Scoring low: on lack of power in schools (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2:Governance
Prelims level:International Solar Alliance
Mains level: Developing electricity and other infrastructure in government schools

Context:

• As a founder-leader of the International Solar Alliance, India has not yet electrified a significant number of government schools.
• While extolling the elegance and virtue of photovoltaic electricity to the rest of the world.

Highlights of the human development report:

• The lack of power in schools is taken note of by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Human Resource Development in its latest report on budgetary grants for school education and literacy for 2020-21.
• Under the framework of concurrent powers, the Centre operates its own schemes and sponsors several school education programmes covering the States, notably Samagra Shiksha and the Mid Day Meal scheme.
• As the panel found from data for 2017-18, only 56.45% of government schools had electricity and 56.98% a playground, while almost 40% lacked a boundary wall.
• In Uttar Pradesh, almost 70% of schools lacked electricity.
• Other depressing insights from the district information database as of end-2019, are: neglect of toilet construction for children with special needs, failure to build toilets for girls in a third of secondary schools and laboratories for higher secondary science students.
• The tardy progress on such important facilities, in spite of the projects having been sanctioned, shows the low priority that school education is being accorded.

Steps needed to be taken:

• The NDA government did at the launch of its second term was a ‘100-day programme’ for education, focused in part on training of schoolteachers and opening of central schools.
• It should be possible to bring the same .....................................

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Conclusion:

• A public school system that guarantees universal access, good learning and all facilities has to be among the highest national priorities.

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  General Studies Pre. Cum Mains Study Materials

Prelims Questions:

Q.1)With reference to the entanglement theory (quantum computing), consider the following statements:
1. Entanglement is a special type of correlation that exists in the quantum world with no classical counterpart.
2. Researchers from Raman Research Institute (RRI) have recently devised a new test for fairness of quantum coin or ‘qubit’ (the basic unit of information in a quantum computer) using entanglement theory.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2

Answer: ..............................................

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Mains Questions:
Q.1)How to improve the electricity and other infrastructure facilities in government schools?