RAHIM YAR KHAN: The buildings of 22 government schools in four tehsils of Rahim Yar Khan district, which were declared dangerous by the district education authority (DEA) in March 2024, are still waiting for action by the administration and departments concerned while the students are forced to attend classes in the open in inclement weather conditions.

According to a letter, dated 06-03-2024, the DEA chief executive officer (CEO) had informed the executive engineer (EXEN) Buildings Division about the dangerous buildings.

He also requested the officer to visit the sites, assess the buildings’ condition and send the technical report to his office for further action.

In the response of this letter, the EXEN without mentioning the number and date replied that a copy of the above letter was forwarded to the sub-divisional officers (SDOs) buildings sub-division No 1 Rahim Yar Khan, Liaqatpur, Khanpur and Sadiqabad for information and needful action.

The head teacher of Govt Elementary School, Chak 145-P, Muhammad Khalid, wrote a letter to the deputy commissioner/administrator district council on Oct 30, 2024, saying that the building of the school was 62 years old and the building department had declared it dangerous, saying it would be renovated.

He attached a copy of letter, dated 06.09.2024, by EXEN in which the rough cost estimate was Rs12.5m. The proposal was submitted for approval of funds from the authority.

According to the education department sources, no school declared dangerous was reconstructed nor were the funds released.

DEA CEO Tawakal Hussain told Dawn he had taken charge of his office some days back and he would reply after getting details of the schools but he did not reply till the filing of this report.

EXEN Buildings Nouman Salman told this correspondent that according to his information, no civil work for renovation was started yet but he would confirm it from his subordinate SDOs and reply later on.

Published in Dawn, November 9th, 2024