Cuttack, Oct. 29: The state government has conceded in the high court that it has no information on the number of out-of-school children in the state.

In an affidavit on primary schools, the school and mass education department said it was not in a position to provide it as the out-of-school children data had not been updated since 2005.

The court was hearing a PIL on plight of schoolchildren in the state. On October 5, the court had sought a status report on drinking water, toilets and playgrounds in primary schools because they were the basic requirements for running them. The court had also sought the exact number of out-of-school children district-wise.

In his affidavit submitted yesterday, school and mass education department additional secretary Biswanath Pradhan said: "The data which was collected in 2005 through the child tracking system is being updated annually. Field-level functionaries are conducting the survey and district-wise data will be collected and updated by the end of February 2016."

Taking note of a media report, the high court had registered the PIL suo motu and appointed advocate Prafulla Kumar Rath as amicus curiae to assist it. The media report said primary schools lacked drinking water facilities and toilets.

Initiating the PIL proceedings, the court had observed that the children were to be traced and brought back to school. It had further decided to "monitor continuously" the required co-ordination between several departments "as a mission of achieving 100 per cent literacy among children of six years of age and above."

In his affidavit, Pradhan claimed drinking water facilities (pipe water, tube well, well, containers) have been provided in all the 53,455 government primary/elementary schools in the state. While 49,859 elementary schools had been provided with permanent toilets, low-cost pre-fabricated toilets had been provided temporarily in 3,596 schools. He added that only 11,046 schools had their own playgrounds.

Taking note of the affidavit, the division bench of Chief Justice D.H. Waghela and Justice B.P. Ray posted the matter for hearing on November 16 along with status report on total number of children admitted in government primary/elementary schools, vacant teachers positions, number of schools provided with midday meals, the number of welfare schemes as well as central government-funded schemes available for these schools.