TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
MARGAO: They might have been given a temporary place in the Navelim government primary school a day after their school at Colmorod was embarrassingly locked by the owner over non-payment of rent.
But the ordeal of the students seems to be far from over, even as the Education Department has now promised to settle the rent issue with the owner by Friday.
A visit to the Navelim government primary school housed in the Rosary education complex revealed that students from the Colmorod school were all adjusted as a stop-gap arrangement, but the environment inside the classes was messy. Two teachers were seen teaching in one class and students could not comprehend what was being taught to them in the din and noise. In fact, a teacher maintained that both the teachers and students are put to great inconveniences because of the shifting of students from the Colmorod school to the Navelim school. The teacher pointed out that the attendance register and other items of the Colmorod school still remain inside after it was locked a day ago.
That’s not all. Given that the Navelim Primary school had no toilet facilities, the teachers had a hard time to take all the students to answer nature’s call along the road side.
When contacted, Deputy Director of Education, Ramkrishna Samant told Herald that the department is working out a solution to ensure that the Colmorod school re-opens at the earliest. “The department will clear the rent by Friday and will carry out assessment of rent renewal before approaching the owner to reopen the school premises,” Samant said.
On the absence of toilet facilities at the Navelim government primary school putting the students to great hardships, Samant confirmed that the school has no independent sanitation facilities of its own. He, however, hastened to add that the Education Department has discussed the matter with the Goa State Infrastructure Development Corporation to set up sanitation facilities at the school. “The toilet block for the primary school should take shape at the earliest,” Samant said.
