Only 4 rooms for 9 classes, one washroom for 150 students
Irfan Tramboo
SRINAGAR, Nov 17: To the utter dismay of students as well as the locals, the authorities have forgotten the building of Government Girls Middle School in Wadipora area of Handwara in North Kashmir which still longs for completion despite the passage of nearly two decades.
The school has a roll of 150 students while it is currently functioning from 4 rooms even as ideally the school needs at least 9 classrooms to operate separate classes for the students enrolled.
The building was constructed way back 19 years ago and has been left in midway, without the laying of the slab and proper topping, while as the said subsequent contractors who took up the work abandoned the same forever not to be completed after that.
It has been learned that the higher officials of the administration have already taken note of the issue however, despite that the ground situation has not changed at all.
The matter has come to the fore when the School Education Department is holding enrolment drives across Kashmir to woo the parents to enrol their children in the Govt-run schools in a bid to improve the enrolment rate.
On the direction of the CEO, a committee was also formed to look into the matter, The committee has not done anything worthwhile as there has not been any outcome of the same.
Currently, the locals said that the students are suffering due to the lack of space. Even as the school has got 12 separate washrooms, they are all lying defunct in the absence of water supply.
“As of now, we have one washroom for the students of two schools; it is a common one even as the other washrooms are of no use,” Headmaster of Government Girls Middle School in Wadipora Manzoor Ahmad Bhat told Excelsior.
He said that he has been informing the superiors regarding the issues, but, as per him, no attention has been paid to the issues ever since.
However, on the official front, nobody is ready to take the issue seriously while the officials of the departments concerned are busy passing the buck to one another.
As per officials, the matter has already been discussed and it has come to the fore that the building was constructed by R&B and witnessed a change of contractors from time to time due to the complaints of embezzlement of funds. “There is also a vigilance case registered concerning the matter,” officials said.
Official wishing anonymity said that the matter is a bit complicated as the building was not constructed through the Education Department, rather, the funds for the works were allocated from the Block Development Fund and the work was then taken up by the R&B.
“The matter needs to be taken up with the concerned department to have the clarity, which has not been done as yet,” he said.
On the other hand, the locals said that the Education Department is these days carrying out enrolment drives, however, in view of no facilities at the Government Girls Middle School at Wadipora, “what are they going to show to people to persuade them to enrol their kids at the school; the higher-ups need to take note of the issue and get it resolved,” the locals said.
Follow our WhatsApp channel
