At least six students of a private school today fainted due to heat and humid conditions inside their classrooms, located on the top floor of the building, in the Janipur area of the city. The temperature was above 40°C in Jammu today.
All the students who fainted were rushed to the Shri Maharaja Gulab Singh (SMGS) Hospital and given first aid. The condition of the students was stated to be stable. The parents of children slammed the authorities of Indira Public Higher Secondary School, Shanti Nagar, for “inadequate cooling arrangements” inside the classrooms and alleged that the school was playing with the health of their wards despite several complaints made to it on this account.
According to the school management, at least six students of different standards (Class IV, V and VI) complained of some uneasiness and fainted. They were immediately hospitalised and provided treatment.
The management, however, denied the allegations that there were no proper cooling arrangements inside the classrooms, saying that “ceiling fans have been installed in each and every classroom and the children fainted because of the prevailing heatwave”.
The parents, however, criticised the school management for playing with the health of their wards, alleging “classrooms on the top floor, having roofs of tin sheets, do not have proper cooling arrangements and even ceiling fans are lying defunct”.
“Our child told us about the prevailing conditions in her classroom which is located on the top floor of the building. We apprised the school management of it but they left the students to suffer in the scorching heat. They have turned a blind eye to the hardships being faced by the children,” a furious mother of a girl student complained.
She alleged that they were never allowed to visit the classrooms of their child on the pretext that it would disrupt the studies of students. “Immediately after receiving information from the school, we rushed to the hospital. No teacher was accompanying the students, which reflected the sorry state of affairs of the school,” she said.
Meanwhile, school principal Rishu Sharma countered the allegations saying “the school has all arrangements for the children and anybody can visit the school to have assessment of the situation”. She demanded that the Education Department should announce summer vacation in wake of hot weather conditions.
Heatwave: Six students faint in classrooms at pvt school
