Image of a School in Uttarakhand Wrongly Shared as One From Gujarat

The photo shows a government primary school's damaged roof in Almora, Uttarakhand, and is not from Gujarat.

The photo shows the condition of a government-run primary school in Uttarakhand.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

A photograph, seemingly of a school, with children sitting under a broken ceiling is being shared on social media with a claim that it shows the situation of a government school in Gujarat. The photo is being shared taking a dig at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in the state.

However, we found that the photograph is from Uttarakhand's Almora, and not Gujarat. As per news reports from 2018, the photo shows the dilapidated structure of the government primary school in Khatoli, whose MLA had written to the chief education officer of the state in 2016 to repair the structure.

CLAIM

The photo is being widely shared with a claim which reads, "Gujarat government just opened new Solar Power School. Thanks Modiji."

An archive of this tweet can be seen here.

(Source: Twitter/Screenshot)

The photo has been shared by several users on Facebook and Twitter. Some of the archived links can be found here, here, and here.

WHAT WE FOUND

We ran a reverse image search on the photograph, and came across a 2019 tweet by user Jagmohan Kaushal, who stated that the photograph was from Uttarakhand.

The user noted that the photo was from Uttarakhand.

(Source: Twitter/Screenshot)

Taking a clue from this, we looked for more details about the photo using Hindi keywords such as 'उत्तराखंड सरकारी स्कूल छत' (Uttarakhand government school roof).

The results of the search led us to a report by Hindi news publication Amar Ujala, which carried visuals similar to the photo being shared.

The small shed and mesh on the broken roof match in both visuals, along with green lines on the walls.

(Source: Facebook/Amar Ujala/Altered by The Quint)

This report noted that the government primary school in Salt, Almora in Uttarakhand had been damaged for a while and had a large hole in the ceiling.

Stating that the roof could cause an accident at any time, it added that the MLA of the area had written to the authorities in the education department in 2016, but repairs had not commenced.

Using relevant keywords, we looked for more reports on the school and came across a Dainik Jagran report published on 10 March 2018, which carried the same visuals.

Locals told Dainik Jagran that the classrooms often get flooded when it rains, affecting the students' education.

We also contacted a local reporter in the state who confirmed to us that the image was indeed from the Uttarakhand.

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