SIALKOT, Feb 13: The teachers and students of the 47 schools in the district, which have been declared dangerous due to their dilapidated buildings, are compelled to continue educational process in risky conditions as they have no alternative arrangement.

As many as 168 buildings were damaged by the Oct 8 earthquake, out of which 47 elementary school buildings (41 boys and 6 girls’ schools) were declared dangerous by the district government. The respective managements of these schools were advised to shift the classes to some safe buildings to avoid any accident.

Most of these school buildings have developed cracks and have been severely damaged, posing a threat to the lives of the students as well as teachers visiting these institutions.

Despite repeated appeals by teachers and parents of the students, neither the federal government nor provincial and district authorities concerned have taken any steps to redeem the situation.

The teachers of a girls’ school say that they are forced to teach the students under the cracked roofs and inside damaged walls of the dilapidated school building, which could result in some accident.

EDO (Education) Dr Saif Ullah Cheema said that the education and the building departments jointly conducted a comprehensive survey of all the government educational institutions in the district, where buildings had been damaged by the Oct 8 quake.

He said: “We had informed the federal, provincial and distinct governments about the situation and were still waiting for further action.”