By: Aabid Hameed
Pulwama: Painting a grim picture of the education sector, a school, situated in Tral area of South Kashmir’s Pulwama district is facing space crunch as well as the staff shortage, thus affecting the education of the students enrolled in the institute.
The residents of Gutroo area of Tral here have stated that Middle School Gutroo, which was established decades before is facing staff shortage and space crunch.
Manzoor Ahmad, a local resident said that around 120-150 students are enrolled in the school, which has just four rooms where they are being educated, thus resulting in immense hardships to them.
He said that for nine classes, there are just five teachers, which is taking a toll on the education of students, who belong to poor families.
A teacher, who wished not to be named, said that one can understand how students of two classes can be given lessons in one room simultaneously.
He said that the students mostly belonging to poor families are studying here but in absence of adequate staff and proper space arrangements, they are facing immense hardships.
Locals said that they have taken up this issue with the concerned higher ups several times. Recently, two teachers were posted here but unfortunately for just two days following which they got transferred again for unknown reasons.
They said on humanitarian grounds, the government must provide better facilities to the students of the locality as the financially weaker section is living here and they can’t afford to send their wards to the private institutions.
Headmaster of the School, Mushtaq Ahmad acknowledged that they have been facing problems due to space crunch and shortage of teachers.
He informed that even there is no space available for any sports activity, adding that for the sports activities, they have to take students to local Eidgah, which is around two Kilometers from school.
He said that he has informed higher ups in this regard several times but nothing has been done on the ground due to which the students as well as the teachers are suffering.
The locals as well as the teachers urged higher ups to look into the matter at an earliest and take immediate steps for the welfare of the poor students.
