Around 167 primary students and teachers had a narrow escape after a portion of the wall of a 59-year-old Zilla Parishad school in Pale-Boripada in Dahanu was destroyed due to the incessant rains on Wednesday night. Fortunately the school was closed for the day as the students left for home.
"The school has classes from Std I to Std VII in Marathi medium and is attended by tribal students whose parents are primarily peasants tilling their paddy fields. At around 10 p.m., the wall collapsed," said Vinayak Pawar a social activist from Dahanu.
"Had the incident occurred during day time, there would have been fatal incidents as small children aged between 7 to 13 year old students attend the school," said Pawar.
Meanwhile, Vaidehi Wadhan, President of Zilla Parishad, Palghar alongwith officials visited the spot to get a first hand information about the damage. "We have accommodated the students in the three other classrooms which have not been damaged and the school will run in two shifts : morning and afternoon so that the education does not suffer," said Wadhan.
"We will demolish the entire structure as the school is nearly 60 year old and build a new structure and we will also pull down another school in the same premises which was built in 2007 as a safety precaution and construct new schools after the monsoons and till then the school will run in two shifts," she said.
"It was fortunate the incident occurred during night time or else a huge calamity would have been in the offing as since many days there is a torrential downpour in Palghar district," said Wadhan.
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