Classrooms a grim picture in Mewat

Sumedha Sharma

Tribune New Service

Gurgaon, May 17

Mewat has done it again. The district that ranks the lowest in almost all development parameters is at the bottom in the education field also.

With as low as 25.46 per cent students passing in Class X and 32.23 per cent of students doing so in Class XII, the deteriorating condition of education has once again come to the forefront in Mewat despite frequent announcements of government schemes. Residents have blamed it on the successive government’s apathy.

Every second school of the district is an epitome of sheer neglect and indifference. These schools have teachers, toilets and classroom shortage and an alarming school dropout rate.

At some schools in Nuh, one teacher handles as many as 150 students or more, huddled together under tree shades or verandhas.

The District Information System for Education report show that the average teacher-pupil ratio in the majority of Mewat schools is 1:150 and the student-classroom ratio of 1:70. This is probably the highest in the state. “Most of the schools don’t have basic amenities such as toilets and drinking water, but what is affecting the students the most is teacher shortage. Government teachers don’t want to come to Mewat,” said Noordin Noor, chairman, Zila Parishad.

“There is just one toilet in our school and that too is reserved for the teachers. We have to go out to defecate. A few months ago, a girl was abducted from near our village when she went to the fields to defecate,” said Razia Bano, a former student at Government Girls Middle School at Salaheri village.