At a time when Haryana Government is claiming to improve education system in the State, a large number of schools still lack basic facilities like toilets, electricity and playgrounds.
In a report tabled in Parliament recently, it has been stated that 905 schools were without toilets, 214 schools were without electricity, 29 schools without water and 3305 did not have playgrounds in Haryana till last year.
According to the officials in the Education Department, the situation has improved slightly since last year but still, a large number of schools are running without facilities like toilets and playgrounds in the State.
The State Government had recently announced to construct separate toilets for boys and girls in all schools by June 2015 in Haryana.
The Education Department officials said that the target is difficult to achieve, however, the Government is working in this regard.
Notably, a majority of students in class X and XII had failed to pass the examinations when Haryana Board of School Education declared the results last week.
The dismal results had raised questions on priorities of the State Government, which has been toiling hard in promoting moral education with inclusion of Gita shlokas and Yoga in school curriculum instead of improving the educational infrastructure.
The overall pass percentage was just 41.28 for class X and 53.96% in the senior secondary (class XII) examinations.
Experts in the education sector pointed out that absence of basic facilities like toilets and safe drinking water in the schools is not only a health issue but also, one of the major factors for school dropout rate and low enrolment rate in Government schools.
As per the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER 2014) released earlier this year, Haryana was among the top five States in the country having high enrolment rates in the private schools at the elementary stage.
Also, the performance of privates schools was found to be much better than Government schools in Haryana.
The report stated, 82.8 per cent children enrolled in standard III in private schools can read at least a Std I level text, the percentage was much lesser in Government schools with only 36.5 per cent.
Similarly, 81.3 per cent children enrolled in Std V in private schools could read a Std II level text while the percentage was 53.9 children in Government schools.
In case of children in Std III who can do at least subtraction, there were 74.7 per cent children in private schools as compared to only 24 per cent in Government schools in 2014, pointed out the report.
The State registered 54.2 percent enrolment rates in the private schools at the elementary stage, as per the ASER 2014. The report also indicated that the people prefer the private schools over the Government schools in Haryana.
Giving priority to the education sector, Haryana Government had announced to allocate a major chuck of `11, 615 crore for fiscal 2015-16 which included `4,463.64 crore on plan side.