The Forum for Good Governance (FGG) has urged the State Government to take urgent steps to repair dilapidated school buildings so that the structures did not collapse on children.
The FGG lamented that not much has been done during the last eight years to repair old buildings, leave alone construction of new buildings. Many schools lack toilets and other infrastructure and there are ample number of cases where classes are run under trees due to fear of collapse of old buildings, Forum secretary M. Padmanabha Reddy said.
In a memorandum submitted to Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar, he said that though there were several reports on the condition of the dilapidated buildings, the “cataract infested” school education department was not able to see them.
The government on its part had announced Mana Ooru Mana Badi for comprehensive development of school infrastructure with a financial outlay of ₹7,300 crore.
The GO issued in this regard mentioned that about 9,123 schools would be covered with an outlay of ₹3,500 crore in the first phase in 2021-22, but not a single school was covered in reality and not a rupee was spent. “Phase II started in 2022-23, but the scheme is a non-starter for all practical purposes without any budget allocation,” he said.
There was corruption in finalisation of tenders for some works and these tenders were withdrawn after the intervention of the High Court. Mr. Padmanabha Reddy expressed concern that there were 53 teachers’ unions, some recognised and some not, and the office bearers of these associations would not attend the school in the name of union activity. The provisions under the Right To Education Act 2009 were not being followed and hardly 60% students were covered under distribution of required books as also uniforms.
“Lack of advance planning and required budget is the root cause of this problem,” he said. He alleged that the government was feeding people with false promises like KG to PG and in a way cheating them. Government had money for construction of MLAs’ camp offices, collectorates, secretariat and temples, but there was no money when it came to repairing dilapidated school buildings.
