Education Department should have own construction wing, says minister Harjot Singh Bains

Shivani Bhakoo

Ludhiana, June 27

The issue of unsafe government school buildings still haunts everyone especially during this time of the year, when monsoon comes knocking at the region.

During his visit to the city yesterday, Education Minister Harjot Singh Bains admitted there were still over 600-800 schools which were not ‘unsafe’ but needed immediate attention. Bains said, ”We want to establish our own construction wing with some JEs, SDOs and XENs to assess the government school buildings so that we are not dependent on the PWD,” said Bains. He added these buildings will be repaired or reconstructed on a priority basis.

Meanwhile, District Education Officer (Secondary) Harjinder Singh said in case of an accident, the principal is usually at the receiving end. “Now as a principal or staff, we don’t know if the building or classrooms are safe or not. If these are in a dilapidated condition, we have to write to the authorities concerned and then a team from the PWD visits and assesses the situation. It is a long process,” the DEO added.

It may be mentioned here that during the last monsoon, a portion of the building of Government School, Baddowal, had collapsed and a teacher lost her life. It has been a year now, neither the building is fully complete nor the family of the deceased has got any compensation.

There are several government school buildings which are partially damaged or unsafe and need immediate attention of the authorities. Due to shortage of space and classrooms and where the student strength is high, at times, teachers have to accommodate the students in unsafe classrooms, which can prove fatal.