Unsafe school building leaves children without classrooms for two years

More than two years after the structure of Taluk Dulali Rajkachari Government Primary School was declared unsafe, students continue to attend classes on the open veranda of a nearby temple due to a shortage of classrooms in Aditmari upazila of Lalmonirhat.

Teachers and guardians reported that the arrangement is disrupting the learning environment, while repeated requests for a new school building have yet to produce any result. Established in 1978 by local residents and nationalised in 2013, the school currently has 253 students, the third-highest enrolment among primary schools in the upazila, and six teachers conducting classes in two shifts.

According to school authorities, one of the school's two buildings was declared unsafe by the Upazila Engineering Department about two years ago and has remained abandoned since then.

The remaining building has three rooms, one of which is used as the head teacher's office, leaving only two classrooms for academic activities. As the school requires at least three classrooms to run two shifts, pre-primary and Class III students have been attending lessons on the veranda of the adjacent Taluk Dulali Rajkachari Durga Temple. Guardian Saiful Islam alleged that "Because the school is located in a remote border area, it receives little attention. Our children cannot study properly in the open," he said.

Temple committee president Lalit Chandra said permission had been given for temporary use of the veranda following requests from teachers and guardians. "However, maintaining the temple has become difficult as the children unintentionally make the place dirty. We urge the authorities to construct classrooms as soon as possible," he said.

Assistant teacher Sandhya Rani said "The children are easily distracted by their surroundings, which is affecting the quality of education," she said. Head teacher Abdul Mannan said several applications had been submitted seeking a new school building, while requests for temporary tin-shed classrooms also remained unanswered. Upazila Primary Education Officer Azizul Haque said proposals for a new building had already been submitted. "The previous project has ended. If a new project is approved, the school may receive an allocation. At present, there is no provision for temporary classrooms," he said.

Aditmari Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) Gunjan Biswas said he had visited the school and assured immediate steps to arrange temporary classrooms. 

"We will also inform the higher authorities to expedite construction of a new school building," he said.