E-Paper
Operation Kayakalp: Nine U.P. dists found wanting in improving facilities at primary schools
The fact came to light in a recent review meeting chaired by director general (DG), school education, Vijay Kiran Anand with BSAs and other officials
Nine districts of the state have not made desired progress in strengthening facilities in government primary and upper primary schools under “Operation Kayakalp” since March 31, 2022. These nine districts include Mahoba, Hathras, Amroha, Ayodhya, Lalitpur, Kanpur Dehat, Basti, Mathura and Sant Kabir Nagar.
The fact came to light in a recent review meeting chaired by director general (DG), school education, Vijay Kiran Anand through videoconferencing with basic shiksha adhikaris (BSAs) and other officials held earlier this month.
“Operation Kayakalp” was rolled out four years ago with the aim of improving facilities in government schools by generating resources from people’s representatives, affluent people and prosperous alumni etc.
Not only that, the department says the infrastructure facilities in several schools have improved but there are few districts and schools in other regions too that are not responding well to the initiative.
Likewise, self-assessment of schools about available infrastructure facilities is done every month by the development block on the Prerna portal. But no self-assessment report was submitted by 452 government schools of the state. These schools include 94 in Agra, 64 in Kanpur Dehat, 30 in Ghazipur, 25 in Mahoba, 22 in Amethi, 15 in Azamgarh and 14 in Mainpuri districts.
It was also found in the review that there are 711 schools in the state which do not have the first five minimum facilities like toilets, water facilities and 4,211 schools lack other facilities like tiles in toilets.
DG, school education, Uttar Pradesh, Vijay Kiran Anand says schools are trying their best to improve facilities. “We are encouraging BSAs to help improve facilities in schools through ‘Operation Kayakalp’. We have more than 1.3 lakh schools across U.P. And a good number of schools have improved their infrastructure in four years,” Anand said.
He said instructions were given to the concerned district basic education officers. They were told to make improvements at the earliest. Instructions were issued by the government to provide piped water facility in schools within six months and separate toilet facilities for boys and girls.
According to officials present in the review meeting, progress made by Chitrakoot, Mau, Kanpur Dehat, Deoria, Pratapgarh, Gonda, Sant Kabir Nagar, Ballia, Amroha, Unnao and Azamgarh districts was found unsatisfactory.
“Also, the condition of tiling of classrooms, toilets for the disabled, electrification and boundary walls in respect of 19 infrastructure facilities is unsatisfactory in all these districts,” an official said.
The district level officers were told to seek help of the district magistrates and the chief development officers while making the strategy. More attention on taking action by establishing coordination with the concerned departments need to be given.
The state of rejuvenation in urban area is very slow. In the districts where there is lack of coordination, the work of saturation is not being done under rejuvenation.
Pertaining to rejuvenation in urban areas, instructions were given that meeting of DM/CDO/ADM may establish better coordination with the municipal commissioners, executive officers and other concerned officials. All schools should be compulsorily rejuvenated by March 2023.
There are 19 basic facilities schools have to ensure. They are: Water facility, boys’ toilet, girls’ toilet, water facility in toilets, tiles in toilets, toilets for physically challenged, hand washing, tiles in classrooms, blackboard, kitchen, white washing, ramp/railings, wiring and electric equipment in classes, electricity in schools, furniture/desk, submersible pump and boundary walls.
