When 200 students of a government school in Ponda spend close to nine months outside their class room, in another so-called back up facility elsewhere, cramped in rooms with no ventilation, power or water, this is one image which captures the state of government education in Goa.
When these reports come in, you realise, or you should realise, because our government clearly doesn’t, that even if ten percent of the energies spent in fighting to cancel grants to English medium primary schools, were spent in something constructive, as agitating for better infrastructure in schools, our state would have been well served. Even though the government wasn’t going overboard to cancel grants, the education department should have addressed the far more serious issues like schools with crumbling classrooms, schools without enough space or even rudimentary facilities like toilets and water.
The situation at the Government High School in Davshirem in Ponda taluka could have happened anywhere and probably has. So in that sense it’s not surprising, but shameful. These students were shifted to a private building at Kelini in Usgao in view of the renovation undertaken on the Government High School at Davshirem in the village. According to the renovation work order, the contractor was supposed to finish the renovation work before the last monsoon. It’s nine months and counting and there is no sign of the completion of the work while the students suffocate and suffer in the cramped private building at Kelini in Usgao. Incidentally this school has a track record of 100% their students passing in the SSC.
The apathy of the government made these young students boycott classes in the new building on Thursday last. They said, and Herald reported that in the absence of proper ventilation and fans, the students are made to sweat it out in cramped classrooms. The students said that the classrooms are so small that there is no space between the benches to move around. And in any cases the benches are littered with pigeon faeces.
The boycotting students have since then returned to their original school but have continued their protests by sitting outside. It is only now, after the protests were highlighted, that there seems to be some response. The Director of Education assured parents that the pending work would be completed and classes would commence in seven days time. But seeing the state of progress, it appears extremely unlikely that this promise will be fulfilled, even as protesting and angry students sit on the floor.
The school doesn’t even have a full-fledged headmaster, who holds charge of another school at Sadar Ponda. To say that this is a sorry state of affairs is a big understatement.
Moving forward, you do not need rocket science reforms but simple back to the basics solutions. Each block should submit a detailed school-wise renovation plan through the ADEI’s, to the DDE, who in turn should scrutinise requirements, do a priority list and submit them to the zonal PWD head office in the district. The funds for repairs should come out of the education head and all sanctioned projects should be paid for by the Education department with the PWD as the execution agency. The entire process should be on the Education department’s website for every parent to track the progress of repairs and renovations
It’s not a tall order. All it needs is serious will and honesty of purpose.
