Shopian, Apr 8: Mocking at the tall claims of the state government about infrastructure development of educational institutions in rural areas, the Government High School Kundhalan in South Kashmir’s Shopian district lacks teaching staff and other basic facilities.
 According to the locals, as many as 225 students are enrolled in the school, which is just five kilometers away from the office of the Chief Education Officer.
 “The school lacks adequate teaching staff and only five teachers teach the children studying up to class 10th,” the locals said, adding that the shortage of staff was adversely affecting the studies of students.
 According to a school teacher, they are doing every bit to provide quality education to the children. “Although we are trying our best to provide quality education to the students, but we are unable to do justice with our job due to staff dearth,” the teacher told Greater Kashmir on the condition of anonymity.
 Commenting on the issue, the students of class 10th said, “We have never studied all the subjects on any given day as the teachers are unable to teach them.”
 The locals said that despite submitting several representations to the concerned officials in the Education department seeking strengthening of teaching staff in the school, the authorities have failed to do anything substantial.
 Besides shortage of teaching staff, the school also lacks drinking water facility due to which the students face lot of difficulties.
 “The students are forced to drink contaminated water from a nearby Nallah because the school has no water supply,” Ali Muhammad, a member of the Village Education Committee told Greater Kashmir.
 “We took up the matter with the Education department several times, but the officials have been indifferent to our requests,” he added.
 When contacted, Chief Education Officer Shopian, Abdul Hamid Kumar said that he has relieved three teachers from an educational institution on March 22. These teachers were subsequently transferred to Government High School Kundhalan, he said adding, that the teachers hadn’t joined the school yet. He however assured that the teachers would join the school at an earliest. “The teachers will definitely join after completing some official work at their earlier place of posting,” CEO added.
 “There might be problem related to the shortage of water. Let the school management come to me, I will redress the grievance,” Abdul Hamid Kumar added.

Lastupdate on : Sun, 8 Apr 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sun, 8 Apr 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Mon, 9 Apr 2012 00:00:00 IST