Foolio Swingrum

Pulwama, Nov 22 : Government Middle School Lanzgund Branpathri in Tral area of South Kashmir’s Pulwama district is battling severe infrastructure and staff shortages, leaving students and parents deeply concerned about the quality of education being delivered.

According to locals, the school, upgraded to Middle several years ago, has only five teachers for nine classes, including Kindergarten sections, forcing the staff to manage multiple grades simultaneously.

With an enrolment of over 75 students, the pressure on the limited staff continues to mount.

The crisis does not end there. The school has just three operational rooms, which have been crudely partitioned using plywood and curtains to accommodate different classes. This temporary arrangement leads to noise and disturbances, making it extremely difficult for teachers and students to focus, the locals told the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO).

“Our children are suffering. How can five teachers manage nine classes? They are doing their best, but it is practically impossible,” said Abdul Rashid, a local resident.

One of the parents said that the lack of proper classrooms has badly affected learning outcomes. “Three rooms for so many classes are unacceptable. The partitions don’t help, students get distracted, especially the younger ones,” said Mubeena Akhtar, a mother of two students enrolled in the school.

Locals claimed that despite repeated pleas to the authorities, no substantial action has been taken. “We have raised this issue multiple times with the concerned department. Each time we are assured that more teachers and rooms will be provided, but nothing changes on the ground,” said another local.

“Teachers are committed to our students, but the shortage of both staff and classrooms severely affects teaching. Multi-grade teaching in such conditions is extremely difficult,” he said.

The locals have urged the School Education Department to immediately deploy additional teachers and sanction more rooms to ensure that students of this far-flung area are not deprived of their basic right to quality education.

They appealed to the Deputy Commissioner (DC) Pulwama and CEO Pulwama to personally intervene and mitigate the longstanding issues faced by the school.

They requested Minister for Health and Education, Sakina Itoo to visit far flung areas and tribal areas too as according to them she has been visiting plain areas only.