Jahangeer Ganaie

55 students jostle for space in a three room middle school in Pulwama

55 students jostle for space in a three room middle school in Pulwama
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Pulwama: A middle school in one of the Pulwama villages is functioning in just three rooms, with students and teachers crammed in the rooms and jostling for space.
Locals said that there has been no intervention from authorities despite that the issue being brought into their notice umpteen times.
According to the locals the Govt Middle School at Zahidbagh was established some thirty years back but since then it lacks infrastructure due to which students who belong to poor families and cannot afford to get admission in private schools are facing lot of inconveniences.
A teacher posted in the school said that the students of all the classes have to stay in just two rooms as one room is used as office.
“This is a very serious issue as the lack of space and facilities are telling upon the academics of the students,” he said.
Notably, the school has over 55 students and the staff strength is seven, however, the school lacks all the basic facilities including a play ground and drinking water facilities.
The teachers posted here have been demanding better accommodation and other facilities for the students but the authorities have been repeatedly ignoring their pleas.
“We had suggested raising a second storey on the existing one storey structure, but this demand too was ignored,” said another teacher.
Locals said that teachers are doing their best to provide quality education to the students but lack of basic facilities has marred the career of both the teachers as well as students.
They said that despite repeated requests to the concerned authorities, nothing has been done far.
On contacting Chief Education Officer Pulwama, Naseem ul Gani, he said that there is shortage of land which is the basic reason that students as well as teachers are suffering.
“We cannot improve the facilities in the said school as there is no land available to carry out the construction works,” he said.
“We have raised this issue with the locals who are being pursued to offer some land to the department and once the locals will provide land a new building will be constructed soon,” he said.


Jahangeer Ganaie

Jahangeer Ganaie is a reporter and covers regional news and can be contacted [email protected]

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