Although the Bharatiya Janata Party led government in the state has given priority to boost and improvise on the education sector, the ground reality is that there are no positive efforts being made to achieve the mission for about four years. Hence most of the government schools are lying in a dilapidated condition in the state.
Herald visited the government primary and secondary school at Mangoor hill. The visit revealed that the building is lying in a pathetic condition. It has been noticed that it’s not only the floors and walls, but even the columns on which the building is standing have become weak. We also noticed that on three important columns, the structure has degraded tremendously and corroded iron rods are jutting out of the concrete structure.
“On what basis has the state government been talking about improving the education system in Goa? Instead of focusing on dilapidated school buildings, the government is busy prioritizing IFFI and other festivals by spending crores of rupees. When it comes to carrying out repairs on school buildings, the government suddenly has no funds. The school at Mangoor Hill is a life threat to the students and teachers who use the facility. How can the government achieve its target to increase enrolments when they provide such poor infrastructure for students?” questioned Vasco based Social activist, Preetam Keluskar.
Ironically however, this particular school has no issues with enrolment. There are about 550 students studying in the primary and secondary sections. To overcome the crisis of a lack of enough classrooms, the school runs in two shifts – morning and afternoon. Despite all of this, the government is yet to resolve pending issues and more importantly, the deteriorating condition of the school building.
“Stinking toilets, broken flooring, lack of a proper playground, falling cement portions from the roofs of classrooms, old broken benches for students and shortage of staff are a few examples of how much this school is suffering neglect. Our major concern is the poor condition of the building as we fear it may collapse at any time,” said a school teacher under the condition of anonymity.
Teachers, peons, students and even members of the parent-teacher association fear for the safety of the occupants due to the poor condition of the building. Sources at the Assistant District Education Inspector (ADEI) office at Vasco claimed that two years ago, the officer in charge at the ADEI office had written a few letters to the education department followed by several reminders giving details of the poor condition of the building. However, in response, the GIDC sent a team of officials to conduct a site inspection and to prepare reports including measurements for repair work to be undertaken. The file though, never got a logical conclusion.
Herald contacted headmistress, Vishaka Pusekar who said, “Looking at the structure, there is a constant fear that it may collapse at any time and that it is high time the concerned department initiates steps to the repair the building before it leads to a tragedy.”
