Why are repairs and renovation of government primary schools taking so long? The school works are undertaken by the Goa State Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited, a corporation which boasts about speedy development. GSIDC has to its credit completion of 200 developmental projects in the last 10 years, at an average of 20 projects per year. Speedy completion of projects may be GSIDC’s mantra, but when it comes to schools, why are works going on at a snail’s pace? Schools taken up for repairs in April are not yet ready even in June for the new academic year opening.
A government primary school in Shirvoi-Quepem is without a roof and the 30-odd students have been moved to a makeshift storeroom. Young children were being taught in sweltering heat generated by the cement sheets that covered the ceiling in the dingy room stuffed with plastic chairs, decorations, ladders, wooden poles and even broken school benches. The scene is no different in Kudchirem and Paltadwada in Bicholim where two government primary schools had no roofs when the new academic year started last week. It’s a pity that children had to be shifted to a temple and a private residence at the last moment because the roofless structures had puddles of water. And probably, if not for the late drizzle, these schools would have held classes even without the roof. There are at least five other government primary schools that are not fit for conducting classes.
There needs to be responsibility fixed on the contractor who has undertaken the renovation work and the GSIDC cannot pass the blame. It’s ridiculous to see students arrive at the schools on reopening day, only to find the rooftop missing and classrooms filled with puddles of water from the overnight drizzle. This tells the sorry state of affairs of our primary schools.
Government is boasting about the huge spend on upgradation and renovation, but there is no sense of urgency and responsibility when it comes to school works. Most of these jobs are outsourced to private contractors leaving them on ‘auto-pilot’ mode without any government supervision and quality checks. And when a contractor abandons the work due to non-payment, it is the students who are made to ‘pay the price’.
Renovation of the two Bicholim schools was undertaken in April when the schools began their summer vacation. Two months later, the schools are still without a roof and nobody bothered. The sad irony is that students are being accommodated in unknown surroundings without even making an assessment of the premises they are being housed in. Is this the way the education system works?
It’s time Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, who holds charge of both the education portfolio and the GSIDC pull up those responsible. There is something terribly wrong with the system. A job which could not be finished in two month’s was done and dusted in almost two days after the CM’s intervention.
