Srinagar: A school building, constructed more than a decade ago for Government Middle School Habak on Srinagar outskirts, lies empty and abandoned, crumbling with neglect. The school administration is forced to hold all its classes in a single classroom owing to lack of space in the old building, where the school currently operates from.
In 2012, a new building was constructed for this 70-year-old middle school, keeping in view the space constraints the institution was facing. However, the structure has been abandoned after construction and lies empty, much to the annoyance of the general public.
Locals whom Kashmir Reader talked to said that the empty school building has become a safe haven for drug addicts and other anti-social elements.
“We have been moving from pillar to post, but to no avail. The authorities do not seem to care, given the fact that only students from the poorer section of the society go to government schools,” the locals lamented.
They said that the new building just needs some finishing touches and it will be good to host the school, putting an end to the woes of children as well as teachers.
At present, the middle school has more than 80 students on roll, but the building the school is operating from has only seven rooms. “One of the rooms is a staff room and another is a library, leaving 5 classrooms for over 80 students of 10 different classes from KG to 8th standard,” a source in the education department told Kashmir Reader.
He said that the teachers are forced to hold multiple classes in a single room, “and you can only imagine the state of education they impart at this school”.
Parents of students, teachers, and the students themselves have often approached the higher-ups and asked for redress of their situation. “The school was granted smart boards and other IT infrastructure by the government, but there is no space to keep these things and to utilise them,” the source in the education department told Kashmir Reader.
He said that the frustration is palpable among the teachers as well as the students, but there is nothing they can do about it.
Kashmir Reader talked to the Zonal Education Officer (ZEO) Gulab Bagh, Ghulam Hussain Lone, who acknowledged that the space constraints at the school were dire and needed immediate redress.
“I have visited the school recently and intimated the higher-ups about the situation. I am told some engineers have also visited the school and have taken stock of the situation,” Lone said.
He said that the funds originally allocated were for the construction of two extra classrooms, but the people in charge made a building out of it and exhausted the funds.
“Subsequently, there were no funds to carry out any other work on the building. But now that this matter has been escalated, I hope it will be looked into sooner than later,” he said.

Suhail A Shah