Old school buildings in disrepair, no safety audit conducted

Vikas Sharma
Tribune News Service
Jammu, February 4

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Despite claims by the successive governments, no serious efforts have been made to conduct a detailed safety audit of the old school buildings, putting the lives of students at risk. Many government schools in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir are still functioning from rented buildings.

During a visit to a few government schools, students were seen attending classes in the open in the cold. While talking to some teachers, it came to the fore that no safety audit had been carried out by the authorities despite sending them a number of reminders.

“The school building was constructed in the 1960s. Since then, no new classroom has been constructed. In order to accommodate students, we usually combine 2-3 classes to run the academic affairs,” said a government school teacher.

“We have already informed the government about the poor condition of the school building and requested it to repair it but nothing has been done,” the teacher said.

“The school management has no funds for the repair and maintenance purpose. The yearly grant is between Rs 5000 and Rs 6000. We are also afraid to teach the students in the classrooms but we have no other option,” said another teacher of a government school.

The official figures also reveal the poor condition of the infrastructure in government schools. Around 0.12 per cent school buildings in J&K are in a dilapidated condition, while 6.99 per cent classrooms require major repairs. Further, of the total 13,175 government primary schools in J&K, 8,687 schools have their own buildings while 2,457 schools are functioning from rented buildings.

In the Jammu division, Rajouri district tops the list with 212 government schools functioning from rented buildings followed by Kishtwar district (142 schools), Kathua (91), Doda (81), Jammu (46), Poonch (64), Ramban (126), Reasi (101), Samba (14) and Udhampur (5).

In the Kashmir division, 355 government schools in Budgam district are functioning from rented buildings followed by Bandipora (248), Baramulla (241), Kupwara (246), Pulwama (119), Anantnag (83), Ganderbal (32), Kulgam (54), Shopian (192) and Srinagar (28). Of the total 8,140 government upper primary schools, 582 schools do not have their own buildings.

“In November 2017, the school education department had directed the Chief Education Officers to carry out the safety audit of the old school buildings in a dilapidated condition and phase them out in a time-bound manner but the process was stuck midway. Even the Ministry of Human Resource Development had in August last year issued an advisory to all states/Union Territories to conduct a safety audit to ensure the safety and security of the schoolchildren,” said an official of the school education department.