The Government School at Kirlawada, Chimbel, which has been upgraded to a high school, will have its first batch of SSC students pass out from the school at the end of this academic year.
However, the school continues to lag behind on the administrative and infrastructure front, besides several other problems that need to be addressed urgently so that the future of the students is not compromised.
In the first place, the school doesn’t have a headmaster and continues to be run by an in-charge for several years now.
Several teachers informed Herald that the appointment of a headmaster is the need of the hour for the smooth functioning of the school and overall improvement of the school.
They further informed that the school has only three assistant teachers who teach Maths, Science and Marathi to the secondary students, while rest of the subjects are managed by the primary teachers.
Herald also got to understand that the school doesn’t have a full-fledged science laboratory and currently, students are taught practicals in a makeshift laboratory.
“Of the ten computers allotted to the school, only two are in working condition,” remarked another teacher, highlighting the growing apathy of the government towards the school.
To add to the problems, the school has no administrative staff and the duties of a peon, a clerk and a laboratory assistant are handled by the teachers themselves. When this correspondent paid a visit to the school, the bell was sounded by one of the teachers.
When Herald tried to question in-charge Suzette Braganza over the issues, she flatly refused to answer any queries, stating that she is a government servant and is not allowed to speak to the media.
Braganza also refused entry to this correspondent inside the school premises stating that strangers are not allowed inside the premises.
Incidentally, when rest of the schools have adhered to the new timings set up by the Education Department, the timings of the Kirlawada School have remained unchanged and are unlikely to change in the near future.
Information revealed that the school conducts several classes of the primary section in the evening and if the timings of the day classes are increased, the evening classes will get over very late, thereby causing inconvenience to these students.
“If the day school timings are increased, the evening school timings will also get affected and the classes will get over at around 7 pm,” opined one teacher, while expressing fears for the safety of the students in light of several crimes against students in other schools.
“This predicament can be solved if the school gets another building and the evening classes can then be conducted during the day,” the teacher further stated.
