Broken boundary wall and windows, no toilet for students, dilapidated furniture and poor sanitation has been the story of Government Senior Secondary School, Tahli Sahib, for years.
Located about 15km from Ludhiana, Tahli Sahib School has a strength of 341 boy students and 27 teachers.
Yet there is not a single toilet for the students, leaving them with no choice but to relieve themselves in the open in the chilly weather. The two toilets for the school staff were declared unsafe two years ago.
“I have been a student here for three years, and the urinals have never been repaired. It is dejecting that the government doesn’t care to provide our school money to build toilets, forcing us to go in the open in the teeth-chattering cold. Why doesn’t the government care?” Karan, a student of Class 9, questioned.
“We are making do with plywood to fill up the holes in the walls in absence of windowpanes. It becomes difficult to focus during a lesson with biting winds blowing in. We don’t have any almirah for classroom supplies. The only almirahs in the school are placed in the science laboratory, that are so broken down,” Gagan, a student of Class 8, said.
A teacher, wishing not to be named, said, “Two classrooms in the school are unsafe for use with plaster of the roof peeling off. Cracks have appeared in the walls of two classrooms established in 1948. The school authorities repaired the walls in the corridors, and even some classrooms, but large-scale repair is not possible due to shortage of funds. The government must provide at least funds for toilets that are a basic necessity.”
School principal Manjit Kaur said the students and school staff were inconvenienced in the absence of a proper toilet facility. The Punjab State Power Corporation Limited had assured to construct five toilets in the school by March 31, she added. “A team of Guardians of Governance had visited our school recently. They were informed of all issues being faced at the school. The village sarpanch has assured to provide funds for repair of the broken boundary wall,” she said.
{{/usCountry}}School principal Manjit Kaur said the students and school staff were inconvenienced in the absence of a proper toilet facility. The Punjab State Power Corporation Limited had assured to construct five toilets in the school by March 31, she added. “A team of Guardians of Governance had visited our school recently. They were informed of all issues being faced at the school. The village sarpanch has assured to provide funds for repair of the broken boundary wall,” she said.
{{/usCountry}}On the poor hygiene on the school premises, Kaur said the school had not been alloted a post of sweeper. Therefore, they had hired a woman privately for cleaning, and were paying her Rs 2,500 from their pocket.