2 decades on, Primary School Bagandar in Budgam functioning from one room
Budgam, October 02: Located around 15 kilometers away from central Kashmir’s Budgam town, Primary School Bagandar continues to operate from a single room from last two decades.
Thirty-five students are studying in the school, which falls in the jurisdiction of Beerwah zone, and all of whom are being crammed in a single room which functions as an office also.
Besides, a much needed building, the school also sans toilet, drinking water facility, playground and kitchen. “In absence of a toilet facility, we have no choice but to urinate behind the walls of school building and also no co-curricular activities are being organized for us,” said the students of Primary School adding “We are being served the mid- day meal in a dark room and also forced to consume contaminated drinking water which is being collected from a stream.”
“For five classes, comprising of 35 students, there is just one single dark room and only two teachers are posted in the school,” locals said.
Fayaz Ahmad, who teaches at the Primary School said, “We are facing immense difficulties while teaching the students in one single room that houses all the infrastructure of the school.”
The two teachers posted in the school said that they are taking almost 30 classes in a single working day.
Pertinently, the Primary School was established in 1993 and was upgraded to Middle School in 2011 but the decision was reversed after two years. “The middle classes were then shifted to High School Churamujra as it was impossible for us to adjust all the eight classes in one single room,” said Hafeez-ul-llah, who teaches at the Primary School.
When contacted ZEO Beerwah, Dilshad Ahmad Banday, he said, “The villagers are not providing suitable land for the construction of the building.” But the villagers refuted the claims of ZEO saying, “We ready to provide land for the School but government should compensate us for the same.”
When Banday was approached with the demand of the locals he said, “The school has been established under ‘Sriva Shiksa Abhiyaan and as per this scheme, no compensation can be provide for the land.”
When contacted CEO Budgam, Rouf Ahmad Shahmari, he said, “If villagers can provide us the required land, we will surely construct a building for the school.”
