Ceiling plaster falls on students in school

At least four second grade students were injured by falling debris on Saturday as they were attending their class in a dilapidated building of a government primary school in sadar upazila.

The incident took place around noon at Dakkhin Chandukhali Government Primary School where chunks of plaster came off the ceiling of grade two classroom and fell on the students, said Sonia Sultana Koli, head teacher of the school.

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The injured -- Dalia, Arafat, Sumon and Rahat -- were taken to local medical facilities where they were given first aid for minor injuries, she said.

The single-storey building of the school, consisting four rooms, was declared unfit for use by Primary Education Office of the district and they asked the school authorities to move to a safer building a year ago, the head teacher said.

However, the school authorities had been continuing operations of the school in the hazardous structure as they could not arrange any other alternative, she explained.

The school is only 15 kilometres away from the district headquarters and it has 125 enrolled students, said sources, adding that no renovation or repair work had been conducted on the building since it was constructed in 1994-95 fiscal year by Local Government Engineering Department.

During a visit to the school this correspondent found debris of the ceiling gathered on the floor of the classroom.

Golam Mostafa, a guardian of a student of the school, said parents were worried to send their children to the school operating in that unsafe building.

The authorities concerned should take immediate steps for the sake of the children and reconstruct a building for the school, he added.

Saifuddin Ahmed, assistant upazila education officer, said the head teacher had informed him of the incident over cellphone and he asked the school authorities to move to a different location until the school building is reconstructed.

A list of hazardous school buildings had been sent to the higher authorities, including the Director General of Department of Primary Education, requesting immediate measures, said Hosna Yasmin Karimi, district primary education officer.