Getting education from ‘cradle to grave’?
Government MG Girls Primary School, is being run, in a ‘janazagah,Getting education, from ‘cradle to grave
Rawalpindi:It is hard to believe, but it is a fact that an academic institution by the name of Government MG Girls Primary School is being run in a ‘janazagah’ (a place for funeral prayers) along a graveyard in Ratta Amral.
The school-cum-’janazagah’ has no toilet and students have to go to the nearby graveyard whenever they have the need for using it. They also have to go to different houses in the neighbourhood for drinking water, as their so-called school has no such facility for them.
Talking to ‘The News,’ schoolchildren said that they were facing many problems on the premises. However teachers ‘luckily’ have a staff-room, but it is full of construction material for graves.
Schoolteachers Musarrat Riaz and Chand Nazneen said that students were facing great difficulties at the ‘janazagah’ because there was neither a toilet nor drinking water facility. Girl students have to go to the nearby graveyard for using its toilet. They also have to go door-to-door for drinking water.
According to teachers, previously the school was running in a private building but its had got it vacated about four years ago. They said that then the higher authorities shifted the school ton the ‘janazagah’.
The students have to brave cold weather because the ‘janazagah’ is an open place, they said. They said that the place is filled with construction material for graves and many a time students sustained injuries due to it.
District Education Officer (DEO) (Elementary & Primary) Mrs. Naseem Akhtar admitted that the Government MG Girls Primary School, Ratta Amral, is being run in a ‘janazagah’. She said that nobody was ready to give them a building for running the school, therefore, they decided to shift it to the ‘janazagah’. “We have to give holiday to the students whenever a dead person is brought here for funeral prayers,” she said. She said that the concerned school management has enough grant, but unfortunately nobody was ready for spending money on the construction of toilets and installation of drinking water facility in the school. “The whole situation is in the knowledge of higher authorities,” she said.
Talking to ‘The News,’ parents of schoolchildren expressed anger over the location of the school and said the government should shift the school from ‘janazagah’ to some other site in the city.
They said that it was the first example across the country that a government school is being run in a ‘janazagah’.The news
