Letters to THE EDITOR: Waterlogged school - an educational emergency

sentinelgroup@gmail.com

When a school becomes an island and a classroom a refuge, education has already been pushed to the brink. Through the columns of your esteemed newspaper, I wish to draw urgent attention to the deplorable plight of Ganesh Nagar Shishu Vidyalaya in Basistha, Guwahati.

Every heavy shower reportedly inundates the campus with knee-deep water, forcing nearly 70 students from six classes to cram into a single usable room. With only two teachers at the helm, the situation is nothing short of calamitous. Lessons are disrupted, books and teaching materials are damaged, toilets are rendered unusable, and children are compelled to study amid congestion, dampness and unsanitary conditions. Repeated complaints and written representations to the authorities have apparently fallen on deaf ears.

This is not merely waterlogging; it is an insidious assault on the right to safe and dignified education. The administration must pull up its socks and act forthwith. The drainage system around the school should be scientifically overhauled, classrooms and toilets repaired, and adequate teaching staff deployed. A time-bound inspection by the Education Department and the municipal authorities is imperative. The school should also receive assistance for replacing damaged learning materials and safeguard their future without further delay. Children cannot be asked to weather the storm every monsoon while bureaucratic inertia holds the fort. Education must never be held hostage by rainwater. I urge the concerned authorities to wake up before another downpour turns this recurring ordeal into an irreversible educational setback.

Dipen Gogoi,

Teok, Jorhat