Over 3,000 schools in Assam do not have proper toilet facilities for boys, while more than 1,600 educational institutes lack such facilities for girl students, the state government informed the assembly on Thursday, December 22.

There is no drinking water provision in more than 1,100 schools and no electricity connection in over 1,000, Education Minister Ranoj Pegu said, as stated in a report by PTI. He also stated that 2,900 schools are run by single teachers, while around 4,800 educational institutes do not have any partition wall and operate in a single room.

Lack of sanitation facilities

Of 3,117 schools without proper toilet facilities for boys, 2,747 are of the primary level and 370 of the secondary level, Pegu said, while replying to an unstarred question by Congress MLA and Leader of Opposition Debebrata Saikia. A total of 1,693 schools lack toilet facilities for girls, comprising 1,582 of the primary level and 111 of the secondary one, the minister said.

He quoted data from the United District Information System for Education (UDISE) 2021-22, with regard to the lack of sanitation facilities. The minister also said 1,124 schools do not have provision for drinking water, of which, 1,066 are at the primary level and 58 at the secondary.

Not enough teachers

He mentioned that 2,979 schools were single-teacher ones, while each of 15,161 educational institutes is run by two teachers and 8,207 are three-teacher schools. All these were primary schools and there were no secondary-level educational institutes in these categories, he added.

There were 2,916 primary schools with each having more than seven teachers and 4,129 secondary and senior secondary institutes in the same category, Pegu said. The minister also said there are 4,799 primary schools without partition walls, down from 10,472 previously.

Altogether 1,107 schools, comprising 1,097 primary and 10 secondary institutes, do not have electricity connection, though efforts are in place to provide this facility to all these schools by January next year, Pegu said.