Now, new govt schools in UP only after GIS mapping
“We have received instructions from MHRD for completing GIS mapping of all schools before seeking support for opening any new school. We wanted to complete the task in April itself but as per the progress reports being received from different districts, we now stand to complete the task by Mayend.” RAJKUMARI VERMA, Rajkumari Verma, Additional Project Director, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, UP
ALLAHABAD: Uttar Pradesh will now get new government-run primary and upper primary schools only after completion of Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping of all existing schools of the state.
The GIS mapping has been accorded top priority by the union ministry of human resource development (MHRD). Reason: Construction of any new school under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) will be decided only on the basis of this GIS map so as to ensure proper distribution of school locations across the state. The department of school education and literacy of the MHRD has made it clear to the state officials that till the GIS mapping is not completed, no permission for opening a new school would be granted by it.
Under the Free and Compulsory Child Education Rights Act, availability of a primary school at a distance of every one kilometre and a middle school at every three kilometres and a high school at every five kilometres has been made compulsory. Hence, the need for GIS mapping of government schools of the School Education Department has become mandatory for compliance of the Act.
Hence officials of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan have begun the GIS mapping of all its schools, including 1.60 lakh government-run primary and upper primary schools, spread across the 75 districts of the state. Officials at the project head office, located in the state capital, are taking details of daily progress report from the basic shiksha adhikaris (BSAs) of all districts so as to ensure completion of the mission at the earliest. Officials are confident of completing the mapping process by the end of May.
The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan project’s state head office has already received GIS mapping details of 90,000 schools from different districts and information regarding 50,000 of these schools has already been made available to the MHRD online by the National Informatics Centre.
Though the state has around 1.10 lakh primary and another around 50,000 upper primary schools run by the state government, this exercise will be covering private and trust-run schools as well taking the total count of schools much higher.
UP LAGGING FAR BEHIND
Uttar Pradesh is lagging far behind all other states in the GIS mapping project. As per the MHRD website, UP is in the ‘red zone’ with less than 30% of the schools mapped till date. Other states like Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Bihar along with southern states like Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu are far ahead with over 80% of their schools GIS mapped. Even the militancy-hit state of Jammu and Kashmir has mapped over 80% of its schools.
NO NEW SCHOOL IN UP IN PAST 5 YEARS
Uttar Pradesh has not got any new school in the past five years under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. The last permission granted to the state by MHRD was back in 2012-13. Uneven distribution of schools in states has been a concern voiced by many experts, especially with the Right to Education (RTE) Act making elementary education compulsory for all kids.