Geotagging of U.P.’s 1.3 lakh govt schools on the anvil

A detailed guideline has been issued to all the 75 district basic education officers for carrying out the exercise smoothly

The Uttar Pradesh basic education department is all set to carry out a third-party geotagging survey to ascertain accurate information about the availability of basic infrastructure and facilities in government-run primary and upper primary schools.

All BSAs have been told to complete all the proceedings in a transparent, honest, fair and error-free manner by August 5 (HT file)

A detailed guideline has been issued to all the 75 district basic education officers for carrying out the survey smoothly. There are more than 1.3 lakh government schools in basic education department and only a maximum of 25 schools will be surveyed by each surveyor through Prerna mobile application of the state government.

Director general, school education, U.P., Vijay Kiran Anand in a letter to basic shiksha adhikaris (BSAs) said, “This survey is very important from the point of view of strengthening the infrastructure facilities and timely addressing the problem in schools.” The BSAs were told to complete all the proceedings in a transparent, honest, fair, error-free and timebound manner by August 5, 2022.

All the surveys will be executed by special educators. In case, the number of special educators is fewer than the number of schools, the surveys will be conducted by academic resource person (ARP) teachers.

Besides, survey of anganwadi centres operating on the school premises will also be done compulsorily. A sum of ₹200 will be provided as travelling allowance to each surveyor after a flawless survey for every school.

Recently, it came to light that as many as 21,744 state government-run primary and upper primary schools lack electricity in Uttar Pradesh. In all, there are 1,32,985 schools of the basic education department in Uttar Pradesh.

And now the UP basic education department is giving top priority to providing electricity to schools in the next three months. The lack of power leaves thousands of children with no choice but to spend about five hours without fan or light in schools in hot and humid weather.

With geotagging survey, the department will be able to fix the problem like shortage of furniture, toilets, drinking water and other facilities in schools.