Students are being taught at the risk of their lives inside a dilapidated building in 63 no Ayeshabagh Government Primary School. The school is near the Bardar Haat Bridge in Aslampur union under Bhola’s Char Fashion upazila.
The plaster of three buildings of school is falling off while large cracks have appeared on various joints of the buildings. The students are attending classes in those buildings amid panic.
According to sources, 63 no Ayeshabagh Government Primary School of the upazila was established in 1973. The school constructed a semi-pucca building with 4 rooms in 1990, a one-storey building with 4 rooms in 2000 and a 2-room primary school cum cyclone shelter building in 2005.
There are more than 700 students including 485 primary and 233 secondary students studying in the school. The school has received approval from the Department of Primary and Mass Education for teaching secondary students of class 6 to 8 in 2014.
Visiting in person it was seen that the semi-pucca building has no doors or windows. Also the porch pillars are broken and the corrugated tin on the top also worn out several years ago.
The roof of the cyclone shelter has broken and the rods have come out in different places. As a result of which the building was unsuitable for teaching, the teachers built a fence with tin under the shelter building and taught there.
As the one-storey building is quite old, the roof tiles, pillars and plaster of the walls are crumbling. Older buildings are in danger of collapsing at any moment.
The head teacher of the institution Md Salim Ullah said the roofs, pillars and beams of the school buildings were cracked. Authorities have been told more than once to declare the buildings abandoned. Students are panicked as the buildings are at risk.
Also, according to the students, due to lack of adequate benches and furniture, old benches are being brought from the schools of the surrounding unions for classes.
Multiple parents of the students said, “Because the school is dilapidated and the slopes of roads and bridges are adjacent, we are more worried about sending the children to school than if there is an accident.”
In this regard, Assistant Upazila Education Officer Md Shafiqul Islam said, “We have sent the demand for a new building to the higher authorities for the school. Hopefully the authorities will take immediate action.”
