70% schools in Odisha have no electricity, 75% no playground

Bhubaneswar: Over 70 percent government-run schools in Odisha don’t have electricity connections while around 75 percent primary schools and 47 percent high schools don’t have playgrounds, said school and mass education minister Debi Prasad Mishra.

Replying to a written question, Mishra informed the state Assembly that out of the total 61,858 schools under his department, 43,939 don’t have power connections.

The situation is worst in primary schools with around 89 percent of them running without electricity. Of the 34,238 primary schools, 30,427 don’t have power connections.

Similarly, 64 per cent upper primary schools don’t have electricity. Out of 17,726 upper primary schools, 11,421 schools don’t have power connections.

Among the 4710 high schools having primary and upper primary sections, 1023 don’t have access to power, said the minister.

Among the 5184 secondary schools, 20 per cent don’t have power.

To another question, the minister said out of the 53252 primary schools, including non-government schools, 39,635 don’t have playgrounds.