Ill-equipped primary school mocks at RTE Act

Ill-equipped primary school mocks at RTE Act
Rajay Deep
Tribune News Service

Pakki Tibbi (Muktsar), December 19

While the Punjab government makes great claims about the implementation of the Right to Education (RTE) Act, students of the Government Primary School at Pakki Tibbi village in the district, are forced to sit on uneven brick floor and bear the shivering cold every morning.
The school, located on the Malout-Abohar road, is running without any infrastructure expect for five rooms of which one is permanently locked and three others are in a dilapidated condition. The classes are sans chair, bench and mattress.
The school is being run by only one Sikhya Karmi recruited under the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan. He holds all five classes in a single batch.
The boundary wall and the lavatories in the school have already collapsed. After getting a petty grant from Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal a couple of months back, the villagers had installed a Reverse Osmosis (RO) plant in one of the classrooms. But ever since, it is non-functional as the school is sans power supply connection.
The education volunteer deputed there had made a temporary arrangement at his personal level by getting a power connection from a house in the school's vicinity but the connection provider withdrew it some months back.
Observing the pathetic condition of the school, a majority of children of the village have been studying in private schools at Malout and Abohar towns, which are situated about 15 kms away from the village. The total strength of the school is 14 and reportedly all of them belong to the Dalit community.
It is learnt that to keep the school functioning, the Sikhya Karmi posted there ferries five children of Pakki Tibbi village in his own car.
When contacted, the District Education Officer (Elementary), Muktsar, Dharam Pal claimed he was unaware about the condition.
“I hold the dual charge of DEO, elementary as well as secondary. My whole day gets wasted in attending meetings only. But as the issue is very serious, I will personally visit the school and get a first- hand account of the situation. Whatever is possible, that we shall do for the school,” he assured.