Catering to the wards of railway employees, Government Senior Secondary School, Jagraon Bridge, is an amalgam of mixed culture. Students with origin from various parts of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan and even Nepal who have shifted in the nearby Railway Colony on account of their parents’ transfer are studying in this school.

This school which started nearly 40 years ago was originally a ticket-collection centre with a few rest rooms for the railway employees such as guards and ticket collectors. Considering the need to start a school for the wards of the employees, the centre was converted into a primary school with building of the Railways and staff as well as furniture from the state government. The school was upgraded as a high school in the year 1981 and senior secondary school in 1996.

Unlike the other government schools of the district, this school runs in two shifts. The classes for senior secondary students begin at 7:15 am to 1 pm and for the primary students the school runs from 1 pm to 5 pm.

The major problem of the school is dark classrooms built in a haphazard manner. There are just four classrooms for students from classes VI to XII and the rest of the students are made to sit in covered verandahs that turn hot in summers. The teachers said that they had written to the railway headquarters situated at Ferozepore to improve upon the building to make it more attractive and make the atmosphere more conducive for teaching work. The teachers, however, expressed their satisfaction over the uninterrupted supply of water and electricity connection all through the day.

Since the school has students from various parts of northern India, the medium of education in school is Hindi. However, since Punjabi is a compulsory subject for all schools of the state government, students joining the school in different classes from places outside Punjab find it very difficult to pass the subject. Mr Nahar Singh, Punjabi teacher, said that many students taking admission in class X have to be taught Punjabi beginning with the letters of Gurmukhi and such students have to be worked upon in the language for the whole year to get them through in the subject.

Since the strength of the school is limited to just 250 students, the students of classes XI and XII just have humanities stream and no commerce and science streams. The class X pass out students who prefer taking admission to these streams have to then move out to other government schools in the area for higher education.

The students and staff of the school feel that they are a neglected lot as no new schemes are forwarded to them by the centre or state government. There are no vocational courses in the school, no computer education and no music classes. The school was listed under the National Service Scheme but that too has been withdrawn as the strength of the members could not be more than 80 and the state government wanted more than 100 volunteers to be enrolled every year. Earlier the students used to take part in blood donation programmes and polio immunisation camps under the programme but they do not participate any more.

Toilets are another problem in the school as they remain blocked at all times. The school also does not have any ground where they can play. However, their sports in charge takes selected students out to a nearby Railway Club where they practise judo and basketball. Poonam, a class VI of the school, has won second prize in judo at the district level games. Amit, Trikesh and Inderjeet played mini basketball and won third prizes at the district level. Ms Mahinder Kaur Chawla, who has been teaching in the school for the past 28 years, received a state award in the year 1997 and national award in the next year.

Mr Puri said that this was the reason why the school could not increase its strength for the past few years. He said that in this techno-savvy world, all parents wanted their kids to be computer literate right from the school level. Therefore, they preferred their children to study in private schools or few other government schools with computer facilities or vocational education.

Mr Puri said that a majority of students he was getting were either from class IV employees of the Railways or those dropped from other schools for their poor results. He said that sheer hard work and dedication of his staff led to overall improvement in such students. The officiating principal said that unlike other government schools, he did not face any problem of staff shortage as no post of teacher was vacant in his school.

Mr Puri, like his staff and students, raised his voice on the need to improve upon the structure of his building. He said that the entire building required renovation and pucca construction. He said that several rooms, including laboratory, had kucha ceilings. He, however, said that the matter was under consideration of the Raliway authorities and some decision on it might come soon.

Mr Puri said that last year an eco-club was formed in the school in which 25 students were made members. The charge for it had been given to Mr Baldev Krishan, mathematics teacher, who attended the state level workshop at Chandigarh and was appointed the guiding teacher for the entire district. — DK