Our Correspondent
Kohima | July 18
Many government schools in Nagaland do not have safe drinking water facilities, according to a recently released State Council of Educational Research & Training (SCERT) report.
The report titled ‘Survey on School Based Statistics in Nagaland’ informed that Tuensang had the most number of schools without safe drinking water facilities at 91. This was followed by Kohima – 62, Mon – 56, Phek – 46, Wokha – 44, Longleng – 43, Dimapur – 42, Zunheboto – 38, Kiphire – 33, Mokokchung – 28 and Peren – 25.
Mokokchung meanwhile tops the list of districts with the most schools with safe drinking water at 146 schools, followed by Dimapur- 85, Tuensang- 77, Phek -76, Kohima- 73, Zunheboto – 71, Mon- 42, Wokha- 39, Kiphire- 33, and Longleng -31.
“It is a matter of concern since safe drinking water is a basic need in any institution. We see in reality there are many schools which do not have this basic facility,” the report stated.
Meanwhile, the report informed that most of the government schools in Nagaland have separate toilets for boys and girls. However it found that in all the districts there are many schools which do not have this facility.
Mokokchung district again topped the list of having separate toilet for boys and girls facility with 142 schools.
Meanwhile Tuensang again had the most schools without such facility at 83. This was followed by Phek- 65, Zunheboto- 54, Kohima- 37, Mokokchung- 33, Longleng- 32, Dimapur- 30, Wokha- 26, Kiphire- 24, and Mon and Peren with 23 each.
The survey also found that the number of government schools with disabled friendly toilets was extremely low. On the same front, majority of the schools did not have ramps with railings.
The districts that fared the worst in terms of accessibility include Phek, where 113 out of 122 schools had no ramps with railings. In Kiphire as well there was only one school with the facility.
