74.45% schools in Assam off the grid

POWER CONNECTION TO SCHOOLS

In tiol reckoning, Assam second worst State

By our Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, Aug 9: Assam, as often as not, hits headlines for the wrong reasons. Now it has come to light that 74.45 percent of schools in the State are off the grid – without any power connection whatsoever.

If Jharkhand is the worst State in this list with just 19.45 percent schools having power connection, Assam comes next to it with only 25.55 percent schools with power connection against the tiol average of 62.81 percent. In the Northeast, only Mizoram with 76.86 percent schools having power connection lies above the tiol average. Needless to say, Assam is the worst performer on this count in this region.

The percentages of electricity connection to schools in the other North-eastern States are 51.70 in galand, 39.54 in Aruchal Pradesh, 39.27 in Manipur, 29.77 in Tripura and 28.54 in Meghalaya. This is despite the fact that the other NE States have more difficult terrains than Assam and Tripura.  It is clear that barring Mizoram, the other 6 States of the Northeast have brought down the tiol percentage of power connection to schools.     

tiol University of Educatiol Planning and Administration (NUEPA) annually collects information on various educatiol indicators, including infrastructural facilities in schools through the Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE). The 2015-16 report of the UDISE says that 62.81 percent of schools had electricity connection in the country on average.

There is no dearth of government schemes through which schools can be electrified. The Central government supports State governments and Union territory administrations for the creation and augmentation of infrastructure facilities, including electrification in government elementary and secondary schools under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) and Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) programmes.

Under the Deen Dayal Upadhyay Gram Jyoti Yoja (DDUGJY), there is a provision to provide electrification to all villages. Implementation of this scheme ebles the availability of electricity to schools. However, the implementation of this is very poor in Assam, where as many as 600 villages are still to be electrified. This essentially means that the schools in these villages are still off the grid.

Prime Minister rendra Modi took up a scheme on August 15, 2015 to provide electricity connections to all ‘un-electrified’ villages within 1,000 days i.e. by May 15, 2018. At the time of announcement, Assam had as many as 2,892 ‘un-electrified’ villages, and as such there were no power connection to schools in those villages.

Talking to this reporter, SSA and RMSA officials said: “Our duty is confined to giving power connections to schools. However, if the villages where such schools are located have no power connections, then we’re helpless. It is also a fact that the data given in this (UDISE) report are of 2015-16 fincial year. By now a number of ‘un-electrified’ villages in Assam have been given power connection, and as such to schools in these villages.”