Srinagar, Aug 13:  Jammu and Kashmir High Court has directed the Commissioner/Secretary School Education, Director School Education Kashmir, Director School Education Jammu and Directors Youth Services and Sports (Kashmir and Jammu) to remain present in the court on the next date of hearing on September 10 to explain the status report to be filed about the facilities available in the schools across J&K.
 The court has given four weeks time to the state government to file report about the facilities in the schools in Jammu and Kashmir. 
 A division bench of High Court comprising Justice M M Kumar and Justice Muzaffar Hussain Attar passed the direction on the Public Interest Litigation seeking directions for making amends for the poor facilities available in the schools of the state including drinking water.
 The High Court had earlier taken cognizance of a Greater Kashmir report which had highlighted the dismal state of affairs regarding the facilities in the schools and sought considering the report as a PIL.   
 After appointing senior counsel Z A Shah as Amicus Curiae, the court had directed the government to file affidavit about the facilities available in the schools. 
 Additional Advocate General S A Naik, representing the respondents, informed the court that he needed more time to file the status report before a comprehensive survey is made to see the facilities available in the schools.
 The Amicus Curiae pointed out that the state should reveal total budgetary provision allocated for Primary and Upper Primary Schools and should divulge how the allocated amount has been utilized.
 “The survey should highlight the total number of schools and teachers in the schools and should encompass infrastructure facilities like drinking water, toilets, separate toilets for girls about every school in each district,” the Amicus Curiae argued. “The report should indicate whether there is sufficient number of teachers in the schools?”
 The court directed the government to place on record the mechanism for fixing accountability with regard to utilization of funds and what has been the position of the funds in the past five years.
 A survey had recently painted a grim scenario of rural education in Jammu and Kashmir. It said that some of the basic amenities like drinking water and toilet facilities were not available in primary schools.
 According to the Annual Status of Education Report [ASER-2011], J&K’s rural schools are far behind in meeting the RTE indicators. The data revealed that 47.2 per cent schools in rural J&K don’t have drinking water facility while 33.4 per cent schools are without a toilet facility. It revealed that 61.0 per cent schools have no separate provision for girl toilets.
 The ASER survey said that close to 50 per cent schools have no library and about 48 per cent schools are without a playground. Only 28 per cent schools are with a boundary wall.
 As per the RTE indicators, there has to be a library in each school providing newspapers, magazines and books on all subjects, including story-books while safe and drinking water facilities are a pre-requisite. A boundary wall is essentially required to secure the school infrastructure and children.
 According to the ASER survey, of 351 schools surveyed, 86 percent admit to have received the SSA maintenance grant in 2010-11 and 77.8 in 2008-09 while 77.2 percent of schools have received SSA development grant in 2010-11 and 74.7 in 2008-09. With the TLM [Teaching-Learning Material] grant, out of 350 schools surveyed, 91.5 percent have received it in 2010-11 and 83.1 percent in 2008-09.
 According to the report, 96.1 percent of schools [from class I-IV/V] were without computers in 2010-11 while 84.5 were without computers in standards I-VII/VIII during this period.

Lastupdate on : Mon, 13 Aug 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Mon, 13 Aug 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Tue, 14 Aug 2012 00:00:00 IST