JHANG: Students of the Government Girls Elementary School of Basti Diwanwali are taking their annual examinations in different houses of the locality as the school has been under four to five feet rainwater for the last one week.

The school where 450 students from grade one to eight are enrolled, has 16 teachers. The annual exams began on March 12.

Before the first paper, the rainwater turned the school building and the compound into a lake. It also inundated some houses of the locality.

The school administration with the local residents contacted the civic authorities such as the tehsil municipal administration and the district coordination officer for the drainage of rainwater but the authorities did not address the issue.

Now, the school staff has made different houses as examination halls.

According to parents and teachers, there is no chance of the resumption of classes in the school in the next few weeks if measures are not taken to pump out the water. Residents of Basti Diwanwali have expressed strong apprehension about the outbreak of epidemics because of the rainwater. They have appealed to the provincial authorities to take stock of the situation and direct the Jhang district administration to fix the issue.

Published in Dawn, March 16th, 2016