New Delhi, Nov 26 (IANS) When education reforms are said to be a primary focus of the central government, a human resource development (HRD) ministry document has revealed that nearly 23,000 government schools are running under an open sky.

To be precise, 22,762 schools including 7,827 run by local bodies have no building, while 1,757 others across the country are running from tents.

Students in Madhya Pradesh are the worst sufferers as more than 4,400 schools are running in the open. While 3,424 schools in Bihar are functioning under similar conditions, the same is the fate of over 2,200 schools in Uttar Pradesh.

Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura are some of the states where no school is functioning in such pitiable conditions.

However, in Tamil Nadu 300 schools are running in tents, the highest figure among states.

The HRD ministry also said that there are over 813,000 government schools in the country of which 661,117 have pucca brick and mortar buildings. At least 97,479 schools are partly pucca and over 30,000 schools have kuccha buildings.

"Under Sarva Siksha Abhiyan, grant for major repair was given to 6,483 elementary schools during 2008-09," the ministry document said.

The central government has said time and again that it wants to improve school education.