The opposition Congress on Tuesday slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Government in Chhattisgarh for organising ‘School Admission Festival’ without providing basic infrastructure and facilities to the Government schools.
State Congress president Bhupesh Baghel said the BJP Government did not have any concern for the children. It had made the ‘School Admission Festival’ a platform for the Chief Minister, Ministers, and ruling party leaders to get political mileage, he said. Celebration of admission festival without the basic facilities and posting of adequate teachers was meaningless, he alleged.
The celebration of ‘School Admission Festival’ is necessary to attract children to the school. But it should not happen that the children stop going to school from the next day due to lack of facilities.
The status of schools and education in the State had been deteriorated. Although the BJP Government was on its third term, it failed to appoint head masters in more than 18,000 primary and middle schools. More than 14,000 primary schools had been operating without a roof. About 24,000 primary schools and medium schools did not have toilets, he alleged.
There had been vacancies of 1.5 lakh teachers posts. By not taking any concrete steps in this regard, the BJP government has been playing with the life of the children, he said. There are schools in remote villages where schools are functioning only with one teacher and such teachers are performing multiple roles of peon, head master and teacher.
More than 24 per cent schools in the State do not have drinking water facilities. In 15 per cent of the schools there has been no provision of mid day meals, he pointed out.Instead of making the admission of children a platform of political campaign the Government should take steps to ensure them proper facilities, he said.