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Journalism of Courage
Crumbling infrastructure, no desks and benches for students, and a scarcity of study material — the North MCD Primary school in Rohini’s Nithari village, under scanner after 21 of 30 teachers were suspended for dereliction of duties last week, seems to have its hands full with problems.
As first reported by The Indian Express, the teachers were suspended after they were found to be allegedly marking attendance despite being absent. When the corporation looked into the absenteeism, it was also discovered that there were discrepancies in providing mid-day meals to students. When The Indian Express visited the school on Tuesday, more than 30 children sat on a sheet laid out on the floor, their eyes glued to a ‘smart board’ on which the teacher was giving lessons on the Hindi alphabet.
He had placed a book below the board, and its pages were visible on the device. “Students don’t have the same book in their hands as the school administration has not provided study material under Mission Buniyaad,” said a teacher. “I purchased some books. We got mails regarding study materials but it was not possible for us to take so many printouts due to a fund crisis.”
The school has 1,250 students in the morning batch and 850 in the evening, from classes I to V. Around 520 ‘weak’ students have been identified to attend extra classes during summer as part of the Buniyaad scheme, but only 360 have been turning up. As many as 12 of 21 classes are virtually unusable, with window panes broken, cement coming off the floors and walls, and blackboards crumbling.
While no classroom has desks and benches, there is one smart board, purchased in February last year. School principal Mahavir Prasad said, “We have a space problem. There are 31 sections but just 21 classrooms. We often ask students of two sections to sit in one.”
“A building in front of the school, once used for teaching, was vacated a year ago as it was declared dangerous and sealed. The school has made at least 15 correspondences to repair or demolish it so a new building can be built,” said another teacher.
A senior North body official said the file has already been moved for 20,000 desks and benches for not just this school, but some others too. On the lack of study materials, he said, “We and the East Corporation had raised the issue in a meeting with officials of Delhi government and MCDs. We flagged that we have a fund crisis and it will not be possible to give study materials for Buniyaad. So we sent them to the principals on mail and asked them to get printouts.”
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