Students of the unsafe Sarai School to be shifted

A day after HT reported about the dilapidated state of a government school's building in Rotary Sarai, where over a thousand students were forced to study in an unsafe condition, the UT education department sprung into action and decided to shift the students to neighbouring schools.

A day after HT reported about the dilapidated state of a government school's building in Rotary Sarai, where over a thousand students were forced to study in an unsafe condition, the UT education department sprung into action and decided to shift the students to neighbouring schools.

The education department has asked the engineering department of the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) to submit a report on the condition of the school building. Deputy director (schools) Chanchal Singh visited the school on Tuesday to check the status of its building.

Students to be shifted

Keeping the safety of the students in mind, the education department has decided to transfer the students studying at the Sarai School to the nearby schools of Government High School, Sector 11 and Government Model Senior Secondary School (GMSSS), Sector 15. These schools are currently operating in a single shift but will operate in double shifts once the students from the Sarai School are adjusted.

Confirming the development, director public instructions (DPI) (schools) Kamlesh Kumar said, "Our ultimate goal is to ensure the safety of the students. We will adjust the students of the Sarai School in the Government schools of Sector 11 and 15 which will then operate in double shifts."

Earlier in 2012, Panjab University (PU) in its report about the school had noted that the students studying there had a high risk of contacting communicable diseases as their classrooms were located very close to the rooms of patients at PGIMER.

The school authorities claimed to have complained about the weak infrastructure of the building to the education department but alleged that no actions were taken. School officials had written to the district education officer after the Nepal earthquake highlighting the poor condition of the school's building which was not in a condition to withstand tremors.

A team from the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) had visited the school last year and had slammed the officials for running classes in dark rooms.