Pomp and neglect: Shala Praveshotsav exposes stark divide in Guj schools
Updated: Jun 27th, 2024
Even as high-ranking government officials welcome children to specially decorated “smart” schools, thousands of students in rural areas return to crumbling buildings and overcrowded classrooms—none of which feature in the Shala Praveshotsav. This “school enrollment festival” has ironically highlighted the growing divide between the state's showcase schools and its neglected rural education infrastructure.
Take for instance, the school at Khushapura in Nadiad. With its crumbling concrete, missing roofing tiles, rusted metal doors that are falling off their hinges, and peeling paint, the premises are utterly desolate, inspiring pathos rather than any enthusiasm for studying. A lone, non-functioning hand pump adds to the vibe of a bad horror movie set from the 1980s and 1990s. Any wonder then, that the only available space for all its students—of Classes 1 through 5—is what should be the principal’s office.
Local residents have been seeking a new building for some time now, having approached the education department and the local administration ever since the school started falling apart.
The administration admits that dilapidated school buildings are an issue. Paresh Waghela, the primary school education officer in Kheda district, where Khushapura is located, told Gujarat Samachar Digital that a recent survey showed that 1,350 schools in the district need about 2,374 new classrooms. Of these, construction is underway for 1,915, he said, adding that work on the rest would begin soon.
However, even as schools reopen across the state, the government is yet to allocate any grants to improve rural school infrastructure—a major miss given that 30,694 of Gujarat’s 32,013 government-run primary schools are located in rural areas.
Faced with a choice between studying in unsafe school buildings or dropping out entirely, many rural students choose the latter.
The state admits, time after time, that there is a need for comprehensive reform in rural education, but does little. Until it addresses issues of crumbling infrastructure, overcrowded classrooms, and resource scarcity, festivals like the Shala Praveshotsav risk becoming a mere spectacle—a glossy veneer over a system that fails thousands of its most vulnerable students.
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