Rs. 111-cr. facelift awaits DK’s primary schools next year

More classrooms will be required to house class 8 students, says official

N. Shivaprakash, District Deputy Project Coordinator of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, addressing a teachers training programme in Mangalore on Saturday. Photo: R. Eswarraj

The new academic year may see more government primary schools getting additional classrooms and compound walls, with the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan seeking a Rs. 111-crore grant for its activities.

With class 8 becoming a part of the primary education, the grants are to be used for providing additional classrooms in the primary schools across the district.

Releasing the documentary ‘Spandana’ on government schools, N. Shivaprakash, District Deputy Project Coordinator of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, said on Saturday that Rs. 111 crore had been sought for various works to be taken up under the project.

As many as180 primary schools in the district required additional classrooms to accommodate class 8 children. The Abhiyan has proposed to take up building compound walls in rural schools at a cost of Rs. 10 crore.

Mr. Shivaprakash said Dakshina Kannada had been among the 20 districts in the country where the schools meet eight of the nine basic requirements prescribed under the Right to Education Act. He said the district met the criterion related to the classroom-student ratio, every higher primary school had a headmaster and all the 931 government schools have separate toilets for girls. The schools in the district, he said, also have drinking water facility, power supply and ramps. Construction of compound walls in the schools in urban areas has been completed. But as many as 120 schools do not have playgrounds, he said.

Positive changes, he said, had been noticed among children from 1 to 3 standards who have been exposed to activity-based learning method — Nali Kali’. He said, following the implementation of the new method, children were found making presentations without any inhibitions.

He said the number of dropouts had come down from 7,800 in 2001 to 132 in 2012. Programmes were being offered to provide education to 5,186 special children. Assistance of physiotherapists and special trainers were being taken. Support was being extended by institutions such as Father Muller Charitable Hospital and Chetana for these special students.