In this school, girls sweep floor before classes begin
BHARATPUR: Students go to school to study or sweep classes? This question comes to mind after watching the girls of Government Senior Secondary School at Halena, 35 km from the district headquarters.
The girl students of this school, which has 274 girls out of 488 students, can be seen sweeping the floor often before the classes begin.
HT caught them on camera sweeping the classrooms, but the school principal, Khubiram Sharma denied any student was asked to sweep the floor. “We have a Class 4 employee whom we pay ₹500 every month to keep the school clean,” he said.
However, a Class 3 student (whose name we are withholding for obvious reasons) said the employee is often absent from work.
“Teachers ask us to clean the classrooms when he is absent,” he said.
Most of the school students come from the scheduled castes, whose parents are daily-wage labourers. They said they were aware of their children’s exploitation, but remain silent because they cannot afford better schools.
“I cannot send my daughter to a private school, where she may not be asked to sweep the floor,” said one of them, whose daughter is a Class 2 student at the school.
Class 4 posts in most schools in the area were vacant, said a parent. Against 368 posts of class 4 employees in 232 senior secondary and secondary schools in Weir, Rupwas, Nadbai and Bayana, only 236 people were working. When questioned over the issue, additional district education officer Anil Kumar Agrawal said the department did not receive any complaint related to students sweeping the floor. “I will seek a report on the issue,” he told HT, when confronted with the photographs.
There are 1.53 lakh students in 371 senior secondary and 291 secondary schools in Bharatpur.