Valley News Desk

‘Work on 81 percent classrooms yet to be started’

Riyaz Bhat

Srinagar, Oct 02 (KNO): The School Education department has miserably failed to construct the computer classrooms in the Secondary level Schools with the figures available reveal that nearly 19 percent classrooms out of 574 approved have either been constructed or under construction from the past one decade.

The details available reveal that the construction work of over 81 percent computer classrooms is yet to commence in Jammu and Kashmir. The government from the beginning of the academic year 2009-10 had approved 574 computer classrooms for the students of Secondary Schools, but till now more than 81 percent construction is yet to be commenced, the figures reveal.

Official figures of the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) available with the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO) reveal that of the total approved 574 computer classrooms, the School Education department has failed to start construction in 470 classrooms.

Ironically, among the total approved computer classrooms, construction has been completed in only 77 computer classrooms while 27 are still under construction.

The figures reveal that in the academic year 2009-10, a total of 37 computer classrooms were approved for the Secondary Schools of Jammu and Kashmir, however, the School Education department has completed construction of only 21 while five are still under construction and work in 11 classrooms have not been started.

Similarly, construction of eight computer classrooms were approved in 2010-11 out of which construction in seven structures has been completed while the construction of one classroom is yet to be started.

Likewise, in the academic year 2011-12, at least 107 computer classrooms were approved. However, the construction of 55 classrooms has not been started, 45 have been completed and seven are under construction.

In the year 2016-17, the government had approved construction of 150 computer classrooms out of which construction have been completed in only four classrooms, 15 are in progress and construction in 131 is yet to be started.

During the academic year 2019-20, a total of 272 computer classrooms were approved by the government and no construction for any classroom was started till date.

Officials at Samagra Shiksha informed KNO that abrogation of Article-370 and outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the construction in the past two years.

Pertinently, KNO is carrying series of stories pertaining to the state of schools in Jammu and Kashmir—(KNO)