The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Students return to school without classrooms

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Tuesday, Jun 17, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Students return to school without classrooms

J.S. Ifthekhar

A whole block of nine classrooms of Mahboobia school razed

No official communication from the DEO on accommodating classes, says headmistress
High school has student strength of 600, while primary school has 500

-Photo: Mohd.Yousuf

Black Monday: Students of Mahboobia school wander wondering where their classrooms have gone on the first day of reopening on Monday.

Hyderabad: They came, they saw and they were shocked. That explains the plight of students and teachers of Government Girls High School Mahboobia.

When they returned to the school after the summer vacation, they were surprised to find an entire block of classrooms gone. A heap of rubble, broken beams and dismantled roof is all that remains.

Though the school reopened on June 12, it was only on Monday that students turned up.

Big challenge

And for the school administration, it is a big challenge to accommodate them all. With as many as nine class rooms razed to the ground during the summer vacation, the shortage of classrooms has gone up to 14.

The school authorities are having a tough time finding place for the children. The staff room, computer lab, science lab and library double up as classrooms. So is the veranda. The ground is turned into an open class with small clusters of children spread all over.

Somehow the show went off like this on Monday. But Headmistress Shahnaz Sultana, is far from happy. Her worry is how to accommodate the children who will be enrolling in the coming days. Presently the high school has a strength of 600 students and the primary school houses 500.

The talk of shifting the school has put the teachers and the taught in a quandary. “There is no official communication. The DEO has suggested accommodation of classrooms in the adjacent Girls Junior College or running the school in shift system there,” says Ms. Sultana.

The structure housing nine classrooms was demolished to build a three-storied centenary block for which the then Governor, Rameshwar Thakur, laid the foundation stone last year. However, the heritage status of the Mahboobia school is posing a problem to the Rajiv Vidya Mission which is executing the project. Although the demolished structure is not a heritage building, the removal of debris and bringing in construction material is not possible since it is engulfed by the heritage building.

On one side is the Stanley High School compound wall and only through it lorries can move in. “We are trying to take permission from the Stanley school”, says Ms. Sultana.

Total chaos

Authorities at the Mahboobia Junior College are yet to give their consent for accommodating the school classes since they have not received orders from the Board of Intermediate. Meanwhile, it is all chaos at the school with admissions in progress.

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