Dilapidated school buildings

In a province where dilapidated buildings have already caused too many deaths — mainly due to heavy rain causing infrastructural damage — over 3,000 school buildings in Punjab pose an urgent threat to the lives of students and teachers. Despite repeated warnings, Punjab School Education Department’s failure to tend to this crisis reveals their abrasive apathy towards the safety of the people of Punjab, and especially towards tens of thousands of vulnerable children. After severe monsoon rains, these buildings have officially been declared ‘structurally dangerous’, with hundreds of government school buildings even harbouring waterlogged classrooms and exposed electrical wiring.

According to the PDMA Director General, 136 people have died, and 488 others have been injured as a direct result of these monsoon rains and the government’s failure to protect its citizens. Now, a hair-raising number of students are going to return to buildings declared ‘unfit for use’ and risk meeting the same fate — all in the simple quest for education.

The PDMA has urged citizens to avoid staying in such decayed building structures in light of the high number of casualties, but how are children meant to avoid schools? Almost nearing their end, students’ summer breaks have so far protected them against some roofs that have already collapsed. But the children are about to return, yet restoration work remains to be an untouched conversation.

While officials have revealed that the government has allocated special funds to rehabilitate flood-affected buildings, the practical implementation of those funds must be urgent and exhaustive. Waiting to watch school buildings crumble under the weight of rain must not be a risk the government should be willing to take.