Inconsiderate delay shunts kids at Sanganathan into tin-shed classrooms!

This 'stall' is class III at Sanganath Secondary School

A classroom of the primary section of Sanganath Secondary School

PURAN TAMANG
NAMCHI: When the primary sections students enrolled at the Government Secondary School, Sanganath, returned to school for a new academic session this year, they were directed to an establishment even more ramshackle than infrastructure imposed on students in rural Sikkim – a row of tin shed erected on the playground, much like the dusty stalls during a village fair. And it is sitting in these sheds that they continue to take their classes because an inconsiderate delay by the Human Resource Development Department has ensured that the primary section of the school, torn down because it had become unsafe, could not be constructed in time. The delay has still not been resolved, and one look at the stalls which pass off as classrooms here will send a shudder down one’s spine when one also factors in the monsoons which are on the anvil. Not only will this contraption be unsafe in the event of high winds and strong downpour, but the slush in the “classrooms” and the cacophony of rain battering on the GCI sheets will make even conversations between bench-mates impossible, provided, that is, that the structure can withstand the rain.
Quality education, if that is even a concern for the concerned authorities, escapes the school every day, sticking as irritating dust which the students return home covered in from school.

The school had enrolment of more than 325 students, and the temporary classrooms were constructed by the School Managing Committee when the promised new primary section building showed no signs of beginning with the construction work.
When this correspondent reached to the school and enquired on the oddity in the playground, members of the school management committee informed that the department had demolished the old classrooms because they had become dangerously unsafe.
The department, the SMC members adds, had assured to construct the new school building on a war-footing, but it has now been many months but there is still no sign of work even starting. Even the SMC members are worried about the approaching monsoons and realise that the present arrangement will not hold long.
When contacted, the Joint Director HRDD (South), Ganesh Chettri, said that construction aspects were looked after by the engineering cell of the Department and that the tender formalities for the construction had been completed quite some time back.
On being informed of the condition that the students at Sanganath were suffering, he assured that if this was indeed the case, then the Department would act immediately and manage alternative accommodation for the classes at the earliest.
The HRDD JE supervising the school building project, when contacted, confirmed that the work order for the construction had been awarded in time, but the contractor could not begin work in time because of delay in release of construction material from the department. This, he assured will be done soon and construction initiated.
Excuses are one thing, and delays, although common in departmental works, are inexcusable when it is the education, health and self-respect of the young one if dealing with. Now to see how the students are rescued from the present destituteness and how soon.