The Education Department has asked the Principals of Government schools to ensure that the students are safe during the rainy season. In a communication directed to all Chief Education Officers (CEO) the education Director, RK Kunwar has said that in order to ensure safety of the students, they should be kept away from unsafe classrooms during the rainy season. The Department has asked the Principals of the schools with dilapidated buildings to take special care of the students during rains. At the start of rainy season, the Department had also asked the heads of those schools where the students have to cross seasonal streamlets or rivers to come to the school to remain alert. These school heads have been asked to exempt such students from attending the schools during heavy rains. Such students would not be marked absent during rainy days. There are hundreds of such schools in Uttarakhand where students have to cross streams and rivers to come to the schools. In rainy season these streamlets and rivers become swollen due to heavy discharge of water. During the time of heavy rains such streamlets become very dangerous putting the lives of those who try to cross them at peril.
The dilapidated school buildings pose maximum risk to the lives students and teachers in the state. The data of education department suggests that buildings of 518 schools in the state can cave in anytime. An estimated ten thousand students are studying in these schools. There are 479 primary Government schools in the state which are running in dilapidated buildings while 39 upper primary schools are operational in such dangerous buildings. Apart from these schools there are 1241 schools in the state which require immediate repairs. The teachers and the parents of the students of these schools have sent many requests to the authorities to repairs and rebuild the school buildings but the Education Department sites lack of funds as an impediment.
Interestingly most of the primary schools whose buildings are in shambles are located in mountainous areas of state where natural agencies pose much bigger threat to the buildings than in plains. Tehri district with 117 dilapidated school buildings leads the table of such schools while Dehradun district with 84 such schools is at second position. Pithoragarh with 67 and Almora with 57 such schools are other two districts where the problem is more acute. Pauri district with only four dilapidated school buildings is at the bottom of this list.