The pictures of crumbling structure of Maulvi Tameezuddin Girls Primary School, New Karachi (Nov 19), is a glaring piece of apathy the department of education has displayed towards learning, as well as scant regard to the security of students.

M. T. Girls Primary School is having 300 enrolments, therefore under all standards is quite a big institute for the education of girl students. Unfortunately the roof of a classroom has almost collapsed, and the students of nursery are compelled to sit on the floor of the building corridor whereby the teacher is using a wall for the blackboard as shown in the photograph. Thank God that at the time of roof plaster collapse children were not in the classroom, otherwise many might have been injured seriously and some even would have lost their lives.

If a school located in the metropolis is without adequate furniture and its edifice crumbling with no government succor in sight, what would be the fate of those located in the far-flung areas of the province.

Like other government buildings constructed either by the public works department or through private contractors, school buildings also do not sustain long because of substandard construction. However, in the case of school it is not only the loss of national asset but at times crumbling structure take many precious lives, leaving the affected families to mourn for the rest of their existence.

The earthquake of Oct 8, 2005 took more than 80,000 lives in Pakistan. However, in that catastrophic event, the death toll of children alone was more than 17,000 while thousands were amputated because the entire public school buildings collapsed due to substandard material used in the construction.

The irony is that no finger was raised against those who were involved in the construction of school buildings using substandard material, which caused a colossal loss of lives and properties. Similarly, according to the provincial information minister, in the recent earthquake in Ziarat district 250 schools out of 255 were either completely destroyed or seriously damaged.

The photographs of the Maulvi Tameezuddin Girls Primary School are an overall reflection as to how our society considers security, comfort and the education of its future generation. I feel that not education alone but the buildings department and those contractors who are associated with construction work are equally responsible for such accidents.

Thus in the present case the engineer and contractors should be taken to task for jeopardising the lives of our youth. The chief minister and the education secretary have to look into the affairs of public-sector schools seriously so that children can get proper education in a well-secured environment.

ALTAMASH M. KURESHI

Karachi