Schools are facing shortage of desks, children are forced to sit on the floor.
Ritika S. Vohra, Kurukshetra. There is a shortage of desks for students to sit in the schools of the district. Students are forced to study sitting on the floor. The situation in many schools is such that desks are 10 to 12 years old. After every two months, demand for new desks is taken from the education department but new desks are not sent.
This situation prevails in schools from Kindergarten to class 12th in the district. Once again the Directorate of Education has sent a Google Form on the MIS portal and has sought demand from the school head masters. This report also asks how many desks are required in which classroom.
According to an information, requirement of 5594 desks has been stated in about 779 schools of the district. In this, 2269 desks are required from Kindergarten to 5th, 1726 from 6th to 8th, 767 from 9th to 12th and 832 desks are required from 11th to 12th.
Students forced to sit on old desks
Most of the problems are being seen in primary schools, where small children have to study sitting on sackcloth and carpets. In many schools, only 10 to 12 years old desks are being used, which is not good in terms of both safety and convenience. Every two months, the Education Department calls for a report regarding the demand for desks from schools.
Despite this, desks are not being supplied. The school administration says that despite repeated demands, adequate number of desks are not being provided. Efforts were made to contact the District Education Officer by phone twice in this regard but he did not pick up the phone.
Demand sent for 80 desks
184 children are studying from Kindergarten to fifth class in the Government Primary School of Village Thana. Head teacher Ramesh Kumar said that the school has been demanding a desk for a long time. Even now demand for 80 desks has been sent. The desks available in the school are being repaired and used again and again. Apart from this, children study sitting on cots.
There are 70 to 80 percent desks in senior and high schools. At the same time, there is a shortage of desks in about 50 percent of government primary schools. The department has been demanding a desk for the last two and three years. Recently, desks have arrived in 44 primary model culture schools, but in many government primary schools, children are facing problems due to lack of desks. Desk report has been sought even 15-20 days ago. There is talk of bringing government schools at par with private schools, while on the other hand there is a lack of basic facilities. Desk is a basic facility in schools but a large number of children are deprived of it. Along with this, children have to sit on cots to receive education in summer and winter. -Pawan Mittal, State President, Haryana Primary Head Teachers Association.
Dual desk data was sought from schools by the Education Department. The data has been sent by the schools through Excel sheet. Now the teams will go to the schools and review the data sent. -Vinod Kaushik, District Education Officer.