91 percent primary schools in state are ‘headless’; Drinking water and toilet problems

91 percent primary schools in state are ‘headless’

In a damning indictment of the poor state of rural education in the State, a report released by the National University of Educational Planning and Administration (NUEPA), New Delhi, has found that around three-fourth of primary schools in rural Karnataka do not have a regular headmaster.

NUEPA, which carried out a nation-wide study of elementary education in rural India, has some disturbing data on the state of rural education in India and the state.

The study found that only 28.32 per cent of all primary schools in the state have a regular headmaster. This figure is much lower than the all-India average of 46 per cent.

Karnataka’s neighbours have fared much better in the study with 88 per cent of schools in Kerala and 85 per cent of schools in Tamil Nadu having headmasters. But Andhra Pradesh has fared worse than Karnataka — only 19 per cent of schools in the state have a headmaster.

In Karnataka, schools with primary sections (Class 1 to 4) are the worst performing, with only 9 per cent of such schools having a headmaster. That means a whopping 91 per cent of schools do not have a headmaster. However, upper primary schools (Class 5 to 8), primary schools with upper primary sections, upper primary schools with secondary sections have performed much better.

The survey has also found that only one in every four teachers teaching in rural schools posess a bachelors degree.

That means, around 77.9 per cent of all the teachers in the state have only completed matriculation or high school.

Karnataka fares much better when it comes to school infrastructure.

Around 91 per cent of all schools have pucca buildings, while around 5 per cent have partially pucca buildings, and another 1 per cent has kuccha buildings. However, only a quarter of these schools have a kitchen shed for implementing the mid-day meal programme.

Karnataka also has one of the largest number of schools without drinking water supply, with 22 per cent of all schools having no drinking water facility. Contrast this with Kerala, where only 2 pc of schools are without water supply.

In another shocking statistic, more than one-third of the schools in Karnataka did not have a common toilet facility.

Around 60 per cent of schools did not have a toilet facility for girls.