LAYYAH: Up to 173 students of the Government Boys Primary School, Chak 96-ML, have to sit under the sky as the school building has been declared dangerous.

Headmaster Syed Iqbal Husain Shah says the school was established in 1961 and its building was declared dangerous by the buildings department some 10 years ago.

“We’re being forced to impart education to 173 students under the sky,” he told Dawn. Due to the harsh cold, he said, more than 12 students were suffering from pneumonia.

This scribe visited the school on Monday and saw classes sit in the ground. The building has many cracks and the roof of the room had collapsed months ago.

Schoolteacher Ghulam Shabbir told Dawn those suffering from the pneumonia are Imran and Zonair (class 1), Bilal and Naeem and Nazakat Ali (class 2), Sajjad, Kamran and Shahbaz (class 3), Adnan, Azhar Mahmood and Hamza (class 4), Hasan Raza and Umair Husain (class 5).

Village lumberdar Ashraf Ali said buildings department officials visited the school some 10 years ago and stopped teachers from using the building.

He said he along with the headmaster and other residents of the chak submitted applications to the education authorities several times and the district administration but in vain.

Executive District Officer Hidayatullah Shah said they had demanded funds from the senior authorities for the reconstruction of dangerous buildings, and once funds were released, they would start construction of the building.

District pediatrician Dr Liaqat Ali says malnourished children have weaker immunity against the diseases like pneumonia, whooping cough, throatiness, flu and respiratory tract infections.

Published in Dawn, January 30th, 2015

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