Painting a dismal picture of student-teacher ratio in government schools in Delhi, the Comptroller and Auditor General has said government's flagship schemes like mid-day meals are also being marred by faulty implementation and finances.
In an audit, the CAG found the Department of Education suffering from a major manpower crunch, most of which was being borne by schools.
The auditors also reported a shortage of classrooms in almost half of the schools, delays in construction of buildings and a "deficient" internal inspection system.
The report covering the period from 2008-09 to 2010-11, found a pupil-teacher ratio of up to 276 in some of the government schools, as against a maximum of 40 mandated by the Right to Education Act.
The report also highlighted the faulty distribution of manpower in schools while pointing out schools without teachers juxtaposed by teachers without schools.
"As per the information furnished by the department, three schools were functioning with only one teacher and one school with 1,676 students was functioning without teachers whereas three schools had no students," it said.
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"Further, 106 schools were upgraded without allocating qualified additional manpower.... The Department lagged behind in providing adequate infrastructure to schools. There were shortages of classrooms in 61 out of 143 test-checked schools... Playgrouds were not available in 33," it said.
The audit also found "largescale" re-appropriation of funds, "some of them unnecessary", largely due to the fact that budget requirements were projected on the basis of past trends rather than actual current requirement.
The report, therefore, recommended that the department of education make better use of "its extensive web-based Management Information System for collection and maintenance of accurate and reliable data relating to financial and other matters". MORE