Single teacher for two dozen students
A single teacher has been posted at a Primary school Banipath Kanchloo Kund in Kulgam district to teach around two dozen students enrolled in six classes.
The government has called it a Primary School but in reality it is only a single rented room in which two dozen children are crammed together.
Locals told news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), that a school was established in the area around a decade ago and a building was constructed as well. But it got damaged 12 years ago and since then it has been functioning from a single room.
Muhammad Maqbool, a local, said that they have no option but to send their wards to the school as people living here work as farmers and they are economically weak.
“For this reason, we cannot afford to send our children to private schools and have to remain contend with the one provided by the government,” he said.
Even the owner of the room where the school is functioning is asking students and teachers to vacate as he hasn't received a single penny as rent since the last 12 years, he said.
Despite tall claims made about the upgradation of the infrastructure in the education sector, our school has been forgotten by the government,” said another local. “It neither has got a building nor a toilet due to which the standard and quality of education is falling,.”
Locals said that despite bringing the issue into the notice of higher ups several times, nothing has been done on the ground.
“We have raised this issue in back to village programmes as well but assurances from government have proved a hoax on ground,” they said.
They requested higher ups to look into the matter at an earliest so that poor students won't have to suffer for a long time—(KNO)