<i>Kids attend classes amid risk in 'abandoned' rooms</i>
Students attend a classroom of dilapidated Kotchandpur Pilot High School amid risk of accident as cracks have developed in the roof and walls of the two-storey school building and plaster falls off the ceilings regularly.Photo: STAR
Kotchandpur Pilot High School has become dilapidated and students attend their classes amid risk of accident. Cracks have developed in the roof and walls and plaster falls off the ceilings regularly. The two-storey run-down building is now on the verge of collapse. Around 850 students, 25 teachers and seven employees stay at the school for five to six hours every day, taking risk of their lives. The school authorities have already declared 24 classrooms on the first floor of the building abandoned, fearing collapse of the roof. Plaster of ceilings of these classrooms has fallen at places, exposing the iron rods. SM Sultan, headmaster of the school, said studies of the students are being hampered due to shortage of classrooms. “I wrote to the authorities concerned several times, seeking fund for renovation of the school, but to no effect,” the headmaster said. Local lawmaker Shafiqul Azam Khan Chanchal, also chairman of the managing committee, said the school needs extensive renovation. “I am trying to collect fund for repair of the building,” he added. Kotchandpur upazila LGED Engineer Khairul Islam said preliminary inspection reveals that the school building is in very bad condition as steel rods are covered with rust and most of them have already lost their strength. The building needs immediate renovation to avert any possible disaster, he added. A school was built on 11.7 acres of land in Kotchandpur in 1899 by three Scottish businessmen. At the time of their departure, they handed over the plot to one Rawshan Ali of the area. Later, the plot was donated to Kotchandpur secondary school.
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