Visualize a dilapidated, old building having damaged walls and ceilings with plaster peeling off from them, broken doors and live, electric wires, hanging dangerously loose. If you are thinking this is the description of an ancient, abandoned structure, you are mistaken. This is a picture of one of the many school buildings in different parts of the state, whose poor condition pose potential hazard to the lives of children.
Even though lumpsum funds have been pumped in to promote Haryana as an educational hub, a large number of schools in the state are in a very bad shape.
In a startling revelation, it has been found that 18 government schools in Rohtak which is incidentally the hometown of Haryana Chief Minister, Bhupinder Singh Hooda were being run in buildings which had been declared unsafe by the authorities months ago. In addition to these 18, the officials are planning to declare three more school buildings as unsafe. Recently, a child had died when the walls of a government school collapsed on him in Jind district.
Sources maintained that though there are proposals for construction of new buildings, bureaucratic hurdles in clearing the projects are reportedly causing the delay.
According to information, most of these schools were established six to seven decades back when locals had collected funds to raise the buildings; the pieces of land were either donated by individuals or panchayats. The state government took over the buildings at later stages, which are now in shambles, literally.
The Government Girls Senior Secondary School, near the old bus stand in Rohtak, is figured among the list of unsafe buildings. A staff member in the school confided, Certain portions of the walls have collapsed in our school. A mishap can occur any day. Sources said that the school has a strength of 2250 students but there are only 12 rooms allotted for them. When contacted by TOI, Promila Devi, acting principal of the school, said, While eight rooms had to be abandoned due to poor condition during the monsoon season, we have no option but to use six other existing rooms while another six rooms were recently constructed. In the absence of space, the school started functioning in double shifts. She maintained that the earlier principal had taken up the matter with the higher authorities after which the proposal of a new building was floated.
The Executive Engineer of the PWD (Buildings and Roads), Jitender Mittal informed that after inspecting the school building, they had declared it unsafe some months ago and had written to the higher officials including the chief engineer, chief architect and other senior officials of the education department about the matter.
The pathetic conditions of schools in the state negates governments claim of giving utmost priority to the education sector. The state had increased the budget for education five times in recent years and allocated Rs 1406 crore for education, in 2010s planned budget. ToI tried to contact education minister, Geeta Bhukal, for her views. But she did not respond to the calls and her staff informed that she was busy in a meeting.
