Kota: Every year, television screens light up with the faces of Kota’s coaching toppers, the students who cracked IIT-JEE and NEET and helped put this dusty industrial city on the national map.
Vigyan Nagar govt Senior Secondary school
Vigyan Nagar govt Senior Secondary school
Vigyan Nagar govt Senior Secondary school (4)
A few kilometres away, in the constituency represented by Rajasthan’s school education minister Madan Dilawar, govt-school children study on footpaths, in rented rooms and under tin sheds. Kota’s global reputation rests on private coaching. Its govt schools tell a very different story.
Primary School ward 33 Kota (2)
Primary School ward 33 Kota
Primary School ward 33 Kota
On MBS Road, 78 children of a govt primary school established in 2023 attend classes under tin sheds beside six municipal kiosks in a private bus stand parking area. The school has no permanent building and no sanctioned teaching posts. Three teachers run it on deputation.
single room government Sanskrit School in Education Minister Madan Dilawar constituency (3)
School in charge Shobana Gupta said land-allotment proposals have been submitted, and a permanent campus is awaited.The contrast is equally stark at Govt Senior Secondary School, Vigyan Nagar, a designated JEE and NEET examination centre. Nine classrooms require major repairs and two are marked for demolition. Damp walls, a damaged boundary and a recent theft of CCTV cameras and water taps worth about ₹70,000 have left the school grappling with both safety and security concerns.In Shiv Nagar, Nai Rojadi, a govt Sanskrit school has been functioning from a single rented room for nearly eight years. Reached through a muddy track that becomes difficult to navigate during rains, the school today has barely eight to 10 students.“There is neither the space nor a building, and the school continues to operate out of a single rented room,” said former ward councillor Dhanraj Gurjar Chechi, who says repeated representations to authorities have yielded little progress.A few kilometres away in Devripunia, more than 130 students share just three classrooms. On crowded days, lessons spill out into verandas, open grounds and spaces beneath trees. The school operates with three vacant teaching posts and depends on a temporary water connection drawn from a neighbouring field.School and Sanskrit Education minister Madan Dilawar declined to comment Thursday when contacted by TOI and said, “I am in a meeting at the moment; we will discuss this some other time.”Teachers and school administrators quoted here agreed to speak to TOI despite state govt orders restricting photography and videography on school premises, saying they hoped public attention would compel authorities to act on long-pending infrastructure deficiencies.The problems are not isolated. A public works department survey of Kota’s 1,088 govt schools found 61 school buildings completely dilapidated, while hundreds of classrooms were identified as unsafe.“There are 61 completely ruined (jarjar) school buildings identified in the district, out of which 29 have been demolished so far,” said Naval Kishore, additional District Project Coordinator, Samagra Shiksha.Kota will continue to enjoy the spotlight for its exam toppers. Yet, for many children in its own govt schools, the struggle remains far more basic: a classroom with walls, a roof and a place to learn in safety.
