HYDERABAD: Despite the new academic year commencing nearly a month ago, many government schools and junior colleges in the city continue to function without sufficient infrastructure. Authorities at the district education department claim that the enrolment in the government schools and junior college have shot up this year.
Increased student strength is now adding more pressure on the poor infrastructure. Wary of the government, locals have taken upon themselves to represent these issues with the Hyderabad district collector. Complaints pertaining to requirement of land for construction of classrooms and lack of basic amenities like washrooms, drinking water, furniture, lights among others are galore at the Collector’s office on a daily basis.
As per the official data obtained from the Hyderabad district education department, 684 government schools, including 498 primary schools, 7 upper primary schools and 182 high schools operate in the district. The District Education Officers (DEO) have already submitted a report on bad condition of infrastructure of schools and details of requirement of additional classrooms.
Highly placed sources said that in the school education department, the government has not allocated additional budget for the development of infrastructure of schools. Confirming to Express that they have received representations from the public about inadequate infrastructure, the District Revenue Officer (DRO), Hyderabad, M V Bhoopal Reddy said that “representations also referred to the local mandal tahsildar’s field inquiry on government land being available near the schools that can be allocated for expansion.”
According to the education department authorities, “officials have started visiting each school inquiring about their requirements and checking the infrastructure. Once they submit a report, the budget will be sanctioned.”