During the Question Hour at the Lok Sabha, HRD minister Javadekar pointed out that under the Swacch Vidyalaya initiative over 4, 17, 796 toilets were constructed across 2, 61,400 elementary and secondary government schools within 12 months from August 2014 to ensure separate toilet facilities for school children. He mentioned that about 13.58 crore children in 11.08 lakh government schools presently have access to gender specific toilets.
He also added that the States and Union territories have been instructed to ensure that all schools in the region, be it government or private, need to ensure gender specific toilets for kids, along with ample and safe drinking water at the premises.
Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), a programme for ensuring universality of elementary education in the country, started in 2001. Out of the sanctioned 3.64 lakh new elementary schools to be constructed, 3.59 have been completed, housing 18.41 new classrooms. On the hygiene front, water facilities to the tune of 2.41 lakhs have been installed and 10.34 lakh school toilets have been built. Recruitment has also been good with 15.47 lakh teacher vacancies filled from the total open vacancies of 19.48 lakh, till June 2016.
He said among the 51, 81,791 sanctioned posts of teachers, 42,74,206 posts have been filled. However, 17.51% of the sanctioned posts, totaling 9,07,585 vacancies under the program still remain open.