Shaky school building poses threat to lives of students

The Government Girls High School and Junior College located in the heart of Medak town bears testimony to the height of official apathy. A dilapidated structure, it is ready to collapse any time

​Medak: The governments time and again celebrate Women’s Day, Girl Child Day, Mothers’ Day and such to empower women in the country, while politicians leave no stone unturned to make big claims of the efforts they are putting in to make sure the government schemes are successful.

However, the ground reality seems to be far different from the hype being created. In reality, very little is done to at least protect the girls, let alone empowering them. The plight of the dilapidated building of the Government Girls High School and Junior College located in the heart of Medak town speaks volumes about the poor state of affairs.

The school building which was built in 1961, was inaugurated by none other than Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy, the then AICC president, who also served as the President of India from 1977 to 1982.

Even after five decades, the school still stands on the support of iron bars carrying the weight of the first floor sans pillars which was built on the ground floor, where the junior college is located.

Damp walls and water seeping into the walls of both the floors rendered the building vulnerable to collapsing at any moment. In fact, one of the rooms on the ground floor collapsed completely during the heavy rains in September. Even in another room, rainwater keeps tricking down into the classrooms where children are taught.

The reactive steps taken by the administration was to temporarily shift the girls into the Government Junior College for Boys, where they are being taught now. Some of the classes are still being taught in the dilapidated building.

During the Congress government, eight classrooms were built through Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan in 2010-2011 and another two rooms were constructed between 2013 and 2014. However, the strength of the girls’ school itself is 800 and accommodating them in those rooms alone is difficult.

Speaking to The Hans India, A Shobha, the headmistress of the school, said proposals for the same were sent to Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan.

When this reporter contacted Namdev, DE, Civil Works, SSA, he was not yet aware of the proposals, as he was just appointed in Medak. Krishna Reddy, In-charge District Educational Officer of Medak also visited the school and college and said proposals were in fact sent regarding dilapidated school buildings.

The girls’ school had achieved result of 100, 84 and 85 per cent in English, Telugu and Urdu media in SSC 2016 examinations, with the highest being 9.7/10 secured by Mufariya. The girls of the junior college also performed well, securing 92, 84 and 81 per cent respectively in BiPC and some of them securing above 80 per cent in MPC.

“The administration should first accommodate all the high school and junior college girls in some rented building until the integrated campus is built for them after dismantling the building.

If something unfortunate happens, the government will have to take responsibility of it. We will take it to the notice of the district administration,” said Sunitha Laxma Reddy, former Minister and former Chairperson for Women and Child Welfare Committee.