Waseem Ahmad
SRINAGAR, Dec 3: National high School Karan Nagar is facing shortage of space as four Government schools that were given shelter in the school after 2014 floods have not been rehabilitated till date.
The building comprises four Government schools-Middle School Chota Bazar, High School Zaindar Muhalla, Middle School Tenki Pora and Middle School Chenkral Muhalla, which were shifted after floods as they were functional in rented buildings.
As per the teachers of the schools, the building has been divided into five parts and it becomes difficult for them to administrate the schools due to lack of space.
They said each school has occupied their own classrooms, offices, staff rooms, mid-day meal rooms in the building, thereby left less space for each schools to function properly.
As per teachers, it was said that the National school building would be a temporary arrangement for them but four years have passed and government is yet to make any arrangement for them.
“The school was first a temporary arrangement for us but till date no efforts were made to sanction any new building for all the schools. We contacted the higher authorities to address the issues faced by the schools but no concrete step was taken till date,” Riffat Maqbool, one of the Principals of the schools said.
She said some funds were sanctioned for the renovation of the building but the renovation work was left midway, the reason best known to the authorities. “Even the funds for the renovation of the building were sanctioned but the concerned contractor destroyed the third story of the building and left it that way. He came for just two days, demolished the third story building and did not showed up after that,” the Principal said.
National High School being a private school was taken over by the government and merged it with Government High School Zaindar Muhalla nearly a year ago.
In the order, issued by the Secretary, School Education Department, it was also promised that there would be “continuation of utilization of services of the existing 11 staff members till they attain the age of superannuation”. But the fate of the staff is still hanging as they have not been paid for more than two years.
A teacher of one of the Government schools who wished anonymity said that the building has only about 10 classrooms that are functional as most of the rooms are either taken by the staff or used for other works like mid-day meals, sports rooms etc and some are under renovation.
He said there are about 48 teachers in all the schools and the total number of students enrolled is nearly 200.
Chief Education Officer, Srinagar, Mudasir Kalim Fazili, said that the school has enough space to accommodate these government schools and due to lack of availability of land or space, the schools have not been de-clubbed till date.
“As far as I know there is enough space in the building that several other schools can be accommodated there. I am not aware about the issue that there is less space. I will personally visit the school and look into the matter. The Schools were not de-clubbed till date as there is no land or space available in the vicinity of the areas that we can procure,” Fazili said
Regarding the taking over of National High school, the CEO said that it was the decision of government at that time and “we do not have any further instructions regarding their issues”.
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