Hindering girl’s education: JK performs poorly in making KGBVs operational
Muhammad Adnan
Srinagar: The J&K’s School Education Department has failed to make around 85 KGBV schools operational, deflating the tall claims made to promote girl’s education in Jammu and Kashmir.
In wake of the failure to make these girls schools completely residential, the student enrolment in the institutions has witnessed a dwindling trend, throwing up a major challenge for the administration.
The revelation came to fore during a meeting convened by Secretary Department of School Education and Literacy (DSEL) Government of India, to review the implementation of the centrally sponsored schemes by J&K UT.
In the meeting, the secretary expressed concern over the poor performance of the J&K UT in making all the Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KBGV) girls residential schools operational. The DSEL has pulled up the officials of J&K SED for its failure to execute the scheme in the right direction.
“J&K UT has not been able to operationalise 85 KGBVs of Type IV, which is an area of concern,” read the notes made after the meeting.
The documents further reveal that the construction of four KGBV buildings has not started under Type-I despite the passage of more than eight years since the buildings were approved.
“Also 17 KGBV buildings of type IV have not been started yet as well,” the document says.
Also, it has come to fore in the meeting that construction of 30 KGBV buildings was not completed while 41 KGBV buildings have not been completed yet under Type IV.
“The J&K UT was asked to expedite construction of these above pending civil works at the earliest,” the official document reads.
Notably, the KGBV scheme was launched some 17 years ago by the GoI to provide educational facilities in residential schools for girls belonging to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes, minority communities and families below the poverty line in educationally backward blocks (EBB).
According to officials, the MHRD has approved 99 buildings for KGBV residential schools including two schools (Kharoo of Leh district (Ladakh UT0 and Kishtwar of Kishtwar district.
Also, the enrolment of girl students in these residential schools has declined due to non operationalisation of the permanent buildings. The funds released by the GoI have remained un-utilised as well.
“The enrolment is decreasing as the government has failed to make all the schools residential while as the maximum KGBV schools are functioning from rented accommodations. These are basic issues for decreasing enrolment in these female residential schools,” said an official who was part of the meeting.
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