News
Ever heard of a superpower nation with no power, computers or librarians in its schools?
A recent survey jointly conducted by the National University of Educational Planning & Administration and the department of school education and literacy revealed that many schools across the nation which surprisingly included private schools as well lacked power supply, computers or librarians.
For a country nurturing dreams of becoming a superpower and wielding clout on the world stage, India is yet to provide basic infrastructure to its schools.
A recent survey jointly conducted by the National University of Educational Planning & Administration and the department of school education and literacy revealed that many schools across the nation which surprisingly included private schools as well lacked power supply, computers or librarians. The extensive survey covered 1.52 million schools across 36 states and union territories in financial year 2014-15.
It has been widely reported about the deteriorating quality of education in India in various national and international studies with a focus on poor learning outcomes, poor quality of teaching resources, teacher absenteeism. The new report puts school infrastructure in sharp focus.
Let’s look at each of the 3 areas that need improvement.
Electricity
The survey pointed out that 40% of Indian schools lack electricity. This prevents them from using technology like smart classrooms, computers in the classroom. It also means that a vast number of students do not study in comfort as there is no electricity to power fans or lights in the classrooms. This also contributes to the high dropout rates of schools. The power supply hasn’t been able to keep up with the soaring demand of electricity throughout the nation.
Computers
India has made a name for itself in the Information Technology (IT) field globally. India is a leading exporter of IT services in the world. A jarring contrast to this fact is that only 26.42% of the country’s schools have computers.
Such a low penetration of computers in schools places a very responsibility on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Digital India initiative.
It is not only a problem of lack of infrastructure but also a lack of proper training as a large section of teachers across the country still rely on textbooks rather than using digital means.
Here are the states where computer access is extremely low:
Librarians
A remarkable 82% of Indian schools have libraries but a mere 16.5% of the secondary and higher-secondary schools have a librarian showing that the libraries may have been initially well stocked but there is no regular maintenance or updation of the library.
