UNB, Madaripur :
The students of Kamlapur Government Primary School in Rajoir upazila of the district have been attending classes in the open for the last one year, as the school building was declared abandoned after it developed cracks.
Sumon, a student of class III of the school, said the students had to remain in constant fear about possible collapse of the school building on them.
“We couldn’t give attention to our lessons as plaster often came off from the ceiling and sometimes hit students,” he said.
Nupur and Jesmin, both students of class V, said all of their classes are now being held under the open sky.
With the onset of monsoon, their classes would be frequently interrupted by rain, hampering their academic activities, they feared.
Some of the guardians also expressed bitter reactions to the situation disrupting their children’s studies.
Anupom Mondal, headmaster of the school, said Komlapur Primary School at Bajitpur union in Rajoir upazila, presently has 226 students and four teachers.
The school building was originally reconstructed in 1995 but several cracks were noticed soon.
The building was declared abandoned on June 3 last year after a chunk of the roof came off, seriously injuring a girl student and scaring her classmates.
The school authorities later pulled down the building’s east wall.
Since then, classes are being held in the school field.
“We have informed the authorities of the matter but no solution has come as yet,” the headmaster added.
So the teachers are holding classes in the open space. Sumon Baidya, an assistant teacher, said the school authorities have to struggle to take classes during the hot summer but their sufferings get worse during rainy or stormy weather.
Even the students’ books and important papers get soaked in a little rainfall and they get drenched, he added.
At such moments, classes are either to be closed or shifted to the library room of the cracked building where the students’ lives have to remain in further fear.
Every year, a good number of students from this institution get scholarship and achieve brilliant results in the public examinations.
But their studies are seriously hampered due to a scarcity of classrooms, teacher Baidya said.
Sumi Bagchi, a student of class V, said she was seriously hurt after a part of the roof fell on her, as a result of which she had to be admitted to Rajoir health complex.
Worried at the incident, many parents have stopped sending their children to the school.
Rajoir Upazila Nirbahi Officer Md Hayat-ud-Daula Khan and District Primary Education Officer Md Shahidul Islam informed UNB the school was declared abandoned after it had turned risky for the lives of the tender aged students.
Construction of a new school building will start soon, said the district education officer.
A project proposal has been sent to the higher authorities seeking fund allocation at the earliest for this, he added.
