BHUBANESWAR: Over 75 per cent of the primary schools in the State do not have electricity connection, thereby seriously affecting computer education of students.
In a written reply to a question during the winter session of the Assembly which concluded on Thursday, School and Mass Education Minister Debi Prasad Mishra admitted that 42,691 schools under the department do not have electricity connection.
The School and Mass Education Department has 56,674 primary and upper primary schools. These include 4,710 high schools which have primary and upper primary classes. However, 13,983 schools have electricity connection. The Minister admitted that 75.33 per cent of the schools under the department do not have electricity connection.
According to the Minister, there are 9,671 high schools under the department of which 3,016 do not have electricity connection. This means about 31 per cent of the high schools do not have power.
The Minister put the blame on the managing committees of the schools saying they make arrangements for electrification. He, however, claimed that provision for generators has been made for schools which do not have electricity.
Mishra also admitted about poor infrastructure in schools while replying to several questions. About 87 per cent of primary and upper primary schools do not have a teacher for every class while 80 per cent of the schools do not have a room for every class. Besides, 39,635 schools do not have own playgrounds, 17,763 do not have boundaries and 376 schools do not have own buildings.
BJP MLA Dilip Ray alleged that in the agenda papers for the 11th inter-State council meeting, it was mentioned that 100 per cent schools have been electrified in Odisha. The agenda papers also claimed that 40.27 per cent of the high schools in the State have electricity.
The BJP leader alleged that as the agenda papers are prepared by the Union Home Ministry basing on the information provided by Odisha, the State Government had provided wrong information in this regards.