“Enrolment drives launched by the School Education Department last year have not unfortunately increased the enrolments with the intensity they should have increased at Government Schools obviously due to reduced attention on improvement of basic infrastructural facilities.”
Teachers day is all about the commitment of teachers towards teaching and also reminds the Government of it’s commitment about quality education amid an unprecedented dip in enrolments due to lack of infrastructural facilities in the schools run by it across the length and breadth of Jammu & Kashmir. As such the teacher’s day is not a day of celebrations but a day of introspection for both the teachers and as well as the Government. For a teacher, a student and parent quality education is the pressing concern. While both the Government and private schools in Jammu & Kashmir like Government schools in Delhi the union capital should have become the symbols of smart classrooms and smart schools, the majority of both the private and Government schools in rural areas are also run from rented buildings across Jammu & Kashmir. While availability of water is an uncompromising compulsion for both the Government and as well as private schools, the students in most of the Government and Private Schools are seen ferrying water in buckets from the public posts in the neighbourhood of school campuses in most of the rural areas despite the fact that Government is implementing Jal Jeevan Mission a centrally sponsored scheme under the slogan “Har Nal Sei Jal” across Jammu & Kashmir. So any school not having accessibility to water won’t obviously have the accessibility toilet facility as well. Unfortunately most of the Government schools are yet to get the seating facilities as are available to the students in private schools and students in government school are still made to sit on jute mats. Enrolment drives launched by the School Education Department last year have not unfortunately increased the enrolments with the intensity they should have increased at Government Schools obviously due to reduced attention on improvement of basic infrastructural facilities. Basic facilities don’t only mean availability of water and toilets inside the campuses but non availability of transport facilities too is one among several key factors responsible for reducing interest of people in admissions at Government schools.
“For increasing enrolments in government schools the upgradation of the infrastructural facilities like completion of incomplete school buildings with portable water and toilet facilities, libraries, laboratories, playing fields and introduction of white marker boards in fixed time lines deserve greater attention of the Government . Government schools if equipped with such facilities with a spirit of introspection won’t only show unprecedented rise in enrolments but will also throw up a bigger challenge to even leading missionary private schools both in Kashmir valley and as well as Jammu division. Doing so will consequently raise the status of teachers and further the causes of quality education in Government schools across Jammu & Kashmir”.
Fact remains that enrolment in government schools can’t be increased only by enrolment drives but enrolment in government schools can be largely increased by improving basic infrastructural facilities. For increasing enrolments in government schools the upgradation of the infrastructural facilities like completion of incomplete school buildings with portable water and toilet facilities, libraries, laboratories, playing fields and introduction of white marker boards in fixed time lines deserve greater attention of the Government . Government schools if equipped with such facilities with a spirit of introspection won’t only show unprecedented rise in enrolments but will also throw up a bigger challenge to even leading missionary private schools both in Kashmir valley and as well as Jammu division. Doing so will consequently raise the status of teachers and further the causes of quality education in Government schools across Jammu & Kashmir.
