Srinagar: As per data compiled by the union Ministry of Education (MoE), only 17.16 percent government schools in Jammu and Kashmir have a functional computer facility.
In Srinagar district, nearly 60 percent government schools lack a computer, even as the district has the highest percentage of schools that have the facility.
As per the data, 41.80 percent schools in Srinagar district have computers.
In Jammu district, more than 70 percent schools lack computer facility, with only 29.80 percent of the institutions having it, the data says.
Reasi district of Jammu division has the least number of schools where computers are operational, with a meagre 8.86 percent institutions provided with the facility.
As per the figures, Anantnag district in south Kashmir has only 19.62 percent schools which have a functional computer.
In Kulgam, Shopian and Pulwama districts of the region, 19.14 percent, 22.88 percent and 21.70 percent government schools, respectively, have been provided computers so far.
In Budgam, Bandipora, Baramulla and Kupwara districts, only 18.98 percent, 16.50 percent, 13.18 percent and 11.18 percent schools, in that order, have computer facility.
In Jammu division, 11.14 percent schools in Doda district have functional computer services, 17.10 percent in Kathua district, 8.67 percent in Poonch, 10.58 percent in Rajouri, 13.21 percent in Ramban, 29.70 percent in Samba and 12.94 percent in Udhampur district.
The disclosure about the below-par computer facilities at government schools in J&K comes three years after the then state government in 2017 said that the institutions would be provided with “bare minimum infrastructure and staff”.
In 2019, the then governor, Satya Pal Malik, had said that “high quality education infrastructure” was being set up in the state.

Irshad Khan