Banaras…the city of burning ghats, temples, handicrafts and desi cuisines. Apart from this identity Varanasi holds another distinct separate identity. As said by the founder of Banaras Hindu University, late Pt. Madan Mohan Malviya, Varanasi is, “sarv vidya ki rajdhani”, i.e. the capital of education. Banaras Hindu University was formed with a view to develop education not only in the region but also in the country.
Speaking of education, hundred years after the inception of this university, not much has changed in the region. Just a few kilometres away from this magnificent university are a couple of primary and middle high government schools in the villages of Tikri and Tarapur. These schools are struggling with the minimum infrastructure that the government has provided. Some changes to the extent of expansion of classrooms and newly painted walls have come but they are not significant.
These schools lack basic infrastructure like electricity, books, teachers, uniform and even classrooms. In this digital age where France has declared access to internet to be the birth right of every citizen, our country fails to provide even books.
Local constraints are also hampering the development of these schools. Midday meals provided here is as everywhere, not up to the edible standards. Even newly constructed rooms for the schools are used by the principals to store their household scraps. To my surprise, the principal of Tarapur primary school had put a lock on the newly build toilet especially for the girl students. On enquiring the reason, the school principal says, “students make it dirty, so we keep it locked”.
Education system has to develop in India atleast to secure its future, but for development both the sides of the coin i.e., the government and society have to work together, failing which India fails as a nation.
BY TUSHAR
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