Caught between the Kendriya Vidyalay Sangathan and the district administration, scores of students of a centrally sponsored school in Tangmarg are distress these days. The school building was declared unsafe by engineers recently but no alternative space for running the school has been made.Nazir Ahmad Rather reports.
THE STUDENTS of this centrally sponsored school spend most of their time at their homes these days. The Kendriya Vidyalay school in Tangmarg was closed recently and all academic activities suspended after experts declared the building in which it was runnig unsafe.
Seventy students are enrolled in the school . Their parents allege thatthe school administration has failed to shift the school to a safer place. They are now threatening an agitation if the management fails to reopen the school soon.
“We are all set to hold more demonstrations if the school authorities failed to reopen the school within a week’s time,’’ saysAbdul Aziz Dar, a parent from Solinda Tangmarg.
“The school authorities directed us to temporarily suspend academic activities of the school once the engineers declared the school building unsafe,’’ says M S Sharma, the Principal of the school.Expressing helplessness he said unless a team from the Centre arrives for an on-spot inspection there is nothing he can do tp restart the school.
Blaming the district administra tion, the Assistant Commissioner of Kendriya .
Vidyalia Sangathan Jammu,S. Koul said that district administration Baramulla has not provided us the land for the construction of the schoolbuildingsince it was establishment in 2004.
Koul said that the theyare supposedto provide the academic assistance includingthe staff and their salaries while as the district administration holds the responsibility of providing the infrastructure for the school.
“It is the district administration’s responsibility to provide us the land for constructing the school. It is they who have put the career of students at stake.” Koul said.
People say that despite bringing this problem to the notice of the district administration and concerned MLA,they didn’t see any response.
The concerned MLA, GhulamHassan Mir said that he has already asked the Deputy Commissioner Baramulla to solve the problem of land allocation. He further added that he has asked the district administration to select an alternative building as a temporary arrangement for the school.
‘‘We wanted that students should not suffer academically, that is why we asked the school authorities to shift the school to some safer building till some solution is found,’’ said Mir.
However,parents of the students on the other hand claim that state government has already allocated the land near Ziran village for construction of a school building a couple of years ago. But the school administration refutes the claim made by the parents.
“We haven’t received any correspondence from the district administration regarding the land allocation,” said the Principal, M. S Sharma.
Students on the other hand say that they are left with very little time for the registration process.
“Theschool administration is playing with our future by not givingany clear answer regarding the opening of the school. We have already lost three academic months in the tussle between the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangthan and the district administration.Nobody seems concerned about our future,’’ says Shaista Shabir,a class 9 student from Kazipora,Tangmarg.
The students while expressing their helplessness say that they can’t take admission in other schools.
‘‘We can’t take admission in other institutions of the valley because our syllabus is totally different from their’s. Moreover, the subjects like Hindi and Sanskrit and are not taught inmost of the schools of the valley, ‘’saysSabia Rashir, another student.
According to her,there are onlya few schools run by the Kendriya Vidyalya Sangthan which are located in other districtsof valley where they could get the admissions but “it’s not practically possible because of these schools are very far from Tangmarg”
Many of the students have now been asked to approach other KVK’s in Srinagar and Baramulla so that they can continue their studies.
