The hole in the classroom. Picture by Biswajit Ghosh

Burdwan, Dec. 27: Watch your steps. There is a gaping hole in the middle of the room. Plasters and cement chunks are falling off the ceiling too.

Welcome to Adarsha Primary School, in the heart of Burdwan town. The name hightens the irony: adarsha means “ideal”.

Three of the four classrooms of the school — located on the top floor of a three-storey building — have been kept locked for the past two years for fear that they might collapse.

The room in which the classes for the school’s 16 students are held has a yawning hole in the middle. The hole is so big that the children run the risk of slipping through it.

The roof of the solitary classroom is so brittle that it may cave in any moment, the students said. Class IV student Suman Das said: “Loose plasters fall off the ceiling frequently. There is a big hole in the classroom floor through which we can see the floor below.”

Even three years ago, the school, set up in 1974, had 100 students. But parents have gradually shifted their children to other schools because of its dismal condition.

Headmistress Chaina Pal, who is the school’s only teacher, said she would retire in March next year. “The school had four teachers, including me. But in 2008, two teachers took transfer and another retired,” Pal said.

She said the hole in the classroom had been there for two years. “I had informed the district inspector (DI) of schools (primary) and the primary school council but nothing was done.”

Pal, who is the headmistress for the past 34 years, said the school did not even have a toilet. The students said they felt frightened to attend classes and remained absent most of the time.

Basanta Adhikari, a van-puller, said he shifted his daughter Puja to another school earlier this year. “I visited the school one day after my daughter kept complaining to me about its ramshackle condition. I was appalled,” Adhikari said.

The ground and first floors of the building are, however, well-maintained. The first floor houses a tailoring school while the ground floor has a type-writing school and the office of the house owner.

House owner Subhas Chandra Banik, who deals in scrap iron and also owns a rice mill, said he used to get only Rs 130 by renting out the top floor to the school. He said that since 2002, he had stopped taking “such a meagre amount”.

Banik went on: “It is not possible for me to repair the floor. I have been telling the primary school council and the DI since 2004 to shift it elsewhere.”

Burdwan municipality chairman Ainul Haque said the top floor was unsafe. “I have told the primary school council and the DI to either renovate the floor or shift the school elsewhere.”