Unsafe school buildings in Chattogram
We have time and again cautioned against the perennial danger of unsafe classrooms for schoolchildren—a blight on the face of Bangladesh's much-vaunted primary education system. The latest proof that the authorities are not taking heed of this danger surfaced on Friday when The Daily Star reported that students of 346 government primary schools in Chattogram are being forced to attend classes in unsafe buildings. About a hundred of them, as an official of the district primary education office admitted, are not useable and may collapse anytime. The threat here is real: the death of third-grader Mansura in Barguna's Taltali Upazila in April is still fresh in our minds. The nine-year-old died when chunks of plaster from the ceiling of her classroom fell on her, which also injured ten other students. It was a tragedy foretold and hence totally avoidable. No one would like to see a repeat of that incident.
Unsafe buildings are usually a problem for public schools that have to navigate complex bureaucratic procedures to address it. Lack of maintenance and renovation, or finding a safer alternative through relocation, is an issue that the school cannot fix on its own, without an initiative from the government. After the Barguna tragedy, the High Court had issued a ruling asking the authorities why their failure to ensure safety for schoolchildren should not be declared illegal. Evident in the ruling, which by default extends to any such failure anywhere in the country, is a message that nothing that compromises the safety of schoolchildren should or can be entertained. The Chattogram education authorities must take note of the High Court ruling and take all necessary action to renovate the unsafe school buildings or relocate the students to safer places before another Barguna-like tragedy strikes.
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