Students study in waterlogged classrooms in Patiala school

PATIALA: Rains have spelled trouble for students and teachers in the Government Elementary School at Bahadurgarh, Patiala. While students are forced to study in waterlogged classrooms, teachers stood on bricks to take their classes. The school has a total of 288 students.
The authorities have not bothered to act, even when students and faculty have complained about unsafe classrooms, wiring problem and chances of short circuit. Students and teachers alleged that wires pass through the wet walls which could prove fatal anytime. Around a year ago, the school got a RO system and a few benches for students after getting funds from Patiala MP Dharamvira Gandhi.

"We have shifted students of a classroom to another following problems in the wiring. We have informed the higher authorities about this earlier too. But this happens during rains every year. Water enter classrooms, but we cannot ask students to go home as we don't have permission for the same. Nothing has been done to drain out the water or tackle this problem of waterlogging in the classrooms," said a schoolteacher on the condition of anonymity.

"The walls are in a dilapidated condition. Importantly, the building and roads department had declared 10 rooms of the school unsafe a long time back. The school building is constructed before 1965. We teach students from class I to V in this elementary school," the teacher added.

Ashok Kumar, father of a student, said, "A few days back, my child caught fever after sitting in the waterlogged room the whole day, following which I did not send him to the school for a few days. Other students too have been affected by infections, viral fever or vector-borne diseases."

But all the pleas had fallen on the deaf ears as the government has failed to grant funds for the repair of government school buildings. There are over 200 schools in the district where classrooms need repair urgently. In Patiala, there are 946 elementary schools and 375 higher and secondary schools.

Patiala district education officer Kamal Kumari said, "There are committees at the block level and village level to look into these issues. There are number of other schools that need new classrooms as the older ones are declared unsafe. We have already informed the higher authorities about the unsafe buildings."