At a time when the Odisha government is beating its own trumpet by claiming to have overhauled the education system in the State, some sorry pictures that emerged from Puri seem to have exposed all such claims.
As per reports, students of some schools under Puri Sadar block were forced to write their exam papers under candle lights after a long power outage made their classrooms dark.
Sources said the power went out on Tuesday night and did not come back even by Wednesday morning. The overcast conditions rendered the classrooms dark and without power, the students were forced to write their exam papers under candle lights.
Meanwhile, the incident has attracted widespread resentment from parents who alleged that neither the energy department nor the education department is serious enough about the exams of the students.
Asked about the exam under candle lights, Puri District Education Officer (DEO) Deepak Padhi said, “This is the Summative II exam of elementary classes from 1-8. It was raining all over Puri and other parts of Odisha yesterday. I will have to see if the power failure was due to that.”
“But the infrastructure of our schools has developed drastically in recent years. We have even installed invertors and water purifiers in some of the schools under Mo School Abhiyan. Even science laboratories have been provided to some elementary schools. The schools which have not got these facilities yet will be looked after on a priority basis,” he added.
No comments could be obtained from the energy department in this connection.