Garbage dumped outside Loyola High School in Patna. Picture by Jai Prakash

Many schools in the city are struggling to keep their surroundings clean owing to the twin menace of encroachment and garbage strewn near the gates.

While students learn about health and hygiene inside classrooms, they come face-to-face with the stinking reality as soon as they step out.

At some places, makeshift tea stalls have come up outside the institute gates, while litter has made life difficult for teachers and pupils in other schools.

The co-ordinator of Christ Church Diocesan School, Avinash Dubey, said: “We are fed up with the encroachment outside our school. We are planning to beautify the outer premises by constructing a footpath but it is not possible. Heaps of garbage are found strewn outside the boundary. We have contacted the district administration but nothing has been done.”

Compounding matters is the menace of people relieving in the open, near the boundary north of the school gate, which houses the junior wing (lower KG to Class I).

Dubey said: “It is not possible for even the older children to bear the stench, how can the tiny tots be expected to bear it? I won’t be surprised if some kid falls ill.”

Mary Verghese, a teacher said: “Ours is a co-educational school and it is embarrassing to find people relieving in the open. Residents of the area dump garbage here.”

Other institutes like Loyola High School, St Paul’s Academy, Patna Collegiate School and others, too, face problems like encroachment on their premises or litter near gates.

A Loyola High School teacher said: “I have to walk down to school and the garbage strewn near the gate puts me off. The students complain of the filth and stench.”

Glenda Galstaun, the principal of St Dominic Savio’s High School, said: “It seems we live in a world of filth and seeing garbage everywhere has become common.”

She added: “Students who come cross the Gosain Tola area have to negotiate heaps of garbage daily.”

However, the civic authorities differed from the teachers’ claims.

Shashank Shekhar Sinha, the executive officer, new Patna circle, Patna Municipal Corporation, said: “As far as Christ Church Diocesan School is concerned, garbage is removed on a daily basis. Loyola High School does not come under my circle.”