Oldest government school in Nagaland’s Mon district may collapse anytime

DIMAPUR — The Mon district’s first government school in Wakching village is in shambles and the dilapidated building could collapse anytime as it has been left unattended for more than half a century, making it impossible to hold classes for students especially during the monsoon season.

Established in 1932, the Government High School in Wakching was upgraded to Government Middle School in 1945 and then to Government High School in 1958. This newspaper was told that the current school building was constructed in 1972 and has not been renovated or repaired since, thus leaving it in a deplorable condition.

In the video footage shared by the Wakching Area Students’ Union (WASU) president Temwang Angh to Eastern Mirror, on Wednesday, the ceilings of the school building can be seen hanging perilously, walls are dilapidated; in short, the building is in a sorry state.

Angh shared that ‘temporary posts have been used to support the worn-out wooden walls from falling’.

‘This morning (August 30), when the staff arrived at the school, ceiling of a classroom was found to have caved in, after which we were informed. The Government High in Wakching village is facing a major problem in infrastructure as its roof has been leaking for years during monsoon due to non-maintenance by the government. A joint verification was also conducted in April this year by the department,’ he informed.

The school building poses a risk to students and it is impossible to conduct classes during the monsoon season, he said, adding that they had to have classes either in the Mid Day Meal (MDM) room or in little safer rooms.

The GHS Wakching has about 10 rooms, including classrooms, kitchen and for staff, shared the student leader. It has 23 staff, including 13 teaching and 10 non-teaching staff, with 132 students from Class 6 and above as per the enrolment this year.

On the direction of Mon Deputy Commissioner, the SDO  Mon, Assistant District Coordinator Samagra Shiksha Mon, in-charge GHS Wakching and representatives from WASU conducted a joint verification of the GHS Wakching on April 20 this year.

As per the report of the joint verification, which has been shared with this newspaper, the wooden-structure building is still standing because of the support provided by temporary pillars erected from outside the building and that the structure could collapse anytime.

The ceiling of the building also may cave in at times as it is decaying due to roof leakage. The report concluded that the school building is in a debilitated condition and is unfit for holding classes for school children.

In April this year, the Principal Director of School Education had written to the Konyak Students’ Union president that “the process of issuing work orders will be initiated very soon and efforts for commencing the construction/strengthening works will be expedited”.

Informing that proposal for construction of a new school building had been repeatedly forwarded to the department, the GHS teacher in charge Dhrup Tiwari asked: ‘What if the ceiling caves in during the class hour?’

Tiwari and Angh also requested the government to take the matter on priority to avoid any untoward incident as the structure poses a threat to students and teachers.

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