New Delhi: India may
claim that it is slowly becoming a knowledge hub, yet a
survey by a university revealed Monday that nearly 75,000
schools at the elementary level have no classrooms.
The report,
"Elementary
Education in India: Where
Do We Stand?" by National University of Educational
Planning and Administration (NEUPA) said at least 10.15
percent of such schools are running without classrooms.
"Forget about
buildings, 74,893 primary schools (Class I-V) have no
classrooms. It's a great worrying point," said Arun Mehta,
who was part of the countrywide survey.
The percentage of
schools without classrooms in urban areas is 13.9 as
against 9.6 in rural areas, the report said.
"Whopping 40.41
percent primary schools in Jharkhand have no classrooms,"
said Mehta, adding that 37.62 percent of primary schools
in Jharkhand have only two classrooms.
Ved Prakash, vice
chancellor of the university, said: "All these pupils
study in tents and a large chunk of them under the sky.
Both the private and the government sector should work
together to solve this huge issue."
The survey covered
over 1.1 million primary and upper primary schools across
604 districts of India of which nearly 67 percent are
independent primary schools.
The report revealed
that as many as 107,276 schools, both primary and upper
primary, had only one classroom.
Of the over 1.1
million schools surveyed, 11 percent of the classrooms
need major repairs and 21 percent need minor repairs, the
report said.
Mehta pointed out
that in Nagaland, 73 percent of classrooms need repairs.
"Of the existing
classrooms in Nagaland, 73 percent, Meghalaya 77 percent,
Assam 66 percent, Mizoram 64 percent, Arunachal Pradesh 64
percent, West Bengal 57 percent and Orissa 55 percent need
repairing," Mehta said.
The report also
found that 50 percent of classrooms in Bihar, 52 percent
in Jammu and Kashmir, 48 percent in Jharkhand and 64
percent in Lakshadweep needed to be repaired. (IANS)