5th grader who wrote to PM gets new school building

Her wish has been granted and she is going to have a new school building.

The authorities decided to construct the building after Lamia Akter, a fifth grader at Dakkhin Gazipur Government Primary School in Pirojpur Sadar upazila, wrote to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in June last year.

In the letter, Lamia said her school building was in a sorry state and it turned hazardous. She asked why some 128 children, including her, would have to attend classes in such an unsafe building.

She also said the students had to clean their classrooms every day as dust fell from damaged walls and ceilings.

The Daily Star obtained a copy of the letter and ran a report on it with the headline: "Pirojpur schoolgirl writes to PM for new school building".

Later, the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education looked into the matter and found that the school building is in a dilapidated state. It appeared that the building might collapse any time and iron rods poked out at places.

Classes were being held at temporary tin-roofed rooms made with money allocated for repairs.

On January 27, the ministry approved the construction of a new building with five rooms for Lamia's school, which was established in 1975.

"Our field-level officers should have informed us about the matter before the child had to write to the prime minister. Soon after the news report was published, we decided to build a new building for the school," Md Akram-Al-Hossain, secretary of the ministry, told The Daily Star yesterday.

He also said the ministry was planning to build 60,000 new classrooms across the country.

"There will be no rundown school building at any primary school in the country by 2023. And by 2024, there will be no crisis of class rooms and teachers," the secretary added.

Contacted, Md Nurunnabi, senior assistant secretary at the ministry, said a cyclone shelter was needed to be built on the premises of Lamia's school, which has rivers on its southern and eastern sides.