Where children’s safety comes crumbling down

Ishrat S Banwait

Tribune News Service

Panchkula, February 16

The primary school in Budhanpur village is enclosed by crumbling walls in a 42-year-old building. It is virtually a bowl of dust, thanks to its hard ground with no grass cover. Teachers inform that children get hurt everyday while playing in the ground and as a result head injuries are common.

Like most schools in Panchkula’s villages, lack of a proper playground forces children to play in a hard ground where a fall could prove hazardous. Whenever students play in the ground, especially during the recess, dust rises in the air making it hard to breathe without inhaling dust.

The building itself is very old and dilapidated with cracks at several places. A common feature in periphery schools is lack of space. To use up maximum enclosed area, a class is held in a room that was supposed to be a staff room as inside it is the way to a washroom. Lack of space forces classes to be held on the floor in corridors and lack of furniture forces many students to sit on the floor even inside classrooms.

Out of 16 posts of teachers, six are lying vacant and 650 students in the school make it tough to manage. The unguarded school has an open gate, which children use at their own will with chaos prevailing during recess time. Low boundary walls are scaled by students and residents of adjacent houses can be seen sitting right next to the boundary wall compromising the safety of children.

One block of the school was built by a private company as part of its corporate social responsibility and is in better shape than the rest of the school. However, the major part of the school is held in a dilapidated building, which is a constant risk for students as well as the staff.