How can I skip the class? I want to study and become a teacher.
Even 44.1 degrees Celsius - the highest April temperature recorded in a decade on Tuesday - could not deter Parveen, a Class V student of Rajakiya Kanya Madhya Vidyalaya, from attending her classes out in the open.
Heat wave conditions, which started on Sunday and will continue for quite some time, have prompted the Patna district magistrate to announce early summer vacation from May 5.
Heat wave or cold wave - nothing can change the fate of the 400 and odd children of two government schools in the city.
For about for hours - classes start at 7.30am and get over at 11am - they have to attend classes in a dilapidated building in Kankerbagh.
Both the schools - Rajakiya Kanya Madhya Vidyalaya and Rajakiyekrit Public Prathamik Vidyalaya, Lohia Nagar - are housed in the same building, making studies difficult for boys and girls up to Class VIII.
Komal Kumari, a Class V student of Rajakiya Kanya Madhya Vidyalaya, who was using her textbook as a fan, told The Telegraph that she has been studying with her classmates under the sky for four years. "I don't know when our trouble will end. For the past 18 months, we have not even got midday meal," she said.
Another student of the same school, Parveen of Class V, said: "Only last week, one of our classmates, Muskan, fell ill because of heat stroke. How can I skip the class? I want to study and become a teacher." Like Parveen, many students who are enrolled in these schools, have big dreams and a determination to face any eventuality.
Not only the students but the teachers too faced tough conditions. Eleven teachers - four of Rajakiya Kanya Madhya Vidyalaya and seven of Rajakiyekrit Public Prathamik Vidyalaya - face the odd everyday.
"The students are forced to sit outside as there are only two rooms - one is the office for two principals and the other is for students of classes I and II. The school put up asbestos in the corridor on its backyard to create more classrooms. Unfortunately, it fell down last year, injuring a child," said one of the teachers of Rajakiyekrit Public Prathamik Vidyalaya.
General physician Anil Kumar Jaiswal talked about several health hazards if someone spends hours under the sun. "Heat stroke is the major effect. It can prove deadly at times too. In this case, the regulatory system paralyses and the body temperature rises up to 106 degrees Celsius. Brain, the main part of our body, gets affected by heat wave," said the doctor.
Rajakiyekrit Public Prathamik Vidyalaya was founded 20 years ago and is run at a rental flat (No. 309) while Rajakiya Kanya Madhya Vidyalaya was shifted to this flat in May 2011.
Rajakiya Kanya Madhya Vidyalaya principal Sabhanand Sharma said the school was founded in 1971 and shifted to a Defence Colony flat (No. 5678) on the order of Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC). "On August 5, 1972, the PMC also sent a notice and assured a permanent and separate place for the school to run," he said.
Sharma added: "At Defence Colony, there were three more government schools used to run in an eight-room flat. In 2011, the PMC shifted the school to this flat."
Jitendra Singh, principal, Rajakiyekrit Public Prathamik Vidyalaya, said they were not suppose to construct, remodel or repair the building as the flat was allotted to a widow of a martyr of the 1972 Indo-China War. "We have written innumerable letters to officials of the PMC and education department for years. They only assured us but never took any action."
"The school does not have basic amenities like benches, chairs, black-board and water supply. Students are forced to sit on old tattered rag. To run these two schools, we need 10 rooms, including two more activity rooms," said Jitendra.
According to education department officials, there are 72,000 elementary schools in the state of which 5,000 run without their own buildings; they have been tagged with other schools.
The negligence on part of the government forced the schools to carry on in inhuman conditions.
Reacting to the pitiable situation of the students, education department principal secretary D.S. Gangwar said he would talk to the officials concerned regarding this and take appropriate action.
Education minister Ashok Choudhary said he would look into the matter and rectify the problems faced by the school authority and the students.
"Getting land in urban areas is a big challenge for the government. The department is making reports on all such kind of schools and we will come up with the solution in two months. All the crowded schools running without building or in dilapidated would be merged with the schools which have proper infrastructure," the minister said.
Heat wave
Tuesday was the hottest April day in Patna in the past decade (since 2006).
Heat wave was already in effect since Saturday and it was extended by another two days ending Thursday.
Ashish Sen, director, Patna meteorological centre, claimed that maximum temperature would increase by another degree on Wednesday and reach the 45-degree mark.
"The central parts of the country have warmed up, causing excessive heating in the neighbouring region as well. As a result, severe heat wave conditions are expected in central and western parts of Bihar, while rest of the state would witness heat wave," said Sen.
The Met chief added that entire Bihar would be in the grip of heat wave over the next three days.
