One room school—no infrastructure, no rent

Shariq Mohammad
Srinagar, July 22: Contrary to most of the government schools of the Valley—taken aback due to non-availability of infrastructure—government primary school, Budshah Nagar, besides being short of basic infrastructure the teachers here are forced to pay the rent of the school building as well.

Set up in 2003, the school is housed in a privately owned 10feet×10feet sized room which according to teachers is around the size of a modern day lavatory. This miniature room is used as a classroom for 20 students from six classes—KG, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th primary, Principal’s office cum staffroom and what is  even more  embarrassing is that the same room is used as kitchen.

The school has a single black board to teach students of six classes, several outdated chairs for the teachers and few jute mats for the students to sit on. However the teachers at the school claimed to have got some furniture manufactured on their own expenses but due to the lack of accommodation at the school this furniture is being put under lock in one of the godowns in the building.

Same as the most of government schools here, this school is short of a lavatory as well forcing the teachers and the students to use the temporary one put-up by the owner for the use of non-locals (Bihari), who have occupied the rest of the building.

Not exactly a playground however a small compound in front of this one-room school could have been used by the students during games break only if the compound was not taken up by non-locals to dump their equipment.

To make the matters even worse the teachers at the school claimed to have been paying the rent of the school building from their own salary.

“The government has fixed the rent as Rs 200 but the owner charges us Rs 1000 therefore forcing the only two teachers at the school to pool Rs 800,” Asmat Ara, Headmistress of the school told this newspaper.

Ara said that the owner of the building is not to be blamed, adding “It is owner’s kindness that he is allowing us to continue the school here at such a meager rent, who otherwise could have rented out the room to non-locals at higher rates.”

Ara said that the authorities concerned ought to have revised the rent keeping in view the rising inflation.

Given the lack of accommodation, the headmistress of the school said that she went to authorities many times asking them to shift the school either to a nearby abandoned co-operative building or to another abandoned government building in the vicinity.

The two teachers at the school who both claimed to be post-graduates said, “We cannot teach well when there is single black board to teach the students from six different classes.”

While terming lack of accommodation as the reason for the declining roll of students at the school, Muneera Jan, one of the teachers at the school said, “Earlier there were five students in 5th and 4th primary but lack of accommodation and facilities is forcing students to abandon studies.”

She added that now there are only 2 students in 5th primary and only 2 students in 4th primary.

She added that the authorities concerned should positively take note of their request of shifting the school to the proposed sites so that students would get sufficient accommodation and proper education.

Officials of education department were not available for the comment.

Add to: del.icio.us | Digg