Sunshine or rain, students of this Doda school attend classes in open

Ranjit Thakur

Gai-Dessa (Doda), May 22

Over 100 students of a school in Gai-Dessa village of Doda, 30 km from the districtheadquarters, are forced to study in the open as the school has no building.

Established in 1970s, Government Girls Middle School, Gai-Dessa, has been functioning without a building for the past 10 years. It also lacks furniture for the students. Boys and girls at this school take their classes sitting on jute rugs placed over an uneven ground.

The staff and students say they face hardships as the school lacks proper infrastructure and building.

“We cannot study during the rain. There is no shelter to protect us from the scorching heat of the sun. It is difficult to concentrate during the long summer,” said a student of Class V at the school, who was taking his classes in the ground.

To add to the students woes, the school has no toilets. Students rush to relieve themselves behind the bushes in fields.

A local, Anand Singh, said: “We have taken the issue with the Ramban legislator, district administration and the school authorities, but no one is taking the problem seriously. Our children are developing skin and other related diseases, forcing us to stop them from going to school.”

“We have five teachers and 135 students, of which 60 per cent are girls,” said Nand Kishore, a teacher at the school. “A couple of days ago, a girl fell unconscious in school. We took her to a local subcentre and now she is under treatment. Nose bleeding and headache are the common complaints of students.”

“We have apprised the authorities of our problems, but nothing has been done so far. Some senior officials of School Education Department visited the site a year ago, but since then no one has visited the school,” the teacher said.

Chief Education Officer, Doda, Ajit Kumar said he had no information about any school running in the open in Doda. He said, “I will talk to the Zonal Education Officer.” The Zonal Education Officer, Bagwah, said the school building would be completed at the earliest.