Chapter 10: School Infrastructure

10.1 Survey of current infrastructure

Tibetan schools have been in the process of expansion for over 30 years and most of the basic infrastructure for the existing schools seem to be in place. However, a look at the table below which shows the status of basic infrastructure and ancillary facilities shows that we still are lacking in vital areas like computers and Medicare facilities.

Facilities	Adequate	Inadequate	Lack completely
Classrooms	84.2 %	15.8 %
Library	68.6 %	13.7 %	17.6 %
Science Laboratory	64.9 %	13.5 %	21.6 %
Playground	71.7 %	18.9 %	9.4 %
Sports Equipment	71.7 %	22.6 %	5.7 %
School Hall	56.0 %	34.0 %	10.0 %
Musical Instruments	66.7 %	29.4 %	3.9 %
Costumes	67.9 %	24.5 %	7.6 %
Hostel	67.9 %	10.7 %	21.4 %
Urinals for D/S	80.0 %	8.0 %	12.0 %
Separate Girls' Urinals	73.8 %	14.3 %	11.9 %
Dispensary	51.9 %	11.1 %	37.0 %
Drinking Water	88.7 %	7.5 %	3.8 %
Boundary Wall	68.8 %	18.8%	8.4 %
Computer Lab	54.2 %	45.8 %

Table 10.1 Infrastructure and Ancillary Facilities

Some observations on Table 10.1

1. The figures are based on the feed back received from 55 Tibetan schools, which included most of the major Tibetan residential schools.
2. 17.6 % of the schools had no library at all. Another 13.7 % had inadequate library facilities, making it a total of 31.3 % of schools with inadequate or no libraries at all.
3. 34 % of the schools said that their schools auditorium needed upgrading while a further 10 % said that they had auditorium at all. However, half of these schools said that it was under construction or under consideration)
4. Nearly half the schools surveyed (45.8 %) had no computer laboratories

10.2 School Health Services

37.0 % of the schools do not have dispensaries. A further 11.1 % said that their dispensaries were inadequate, making it 48.1 % with inadequate or no dispensaries. Health care for children seems to be an area of concern. The statistics on school personnel received from Tibetan schools suggest a low priority accorded to health services. According to these responses, there were no resident doctor in any Tibetan schools, 19 visiting doctors (6 of whom were Tibetans) only 12 nurses and 7 other health workers in the schools surveyed.

The responses received from 1290 Tibetan student spread across 15 different schools also confirm the inadequacies in this area:

1. Less than half (48.8 %) of the students said that they get quick medical attention;
2. 39.8 % said that they get medical attention only sometimes;
3. 11.4 % said that they were largely unattended.
4. Annual or half yearly check ups seem to be lacking in many schools. A large majority of 63.3 % said that they get medical attention only when they are sick.

10.3 Fund allocation to Infrastructure Development

From the budgetary study of the four major school categories - CTSA, DOE direct run, TCV and THF Schools, nearly a quarter of all financial resources available in these school categories were spent on development of infrastructure.

10.4 Suggestions from school administrators

The opinions of school administrators on those areas of school infrastructure they wanted improvement, confirms the inadequacies presented in the table 10.1. The following areas were suggested by 19 school administrators. The number in parenthesis stands for the number of administrators who suggested improvement in that particular area/facility:

1. classrooms (4)
2. library facilities (6)
3. musical instruments (1)
4. fencing (3)
5. hall (3)
6. computers (1)
7. science lab (1)
8. hostel facilities (3)
9. toilet for day scholars (1)

Construction of classrooms at CST Paonta

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