Leave aside Internet, some schools in Karnataka still do not have even functional toilets Premium

The recently released Unified District Information System for Education Plus 2021-22 report shows that 33,308 schools in Karnataka have no Internet facility and 1,532 schools have no toilets for girls

During the worst phase of COVID-19 spread, as academic calendar was thrown out of gear and the only way to keep a semblance of classroom going was through the Internet, there was much talk on the need to ensure connectivity to all schools in Karnataka. And yet, according to the latest data, as many as 33,308 schools have no computers yet in the State. Not surprisingly, a majorly of them (29,475) are government run, while 1,563 are aided and 2,268 privately run.

There is no Internet facility in 53,860 schools, including 44,371 government schools. Only, 17,201 schools have functional projectors. About 8,016 schools have implemented smart classrooms. A total of 2,830 schools have digital library facility, according to the recently released Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+) 2021-22 report.

Karnataka has a total of 76,450 schools, including 49,679 government, 7,110 aided, 19,650 private, and 11 other schools.

For schoolchildren in the more remote parts, Internet connectivity is not even an immediate concern, considering they lack facilities far more basic, such as functional toilets, safe drinking water, and classrooms that do not leak. With heavy rains and floods over the last two years taking a toll on buildings, several old schools have been damaged and roofs are leaking. Some have even collapsed. This has only added to the infrastructure gaps that many schools were already facing.

An illustration of this came recently when Former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy was mobbed by a rather unexpected group that consisted neither his party workers nor voters when he entered Mastenahalli in Srinivasapura taluk of Kolar district earlier this week. A bunch of school boys and girls surrounded him while he was on a pre-election tour there and demanded that he take a look at the leaking roof of their school building and badly maintained classrooms.

For instance, despite all the rhetoric on “beti padhao, beti bachao”, as per UDISE+ 2021-22 report, 1,532 schools in Karnataka do not have separate toilets for girl students. Even among schools that have girls’ toilets, 2,101 are non-functional. Around 4,153 schools don’t have toilets for boys and 5,047 are non-functional. As many as 328 schools have no toilets for either boys or girls.

A government high school teachers from Kolar district said, “Who will do the cleaning of classrooms and toilets in the biggest question we face. The department is providing ₹2,000 for toilet cleaning per annum. But we have to pay a minimum ₹500 for one-time toilet cleaning.” A class VIII student of an Urdu-medium school in Ramanagaram district described the woes of girl students, “In our school, there are around 270 students, and about half girls. Out of five toilets, two are for girls, two for boys and one is for teachers. The toilets are not cleaned. We don’t drink much water during school hours to avoid going to toilet.”