UNB, Chandpur :
Although more than one hundred school buildings in the district have been declared abandoned and unfit in a recent government inspection, classes are still being held in the risky buildings.
Teachers concerned admitted that they fear the buildings can collapse anytime, but have no other way than holding the classes in the buildings as there are no alternative arrangements in the vicinities.
Quite often the classes are being held in the verandas of the school-buildings.
Rabeya Akhter, head teacher of Bolakhal Government Primary School in Hajiganj upazila, told UNB that their students are attending the classes in the dilapidated school building in great panic.
During a visit to the school, this correspondent found out that almost each pillar of the building was in a tottering condition.
The plasters on the walls and the ceiling are falling every now and then, complained the students and teachers.
Rabeya Akter noted that she has informed the higher authority about the vulnerable condition of the school building on April 28 last year, but received no response in this connection.
M Nazmul Huda, head teacher of Belcho Government Primary School in the same Hajiganj upazila, said the main building of the Belcho Government Primary School was also declared abandoned by the higher authority last year.
Since then, 350 pupils of the school are attending their classes in two small rooms with great difficulties, he said.
This correspondent also visited a dilapidated building of Olipur High School in the upazila.
Many cracks and crevices have developed around the entire building there, causing huge panic among the teachers and the students.
District Primary Education officer Md Akter Hossain said Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) in a recent inspection has identified over 100 unfit school buildings in the district.
“A fresh list of the dilapidated school buildings in the eight upazilas of the district is being made. The number of dilapidated school-building is likely to increase after the physical inspection,” he said.
Most of these school buildings were constructed by the LGED only 15-16 years ago – during the fiscal 1995-96.
