‘Haven’t Used Toilet, Drunk Tap Water In Three Years’; Many Government Schools In Old Bhopal Have String Of Problems

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Students are suffering due to dilapidated buildings, damp walls, filthy toilets, slushy playgrounds and lack of clean drinking water in most of the government schools in the Bhopal Old City.

Even power and water supply to Government Hamidia Girls Higher Secondary School in Fatehgarh near Sadar Manzil were cut off for 15 days. Most of the students did not attend the school for this entire period. The school’s total strength is 250. Though power and water supplies have now been restored, other problems remain unresolved.

Some class-12 girl students of the school, standing in a group, told Free Press that they had joined the school in Class 9 but over the last three years, they had not used the school toilet even once. “It’s so filthy and stinking that one can’t even enter it,” one of them said.

To ensure that they don’t need to visit the toilet, they don’t drink water when they are in the school. “I would never drink the water stored in the cement tank on the school premises because I have never seen it being cleaned,” said another student.

A Class 8 student of Government Jahangiria Higher Secondary School said the school playground, paved with tiles, turns slippery during rains. Due to lack of proper drainage, puddles form on the playground. “We want to play football but can’t,” he said.

No classes are being held in a section of the building of Government Hamidia Girls Higher Secondary School No. 2, Phoolmahal as there is a risk of part of the ceiling collapsing due to rains.

“Once the rainy season ends, we will begin holding classes in this part, too,” said a school staffer. A student complained that the school doesn’t have a proper playground.

The entry to the Government Nirmal Meera Middle School across the road from Chirayu Hospital is blocked by vehicles of visitors to the hospital. “Yahan par gadi khadee karna mana hai. Shala bhavan mein jaane ka raasta hai.” warns a board in red letters but no one cares.