Making a mockery of Odisha government’s 5T initiative, that promised to bring ‘smartness’ into government run schools, students of a high school in Binka under Sonepur district are forced to study sitting on the floor. As if that was not sufficient, the teachers are also forced to teach the students on an almirah without a blackboard in the classroom.
This has been reported from Boys’ High School in Binka, Sonepur where students of Class-9 were seen sitting on the floor while the teachers took classes on an almirah.
The ‘Smart classroom’ which is supposed to impart education in a smart way lagged far behind even from the regular schools in terms of basic infrastructure.
As per reports, the school was taken under 5T purview and a workshop has also been constructed at a cost of Rs 45 lakh recently. However, the condition in which the students are forced to study puts a huge question mark on the actual implementation on the initiative.
Moreover, the ignorance of the matter by the Block Education Officer (BEO) baffled many in the know.
Asked about the sorry state of affairs in the school, the BEO, Ganesh Kisan, feigned ignorance of the matter. Speaking to OTV correspondent, Kisan said, “I do not know if the class is being run without a black board. Actually, the civil works in the school should have been done by the BDO. I will definitely look into the matter.”
Sources said a total of 1026 schools were transformed into smart schools in Odisha in the first phase of the initiative in 2021. The government claimed a rise in motivation among students for attending such smart schools having facilities at par with private schools.
However, political observers felt that government decided to inaugurate smart schools in a haste without even actually completing works in many of them, only to earn public appeal for the Panchayat elections held last year.