BHUBANESWAR: Over 45,000 primary and upper primary (UP) schools in the State do not have a teacher for every class while 41,688 schools do not have a room for every class.
School and Mass Education Minister Debi Prasad Mishra admitted this in a written reply to a question from Dilip Ray (BJP) in the Assembly on Saturday. About 87 per cent of the primary and upper primary schools in the State do not have a teacher for every class while 80 pc schools do not have a room for every class.
The Minister said there are 34,238 primary and 17,726 upper primary schools under the department out of which 4294 primary and 5982 upper primary schools have a room for every class.
Besides, 1658 primary and 5260 upper primary schools have a teacher for every class. In a large number of schools a single teacher takes three to four classes in a room.
The Minister said out of these, 39,635 schools do not have own play grounds. He admitted that 1,114 primary and upper primary do not have toilets while 212 schools do have special toilets for girl students.
While 151 of the schools do not have any provision of drinking water for students, 376 schools do not have own buildings. The Minister admitted that 17,763 schools do not have boundary walls.
This sorry state of affairs is not confined to the tribal dominated backward districts. These problems have reached alarming proportions in Cuttack, Khurda, Puri, Jagatsinghpur, Jajpur and Kendrapara districts.
Criticising the State Government for the sorry state of affairs at the primary and upper primary school level while funds are not a problem, Ray demanded that the problems be resolved on a priority basis within a year.