QUOTING a report of the District Primary Education Office (DPEO) of Dhaka, a national daily said that WASA has set up seven water pumps on the premises of as many schools. One of them is on 1,080 square feet of land belonging to Suritola Model Primary School in Old Dhaka. Surprisingly, the authorities of privately-run Ramna Railway High School hold classes occupying the ground, the first and the third floors of Suritola School. On the other hand, a kitchen market is thriving on the lands of Ramna Railway Govt School. The Ansar and VDP forces have made a camp occupying a room on the ground floor of Hazi Mazharul Haq Primary School under Kotwali Police Station.
Meanwhile, in Mirpur, slum dwellers have constructed rooms on the eastern side of Khalilur Rahman Govt Primary School and another slum has cropped up on the premises of Sher-e-Bangla Govt Primary School. Some Biharis (stranded Pakistanis) have constructed rooms by grabbing 30 decimals of a 36-decimal plot belonging to Shahin Govt Primary School in Mohammadpur. Similarly, some other Biharis have grabbed around 20 decimals of a 26-decimal plot of Abdul Mannan Govt Primary School in Mirpur. Grabbers have constructed a tin-roofed house on the lands of Brahman Chiron Govt School in Demra. An influential person has built a five-storey building by grabbing 5 decimals land of MA Alim Govt Primary School in Sutrapur. Privately-run Bangshal High School authorities started using the classrooms of FKM School in 1988, following a temporary permission by the government, and are now claiming a share from the school lands, and even it filed a case in this regard.
Though the DPEO submitted similar reports to the Deputy Commissioner of Dhaka for recovering the school land and classrooms over the past many years but the grabbers are enjoying the verdict of ‘stay order’ by the courts.
The long-cherished goal of having a society free from the curse of illiteracy and the government’s pledge made before 2008 national elections to achieve cent percent literacy rate by this year will be a daydream as 54 state-run primary schools in the capital only are under the illegal occupations. Government agencies, private organizations, and politically influential people are responsible for the fading of the elusive dream; also the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education (MoPME) could not skip their liability for being reluctant to evict the grabbers. By grabbing the state-run school lands, the grabbers not only made it difficult to teach at these schools hard but also inhibited the constitutional guarantee of free education for all. This alarming situation of state-run primary education is forcing the kids of lower and middle income generation families to go to expensive private schools.
Certainly the occupation hampers the educational activities and deprives the children of the playgrounds. The government remains reluctant and the civil society remains ignorant to let the grabbers gobble the primary schools. When will the government take tough actions against offenders and enable safety for the state-run schools from grabbers? The job of the MoPME should be to evict these illegal occupiers forthwith.
