The Delhi Government is going to do the makeover of its schools across the national Capital with Rs 110 crore. Efforts will be made to make classrooms more attractive to students.
Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia has planned to repair all the schools on a campaign basis which will be carried in the month of summer.
"The plan is to repair all the classrooms starting with the whitewash. Along with the whitewash of the walls of school buildings and classrooms, the infrastructural damages would be repaired as well," a senior official of the Public Works Department told The Pioneer.
He said preparations have already started with the department giving an estimated expenditure for the work to the tune of Rs 110 crore.
"Earlier things were done in a decentralised manner but by putting it on campaign basis, the Minister wants the work to be done and completed on a deadline basis. Clearly, the summer vacation period has been underlined for this campaign. The work would be started on the first day of vacations and completed before the students join the classes back," he added.
Sisodia, who is also the Minister of Education, took many initiatives in improving the education system of the Government schools in the city. The Government's Education Department earlier did a facelift of the staffrooms. The department's "chunati" campaign to train the students of Government schools to read better was a massive hit last year.
The Government has set May 31, 2017 the date to complete 8,159 classrooms. From October 2016 to December 2016 only 900 rooms were completed. Already overburdened with the strength of students, the schools that are feeling the pressure the most are schools in Northeast part of Delhi where 6,000 to 7,000 children attend school.
The progress of the construction of new classrooms has been "slightly hampered" due to demonetisation as the labourers are "paid in cash", according to a Government official.
Only 25 per cent have been completed so far.
According to the official break-up, chances meeting May deadline looks difficult for the Government as on December 31, 2016, only 1971 classrooms were completed.