Jalandhar: Cracks appear in Lohian school buildings, fear grips staff, students

Aakanksha N Bhardwaj

Jalandhar, July 23

Whenever a student in a school of the flood-hit Lohian asks for the permission to attend to nature’s call, fear grips the teacher. Reason: Unsafe toilet with cracks on walls, cement falling off roof and sunk floor, which can lead to any untoward incident.

Some send students to their homes, if situated nearby, and others ask the school staff to accompany them. Plans are afoot to send them to a nearby gurdwara. Even making students sit inside rooms make them wary because of the horrifying conditions. Schools are lacking even basic amenities after floods.

The situation is worse in Government Primary School (GPS), Mandala Chana, GPS-Jania Chahal, GPS-Mehrajwala and Government Middle School (GMS), Mehrajwala.

While the attendance in these schools is thin, teachers say that looking at the situation of the school, parents are not willing to send their wards yet. In GPS-Jania Chahal, there are six washrooms of which two were old and the work on the rest is still to be completed and these could not be used.

“The students are using the old washrooms, which are damaged,” says Beant Kaur, head teacher, adding that she becomes concern whenever students go to toilet. Even the classrooms are not safe.

Deepak Kumar, a head teacher from GPS-Mandala Channa, says that he has to send children back to their homes when they want to go to toilet as it involves risk. The school has two toilets which are filled with sludge and both are not safe to use.

Also, due to a fresh spell of rain on Saturday, teachers in Mandala Channa made the students sit outside the rooms due to fear of room collapse, which is in a deplorable state.

The situation is the same in GPS-Mehrajwala and GMS-Mehrajwala where due to an increase in the water level, students are sent back to their houses early. “We will send students to a nearby gurdwara for the purpose,” teachers said.

Rooms in deplorable condition

Due to a fresh spell of rain on Saturday, teachers in Mandala Channa make students sit outside the rooms due to fear of room collapse, which are in a deplorable state