Take immediate steps identifying risky buildings

We take shelters under the roof for better safety and security. If those roof collapse then where will we go? Such terrific tension is following due to some many reasons.

A nine-year-old girl died in her classroom in Barguna's Taltali upazila as chunks of ceiling plaster fell on her. Following the incident, couple of other students received injuries. After the incident, same things happened in another primary school in Barguna. A good number of school goers narrowly escaped from casualties. Panic spread among people following these events. Students stopped visiting risky educational institutions. Even, classes are being taken taking life risk in some vulnerable educational institutions. 

Media reported that cracks have been found in two primary schools in Badarganj upazila of Rangpur. Few days back, it was known that school kids got narrowly escaped in a classroom when a huge size of chunk of ceiling plaster fell on them in Osmanpur government primary school. Not only Barguna or Rangour but also many school buildings and classrooms are in risky condition various areas of the country.

According to the information of Directorate of Primary Education, of the 65,000 educational institutions, over fifty percent new buildings have been built across the country already. Besides, the construction work of new buildings in many schools are going on. Rest other buildings are in serious risky conditions. Many buildings are declared abandoned. Moreover, some of them are made ready for taking class after repair works. However, there is no specific statistics of risky buildings.

The agitated guardians of the dead child Masura demanded that the building should declared risky in Taltoli. They also demanded that all the educational buildings across the country should make risk free.

Not only primary school level buildings but also the buildings of many secondary and college levels are in risky condition. Many buildings became vulnerable within few years of construction.

In a writ petition over death of the student, the High Court directed the authority concerned to conduct a survey in all government and private educational institutions. So that, the risky buildings can be identified easily. We expect immediate steps will be taken identifying the risk prone buildings. 

Enjoyable and safe educational institution is one of the main condition of better educational environment. Our Prime Minister talked about fearless educational environment several times. But, what is seen? There are still so many weak infrastructure or risky buildings in educational institutions. Especially, the environment in primary schools are not favorable. Question can be raised that - Were those buildings built properly? Did the authority concerned play their role accordingly during building construction? No one can avoid their responsibility in this regard.

We think immediate steps should be taken to repair the risky buildings identifying those. New buildings should be built demolishing the irreparable buildings. Side by side, surveillance should be ensured during building construction.


risingbd/Dhaka/Apr 21, 2019/Ali Nowsher/Nasim