Damphu’s crowded classrooms
22 September, 2009 - Fifty-six students are crammed into a
one-storey 14 by 10 feet classroom. Five students share a table. The
room is so crowded that there is no space on the floor. This is a typical classroom in Ysirang’s Damphu lower secondary school, which faces an acute shortage of study space. There are 1,431 students and only 31 rooms. Even the school’s multipurpose hall is used as classroom. Class tests are held outside.
Most classes have no window glasses. Most ceilings have cracks in them. Classes leak during monsoons. Students complain of excessive heat, foul smell, headache and rashes. Teachers told Kuensel that they could not give equal attention because of lack of space and the sheer number of students.
A building with 12 classrooms next to the school is being constructed and this might bring some relief, say teachers. “Only the completion of that could ease our problem,” a teacher said.
But the building is far from complete. As of now, only about 20 percent is finished.
Principal Chuzang Norbu said that situation would worsen once the multipurpose hall and the adjacent academic block are dismantled for reconstruction. “There will be no classrooms and we’re thinking of working in shift system,” he said.
Except for the new administration block and an academic block for classes 7 and 8, there is no sign of any renovations in the 23-year-old school.
But the school hopes that by 2011, with the completion of two academic blocks, the classroom crunch would be solved.
