CHANDPUR, Mar 05 (UNB): Students of a government primary school in Kachua upazila have been attending classes under the open sky for the last few weeks as their school building has turned dilapidated.
The building is now too risky to use.
There are 300 students and five teachers at the Govindapur Government Primary School situated in a remote village under Gohat union of the upazila.
The school building was constructed in 1993. However, it has now become dilapidated and too risky for taking classes.
Locals said the building has turned derelict within a short period of time due to poor quality of work.
They said the matter was brought to the notice of the higher authorities for several times but no initiative has been taken to either renovate the building or construct a new one.
Teachers had been taking classes in the risky building for the sake of students' future, said Shahinur Akter, headmistress of the school.
However, the managing committee of the school a few weeks back asked them to abandon the school building, fearing that it might collapse anytime, she said. "This has forced the students to attend classes under the open sky as no alternative could be arranged."
She said they will face a great difficulty in taking classes in the rainy season unless the school building is renovated or an alternative arrangement is in place for an interim period.
The headmistress said she informed the matter to assistant upazila primary education officer Md Monir Hossain.
Mohammad Selim Miaji, guardian of a student, said they are worried about their children as they were attending classes under the open sky.
Upazila Primary Education Officer AHM Shahriar Rasul said work on constructing a new building for the school will begin soon as a tender process is underway to this end.
He, along with UNO Nilima Afroze and other officials concerned, visited the school building on Monday.
During the visit, the UNO assured school managing committee President Jahirul Islam and locals of taking steps soon to resolve the problem.