Closure of schools leaves 33 buildings out of use in Rajouri

Rajouri , Feb 13: As many as thirty three government school buildings in Rajouri district are lying vacant and remain unused. The district administration on Monday discussed measures for putting these buildings to official use.

These buildings are lying vacant as the schools located in them were clubbed with nearby schools due to absence of students in recent years.

Officials told Greater Kashmir that many government schools in Rajouri district have been closed in recent years as there were no students left or the number of students present in schools was less than two digits. 

They informed that the process of closing these schools was named as school clubbing. Due to clubbing, officials said, around fifty-five government school buildings became vacant, but some of these buildings were later used with Cluster Resource Complexes shifted in these areas and thirty four buildings were left vacant.

"Recently one of the earlier clubbed schools has been re-established as the number of students in the school crossed twenty five and now thirty three government school buildings are vacant," said officials.

On being contacted, Chief Education Officer Rajouri Sultana Kouser said that presently “we have thirty three school buildings vacant in the district.”

District Development Commissioner Rajouri, Vikas Kundal, chaired a meeting on Monday to discuss the optimum utilization of vacant school buildings in the district.

The meeting, officials said, was aimed to explore ways in which these buildings could be “repurposed to better serve the community.” During the meeting, the DDC directed the Additional Deputy Commissioners, Assistant Commissioner Revenue and Sub Divisional Magistrates to submit a plan for the housing of offices in these vacant school buildings at the earliest.

The plan would outline the necessary steps which would be taken to ensure that these buildings are effectively and efficiently utilized to meet the needs of the community, officials informed.  The DDC emphasized the importance of using these vacant school buildings for public purposes and ensuring that they do not remain unused.  He highlighted the need to identify areas of the district where there is a lack of office space and where these vacant school buildings could be repurposed to meet the needs of the public.

The meeting discussed the possible uses of these vacant school buildings including the establishment of public offices and the provision of community facilities.  The DDC stressed the need for a comprehensive plan that would consider all of these options and ensure that these buildings are utilized in the best possible way to serve the needs of the community.