No funds for repair, students study in dilapidated school

Tribune News Service

Solan, August 23

With no funds having been provided by the state government to repair the crumbling Government Senior Secondary School (GSSS), Sanawar, the staff and students are under a constant threat. Colossal damage had occurred to the building in the last monsoon with gaping crevices having developed all over the building. Nearly half of the building has been rendered unsafe after huge cracks visible on its walls and the floor. This has forced the teachers to shift the students of class VI to a corridor where teachers face immense hardships while using the blackboard which has been placed on the floor.

Decline in student intake

• Colossal damage occurred to Government Senior Secondary School (GSSS), Sanawar, building last monsoon with gaping crevices developing all over the building
• Paucity of space has forced the management of the senior secondary school to use a portion of principal office and teachers' staff room for accommodating clerical staff
• Lack of facilities in school leading to a sharp decline in student intake. As against student strength of about 400 students here a few years ago, barely 148 students are left

In another classroom, lacking ceiling but having a tin sheet, each time it rains or in hail, the loud noise of rain drops, falling on the sheet, create a huge disturbance, making it difficult for the students to study.

With several rooms like the examination room having been rendered unsafe, the students have to sit outside for their exams. Another dilapidated room is being used as a kitchen where the mid-day meal is being prepared.

“The paucity of space has forced the school management to use a portion of the principal’s office as well as teachers’ staff room for accommodating the clerical staff. A portion of the informatics practice (IP) lab is also being used for this purpose,” said Dev Dutt Sharma, a teacher at the school. Though the state government is running information technology courses from class IX to XII, in the absence of repair and maintenance of 10 computers for the last three years, only two were operational.

The lack of facilities in the school was leading to a sharp decline in the student intake. “As against a student strength of about 400 students studying here a few years ago, barely 148 students are left,” said Vijay Kumar, another teacher.

The school building was constructed in the 1970s and the hitherto middle school was upgraded to a high school in 2006 and a senior secondary school having arts stream a few years ago. Apart from a library and a principal’s office, no new building has been added to accommodate the new classes.

Members of the school managing committee feel that even if two floors are built over the library, it will help accommodate a sizable number of students and help tide over the paucity of space.

Two science labs, which were constructed in 2017, are also facing the same plight and even its window panes had broken after a huge chunk of debris filled the room during the rains. As a result, students are forced to sit in the corridor of this lab.The teachers said that officials of the PWD had been requested to declare the damaged building unsafe, but to no avail.