Official apathy writ large at Zirakpur school

Satinder Pal Singh

Zirakpur, May 8

Government Elementary School at Bazigar Basti, Zirakpur, is being run from an unsafe building, which  even sans basic facilities. 

A shortage of infrastructure, cracks in walls and crumbling ceilings are a hallmark of this school, which makes it one of the classic victims of the apathy of the Education Department.

The school authorities have written time and again to the Education  Department in the past several months, asking for “major repairs” in one of its only two classrooms but to no avail. 

Built in 1975, the school building has developed cracks and has not seen any renovation, sources claimed. 

Not bothering about  the safety of over 200 students and the teaching staff at the elementary school, the state school education authorities continued to run this school from an unsafe building. 

A senior teacher on the condition of anonymity  said, “We have brought this problem to the notice of the Education Department earlier too and got photographs of the building clicked but repairs elude the school till now.”

The school authorities also claimed that during rain, students are shifted to a safer place to avoid any untoward incident. They said the leakage in ceilings made the situation miserablein a rainy condition.

Apart from this, the toilet facility for students here is still a far cry. Due to a lack of toilets in the school, students were seen using the toilets at Government Middle School, situated on the same premises.

When contacted, Bhagwant Singh, District Education Officer, Elementary, said, “The grant for the school building has already been approved and the repair work will start as soon as it is received. Toilets will also constructed on the school premises.”