‘Classrooms for all students is our primary focus’

member of the SMC. A parent says, “In the three-hour shifts, classes are taken for two hours, and even in those hours, at times, there are no teachers. There are no teachers for some subjects. How can students be expected to study under such conditions?”

Members of an inquiry panel who had visited the school to assess the reasons for 1,500 students failing in Class IX and Class XI had attributed the poor performance to primarily “lack of infrastructure” and “overcrowding”. Two wings of the school building have been declared dangerous and the PWD is working on them.

GOVT SR. SECONDARY SUNDER NAGRI Facing double shifts, a high number of students and shortage of teachers, the school came out with its own measure — calling girls and boys for classes on alternate days. When this came to the notice of the education department, the school was forced to withdraw the order. It is now functioning in two shifts.

Until the last academic year, the school was co-educational. This year, the government ordered the school be bifurcated and run in two shifts to increase student enrollment. But the school did not make arrangements for transfer of teachers, and, as a result, teachers refused to teach in the evening shift. “After the bifurcation, teacher transfers were not cleared and we had to find an alternative system. Now that the order has been issued, the school has started running in double shift again,” says Rajiv Kumar, a member of the SMC.

More than 4,000 children study in the school in both shifts. There are 22 sections in the morning shift and 32 in the evening shift.

The school is also facing another battle. While the government has sanctioned construction of rooms on the school’s playground, the school has passed a resolution that it has enough rooms and does not require more. The SMC even went to the high court to stop construction. The court directed the education director to take the final call. The construction is underway.

Incidentally, the government school in Nand Nagri faces a similar situation. The SMC has urged the deputy director education to halt construction to save the school playground. “... The situation could have been avoided if the government had at least consulted the principal before going ahead with the construction,” says Mohammad Arif, a member of the SMC.

SCHOOL, To improve infrastructure in Delhi government schools, the government had announced that it would construct 8,000 classrooms. Yet, the problem of overcrowded classrooms persists, with many schools forced to devise their own measures such as taking classes in corridors, or calling students to school on alternate days. What is the government planning to do about it?

The government was planning to start construction of the 8,000 rooms in January, but we were advised to postpone the construction till after students finished with their examinations. We thought summer vacations would be a conducive time to get things done, and that is what is happening. The construction will finish soon. These are minor inconveniences, meant for the greater good. When the construction is completed, the students will get much better facilities. Schools are making these adjustments, but they are only for a short term. Jab ghar mein whitewash hoti hai, tab bhi toh hum thoda adjust karte hain (We do adjust when there is whitewashing at home)... this is like that. If we can adjust at home, can’t we do it in the school?

Overcrowded classrooms is a problem in many of the government schools. On one hand, the Right to Education Act mandates no child be refused admission, and on the other, it also requires a certain student-teacher ratio be maintained. What is the government doing to address this situation?

The only way to tackle the problem of overcrowding is to build more classrooms. In the first phase, 8,000 classrooms are being built and that will drastically improve the situation. We are in the process of conducting survey for building 4,000 more classrooms. The city schools are still okay when it comes to this issue, but it is the schools in the border areas that I am worried about. Children from Haryana and Uttar Pradesh are also coming to Delhi government schools to study. We can’t and don’t want to refuse admission to any child, but the problem is acute and building schools will take a long time. We are trying to figure out how to address this issue.

Classrooms in some schools are also being constructed on playgrounds. Some schools have expressed their reservation against this, but construction is still going on. What do you have to say about this?

The reservations of the schools are genuine. Land is a major issue in Delhi, and schools are right in asserting the need for playgrounds. But students are having to study in corridors and verandahs. Given the gravity of the situation, we need to set our priorities. Having classrooms for all students to sit and study in is our primary focus, and that is why constructing rooms is our priority right now.

Liaising between different agencies is often seen to be the reason construction gets delayed or stuck in government schools. What is being done to address this issue?

Officials from the education department and liaising agencies such as PWD talk on a daily basis through a Whatsapp group. Satyendar Jain and I are in it. If an agency has an issue, it is raised there and immediately resolved.