Hyderabad: Students of many Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas (KGBV) are forced to take cold water baths even as the temperatures are dipping in winter. Worse, the cash-strapped schools are having to purchase drinking water.
There are 479 KGBV schools in the state, with more than 1.24 lakh students enrolled. Solar heaters were introduced in these schools nationwide to cut down the expenses and reliance on conventional electricity.
"We have about 350 students enrolled in our school. The solar heater has not been functioning for the past year due to disruptions caused by monkeys. The students not only have to take bath in cold water. The RO water plant has also not been functioning. It is tap water that students have to use for drinking," complained a teacher at KGBV Mahbubabad.
For drinking, students have to rely on purified water cans bought from outside. The teacher told Deccan Chronicle that even alternative arrangements for heating water, like immersion rods, had been recommended to the authorities but to no avail.
Teachers from Medak and Khammam also reported that solar heaters in most of the schools were non-functioning. Another teacher from Khammam said the situation persisted in at least 10 out of 14 KGBV schools in the district. "The staff and the school principal have written multiple times to the district education officer (DEO), but they have not taken heed," she said.
Distriction education officer E.S.S. Sharma of Khammam acknowledged that the schools had made requests for solar water heaters, which were forwarded to higher authorities. "We got the requests a couple of months ago. We have forwarded them to state authorities and are awaiting their response," Sharma said.
Director of school education E.V. Narasimha Reddy and state project officer Radha Reddy were not available for comment.
M. Thulasi, gender and equity coordinator in Khammam, said that the lack of solar heaters is only one of the many issues residential schools, including KGBVs, were facing in the state. "Solar power generators are needed immediately in residential schools for power back-ups. The schools are grappling with multiple infrastructural issues, especially in girls' residential schools," she informed.
