MASROOR AHMAD
SRINAGAR: The Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidhyalayas (KGBVs) in four districts of the Kashmir Valley are currently functioning as day schools instead of residential institutions in violation of norms.
In the wake of this, the female students enrolled in these schools are deprived of all the facilities available to them to support their education.
According to the officials, despite the completion of the buildings, these schools have yet to transform into full-fledged residential schools.
“The buildings for these residential schools are completed, but the teachers have not shifted the students to these new facilities. Consequently, the schools are running as day schools, depriving students of the facilities provided under the scheme,” the official said.
The KGBV schools in Srinagar, Budgam, Ganderbal, and Bandipora are operating as day schools, which means that the enrolled students miss out on the benefits meant for them by the Government of India under the scheme.
“As the students do not get the facilities, the funds allocated for these benefits remain unutilised and eventually lapse,” the official said.
The KGBV scheme aims to bridge gender and social category gaps in school education by extending residential and schooling facilities up to Class XII. It specifically targets girls from marginalised and economically weaker sections of society, aiming to empower them through education. KGBVs are designed as residential schools for girls who have dropped out at the upper primary level.
The Ministry of Education (MoE), Government of India, sanctioned 89 KGBVs for Educationally Backward Blocks (EBBs) in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. Among these, 35 KGBVs are 100-bedded, while 54 are 50-bedded.
The scheme aims at providing access to quality education for girls from disadvantaged groups, particularly those from Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), Other Backward Classes (OBC), Minority communities, and Below Poverty Line (BPL) families. It ensures a smooth transition of girls from elementary to secondary education and up to Class XII where possible.
“The primary goal of KGBVs is to ensure that girls from marginalised communities have access to education. Each educationally backward block is supposed to have at least one residential school for girls from Classes VI to XII,” the official said.
He, however, said the current situation of KGBVs in the four districts is defeating the purpose of the scheme and depriving the students of their entitled facilities.”The failure to adhere to the norms and utilise the completed buildings as residential schools not only undermines the scheme’s objectives but also renders waste the resources allocated for this scheme,” the official said.