Kulgam, Nov 08: Established in the year 1921 as Girls' Primary School, Manzgam, and now aGovernment Middle School (GMS)has just three rooms, making it hard for teachers to impart effective education. Later in 1969 it was upgraded to Middle School.
Initially, the school was functioning in a rented building with ample space having around 15 rooms but, as the government failed to construct a building for this old institute, they clubbed it with a nearby primary school Checkpora in 2017.
An official said that earlier a planned project of 6 lakhs was sanctioned for the construction of a five-room building. “The contractor who got the tender for its construction after utilizing around 3.20 lakhs, left it halfway and ever since then it is abandoned,” the official said.
“The construction of the new building started in the year 2007, but could never reach its completion. It was left abandoned, and the money utilized on it stands wasted,” Sajad Ahmad, a local, said.
Currently, the middle school functions in a three-room building with one room as a computer lab, the other as an office and classroom, and another as a classroom.
To accommodate the more classes, the teachers have divided the rooms by placing the lockers/cupboards in the middle of the classrooms to avoid the jumbling of students.
Interestingly, the institute acts as a cluster school and 21 institutes are associated with it. The cluster includes all private and government schools in the area.

The teacher said, “Some years ago, we had a roll of around 150 girl students, now it has come down to 55, as the school lacks space. We have been working hard in spite of all these issues, this year too we were able to enrol 16 students from private schools. However, within some weeks they left the school citing a space crunch as an issue.”

Mohd Ashraf Rather, CEO Kulgam said, the previously half-constructed building couldn’t proceed further after the contractor left it and the scheme under which it was to be constructed stands closed.

“We will be taking it in next year’s plan and hopefully will be able to construct its own building,” he said.