Merging classes, missing teachers hamper Bandipora school’s progress

Bandipora, Aug 24: Education in the uphill village of Kudhara in north Kashmir’s Bandipora district has taken a hit.

According to locals and insiders, the school has witnessed upgradation at successive intervals from primary level to high school level.

However, the infrastructural crunch has been a headache for both the staff and the students.

The school, with over 300 students from KG to 10th grade, is scattered at two locations at a distance of around half a kilometre inside the village and the small staff of almost five has to manage both the buildings.

Locals said that the students also suffer due to staff shortages.

The school has a sanctioned strength of about five teachers, with one 3rd-grade teacher post allegedly being "nullified" or shifted, and one school official saying they were "not sure what happened with the post."

Moreover, according to insiders, the school has two general line teachers and three master posts, of which two are vacant, along with two RETs, one of whom is posted at Sumbal.

The school has no non-teaching staff.

Noting the dearth of staff, the concerned authorities had deployed teachers under rationalisation to the school a month ago, but after elections were announced, teachers were taken from this school too for election-related responsibilities, which again created a “crisis-like situation” in the school.

Students are also miffed now requesting “appropriate staff” be provided to the school.

Locals said that the higher-ups should ask for consent from the school while taking staff for election duties, as “we don't want students or the school to suffer”.

The headmaster of the school, Muhammad Abdullah, accepted that the "shortage of staff has been a problem."

He said recent rationalisation had brought some relief suggesting the situation is back to square one now.

In the building for KG to primary level, students are clubbed into a single classroom as the building has just three rooms.

The headmaster agreed that there was an infrastructure crunch saying that the higher-ups had considered the proposal to dismantle the old building and construct a new structure so that the accommodation issue would be taken care of for classes up to the primary level.

However, there has been no proposal to look for land to construct the school building in a single place.