Cleanliness lessons are clearly the need of the hour at most Jharkhand schools, including the Centre-run Kendriya Vidyalayas (KVs), if a hygiene report card accorded by the Union HRD ministry is anything to go by.
Of the total 50 KVs that were evaluated for sanitation initiatives under the Swachh Bharat Swachh Vidyalaya campaign this March, only nine bagged blue rating (75-89 per cent - very good), the rest got yellow (51-74 per cent - good with scope for improvement) while none was marked green (90-100 per cent - excellent).
The only saving grace was that no KV got the lowest score of orange (35-50 per cent - fair, needs improvement).
The central cradles that were marked very good are KV, CRPF (Ranchi); KV, Namkum (Ranchi); KV, Hinoo (Ranchi); KV, Hazaribagh; KV, Pakur; KV, Garhwa; KV, Patratu; KV, Deoghar; and KV (Dhanbad town).
Some that got yellow are KV, HEC (Ranchi); KV, Barkakana (Ramgarh); KV, Burkunda (Hazaribagh); KV, West Singhbhum; and KV, Maithon dam (Dhanbad).
Evidently, principals of the central schools, which are affiliated to the CBSE board and are usually better maintained, are not happy.
"We submitted details of various activities undertaken by us under the cleanliness mission. We were aiming to score between 90 and 100 per cent, but we bagged 80 per cent. Next year, we hope to achieve cent per cent results," said principal of KV, Namkum D. Tirkey.
Renu Upadhyay, principal of KV, HEC, which falls in the 51-74 per cent bracket, admitted that they ought to pull up their socks. "I am naturally concerned as my school has scored less than 60 per cent. We will try to add extra toilets for girls. Now, we have just five toilets for more than 300 girl students. We might have not done well in this particular parameter," she said.
Principal of KV-Maithon dam (Dhanbad) Lalita Bankira cited reasons for being rated yellow. "We have 18 toilets for 700 girls, and no auditorium. Classrooms are not adequate. As a result, our students are compelled to sit in congested classrooms that often remain unclean," she said.
Apart from adequate number of toilets and clean campuses, schools need to take up other activities like conducting sessions on cleanliness during morning assembly, keeping libraries, earmarking drinking water areas and kitchen sheds, maintaining gardens and organising essay and debate competitions on cleanliness and hygiene to get good scores.
Aradhana Patnaik, secretary of school education and literacy department, said that in March 2016, the Union HRD ministry had issued directives to only KVs of Jharkhand to apply for ratings under the Swachh Vidyalaya campaign. "The results have come now while for state-run schools, we received a directive in July. Around 5,000 government schools have applied to be reviewed. The last date for registering was August 17," she said.
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