ADOPTED AND ABANDONED

Only some of the schools adopted by elected leaders and bureaucrats in UP have seen real development. The rest still await teachers, benches, toilets.

- Sanjay

Even nine months after being adopted by a government official, Composite School Gangauli in Uttar Pradesh's Amethi district lacks desks and benches for students. All 116 children in Classes 1 to 8 sit on floor mats. Although the school building is in good condition, it lacks functional toilets for students and needs more teachers.

"We had apprised then Amethi Sub District Magistrate (SDM) about teachers' shortage in our school. Now, we have a new SDM but are yet to get the required number of teachers. She visited the school once and construction of the boundary wall is underway. We are hoping that other problems will be resolved soon," said Brijendra Prasad Srivastav, principal.

Composite School Gangauli is among 55 government schools of Amethi district adopted' by officials and public representatives with an aim to give them a facelift. On April 4, 2022, Uttar Pradesh's chief minister, Yogi Adityanath, launched School Chalo Abhiyan' and sought support from gazetted officers, lawmakers, panchayat and municipal representatives in "transforming" government schools. He asked officials and public representatives to equip state-run schools with the basic facilities as set out by Operation Kayakalp.

Following the UP CM's directives, a total of 9,513 government schools in 75 districts were adopted by representatives and bureaucrats.

Careers360 visited six such adoptees across four districts - Sultanpur, Jaunpur, Amethi and Pratapgarh - in Uttar Pradesh and found that the situation has improved for only a handful of schools while the rest are still awaiting attention.