Plight of city school smacks of negligence

By our Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, June 26: A higher secondary school that sticks out like a sore thumb in a posh area in the city makes many an eyebrow raised. The school has been in such a logjam that it has funds for development, but cannot do any developmental works just for lack of its own land.

Night Higher Secondary School situated in the campus of Guwahati Madrassa High School at Paltan Bazar in the city was established way back in 1955. The school was provincialized in 1976 and upgraded as a higher secondary school in 1993. It has seven classes from class VII to Higher Secondary. The students of the school are mainly from poor families. A section of students of the school works during the day, and as such they can attend classes at night.

The adjective ‘ramshackle’ is not enough to describe the very condition of the school building. The look of the school is a sheer example of words failing one. Water keeps sipping in from the perforated roof atop. The ceiling of the school has also been worn out badly. The ramshackle walls of the school building are soggy, so are the floors in the rooms. The school has six rooms against seven classes.  

The school does not have any toilets of its own for its over 100 students, 17 teachers, two office staff and a fourth grade employee. They have no way out but to use the toilets of Guwahati Madrassa High School. Nine of the 24 students who took the High School Leaving Certificate (HSLC) examitions, 2016 from the school came out successful.  

The school compound looks green with the growth of a carpet of grass thickly. A smart spell of rain is enough to inundate the school during the monsoons.  

The school authorities informed the authorities concerned in the government several times, but to little avail. The government does release funds for the school only to lie unused in banks. Since the school does not have its own plot of land, the school authorities are not in a position to construct any buildings.

The school has Rs 5 lakh in banks. This apart, in December 2015, the RMSA sanctioned Rs 20 lakh for the school. However, without its own land, where will the school authorities spend the amount for developmental works?

How come a school, set up way back in 1955 in the heart of Guwahati, cannot get a plot of land for its building even today? The situation in this particular case smacks of a serious sp of link between the department concerned and the school in the field. Night Higher Secondary School at Paltan Bazar in the city may be just one example. There is every likelihood of many such schools lying uttended by Dispur elsewhere in the State. Will the new dispensation at Dispur be able to bridge this gulf between the department and school authorities?