If a picture is worth a thousand words, this one tells much more than that.
A photograph of a group of primary school students studying in a toilet instead of a classroom in Neemuch district belies the tall claims of the Madhya Pradesh government about its efforts to improve education in the state.
The students are being forced to study in a disused toilet because there is no school building. The primary school run by a single teacher is not situated in a remote area but at Mokhampura village which is only 35 km away from the Neemuch district headquarters.
Shockingly, the local MLA is not even aware that such a school exists in his constituency, though the officials of the state education department acknowledge the appalling situation. The school was set up in 2012. For a year, the school had functioned out of a rented room. Now, that’s not available.
A photograph of the school which has 34 children clearly shows that the room in which they are studying is a toilet that was built by the government. If that’s not bad enough, a few goats are sometimes tied in the toilet – perhaps to prevent them from getting wet in the rain.
School teacher Kailash Chandra says that he has been forced to take classes in the toilet because there is no school building. “When the weather is fine in summer and winter, the classes are held under a tree, but now the earth is wet so I cannot hold the classes under a tree and am forced to use the toilet,” he told HT.
{{/usCountry}}School teacher Kailash Chandra says that he has been forced to take classes in the toilet because there is no school building. “When the weather is fine in summer and winter, the classes are held under a tree, but now the earth is wet so I cannot hold the classes under a tree and am forced to use the toilet,” he told HT.
{{/usCountry}}Kailash Chandra said that it is not as if the higher-ups have not been informed. “I have informed them of the condition a number of times over the years, but no one is paying any attention,” he said.
But Manasa BJP MLA Kailash Chawla simply refused to acknowledge that there was any school in his constituency where children were studying in a toilet.
However, the district education office K C Sharma said that he had written to the state education department about the situation and had sent proposal for construction of a school building.