as per the RTE norms... will be provided step by step as per the availability of grants”. It has been reiterated in the government’s Compliance Affidavit of June 17 that RTE norms will be fulfilled “based on the funds available in the next five years”. So, are government schoolchildren to wait for another five years for basic norms to be fulfilled?

One can see the reason for the above statements by the Director. According to the analysis of Karnataka’s latest budget of 2023–24 by PRS Legislative Research, Karnataka has allocated 11% of its expenditure on education, which is lower than the average allocation of 14.8% for education by states in 2022–23. It is also a reduction of 1.4%
from the revised estimate of 12.4% expenditure made in Karnataka’s budget for 2022–23.

This has to be viewed again in the context of two further occurrences last year. A circular was issued by the Education Department in October 2022 asking school development and monitoring committees (SDMCs) to collect Rs 100 donations from parents every month, albeit ‘voluntarily’, towards “developmental activities’ such as minor repairs, drinking water facilities, cleaning of toilets, etc.”, when the RTE Act makes “free education” a Fundamental Right. The circular had to be withdrawn overnight due to a severe backlash. In another circular issued in December 2022, the department asked all head teachers of government schools to take children on a mandatory annual trip before the year end. However, strictly no money would be given by the department for this, and head teachers had to raise the resources themselves!

Considering the department’s report in the PIL, the HC has directed the State Government to conduct a fresh survey of the schools within three months, with the Secretary of the Taluk Legal Services Authority as a necessary party, and submit the report to the court. The court has further directed that wherever no drinking water or water for cleaning purposes is available, the state government shall provide these within two weeks from the date of its order. If certain other shortcomings are revealed during the survey, it has asked the state government to take corrective steps to rectify them immediately.

Will the new government, which has promised so many guarantees, guarantee its commitment to provide basic facilities for enabling equitable quality education to the mostly poor children attending the government schools?

(The writer is the executive trustee of CIVIC-Bangalore)