Death of three students highlights growing negligence at schools

The death of three school children in Cairo’s Matariya, Giza’s Atfih and the province of Matrouh has shed more light on the growing negligence at schools in terms of lack of periodic maintenance.
 
One of the students died when a glass panel fell from the classroom’s window on his neck; the second died under a collapsing school gate; and the third was hit by the vehicle carrying students’ rations.
 
But life dangers are found at other schools across the republic.
 
In the Red Sea province, 250 students at Hurghada elementary school are in danger every day at a shabby building annexed to the school for which a demolition order has been issued. The school’s board had approached authorities to carry out the decision, which stated that the building was near collapse.
 
Ahmed Mohamed Hussein, a member of the school’s board, says an inspection report submitted 20 years ago by the General Authority for Educational Buildings confirmed that cracks were found inside the concrete beams on the ground floor.
 
Taha Bekheit, who heads the Red Sea’s education department, says the implementation of the demolition order is the responsibility of the Education Buildings Authority, stressing that if the building was posing any danger to students’ lives it would be evacuated.
 
In Qena, observers of the educational process in the province have lambasted what they describe as “deliberate” negligence by the municipality at the city of Farshout, where officials failed to carry out another demolition order for Sheikh Khallaf Elementary School.
 
Some parents called for an urgent solution for the situation which endangers the lives of more than 400 students. Mohamed Al-Sayyed, one student’s parent, says citizens had submitted several memos to official authorities, noting that the absence of a wall surrounding the school had encouraged some farmers to herd their animals inside.
 
Abu Khalil Primary School in Shariqya’s Faqous has also been suffering disregard by officials, according to citizens. Ahmed Suleiman, one of the parents, says the school’s roof was made of wood, which is penetrated by high-tension power cables, something which he describes as “a genuine threat to the kids.”
 
The school’s headmaster, Ahmed Mansour, said that it was established in 1998 by citizens’ independent efforts, but was later joined by the educational buildings authority in 2000. Since then, he had sent several memos to officials at the authority to remove away the cables.
 
In Matrouh, 50 students in the one-class Saloufa school are in danger of falling in an open water well that locals use to store rainwater.
 
Sources at the province’s education department explained that the school is 45 kilometers away from the capital, Marsa Matrouh, adding it was established independently by citizens and lacks genuine educational services.