147 Delhi Government schools report they're housed in dangerous buildings

NEW DELHI: The principals in charge of 147 school buildings under Delhi Government have reported their buildings are “dangerous.” Considering that a sizeable section of premises have multiple schools running in shifts, the actualy number of schools housed in unsafe constructions is likely to be higher. 35 of these have been cleared for demolition and another 232 school-heads say they have structures that either have tin or asbestos roofing or use porta cabins.

Building in-charges -- heads of the morning-shift in case of double-shift schools -- reported the status in an online survey conducted by the Directorate of Education, Delhi.“Within five-six months, we intend to remove all tin and asbestos-roof structures and porta cabins and replace them with earthquake-resistant, semi-permanent structures. Our plan is ready but it also depends on the capacity of PWD,” says a senior DoE official. Appending the survey report, DoE has written to the Public Works Department which is responsible for all building construction and major repairs, requesting a “joint survey of the unsafe school building.” It has also asked that the executive engineers “be directed to submit survye report with reserves price in case of dangerous building for demolition or estimate for repair of the unsafe portion, if any to the head of school concerned suo moto to initiate online EOR (extraordinary repair) process.” There are 1,024 Delhi Government schools in around 712 buildings.
Of the dozen schools districts, North West B -- admittedly one of the largest -- has the highest number of school buildings with tin-shed or porta cabin structures. But there are errors in some of the data in the report -- the DoE letter to PWD warns of this too. The report says that Government Boys Senior Secondary School at Block KG I/II of Vikaspuri has 308 tin/asbestos structures and porta cabins as part of the school building. The number is actually 23. The remaining four classrooms are of the “semi-permanent” variety. “The structures are in a bad shape. There’s been a lot of correspondence, we were even cleared for demolition and an EOR request was also generated but no work has actually started. In summer, the 23 sheds get extremetly hot. We’d requested for at least double roofing and a false ceiling. But that hasn’t happened either,” says a senior teacher. The school has a roll-strength of about 700. Of the 39 rooms for its 1,078 students at the co-ed institution at Jaffarpur Kalan, 31 that have tin/asbestos roof; the report says 100.