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Setting fire to school: Take action against culprits

5 || risingbd.com

Published: 09:24, 31 January 2017   Update: 15:18, 26 July 2020
Setting fire to school: Take action against culprits

Education is the backbone of a nation and educational institutions play a vital role in building up the foundation of that backbone. Teachers dedicate their life to spread the light of knowledge in society and country. But it becomes a matter of great regret when those educational institutions are set on fire.

 

According to recent reports, unidentified miscreants set fire to ‘Gana Unnayan Academy High School’, a girls’ school located in the remote char area, at Kunderpara in Gaibandha Sadar on early Friday, putting the future of the students of the school into uncertainty.

 

The fire that originated in the dead of night burnt classrooms, office room of the school, teacher’s auditorium, library, furniture and valuables. Certificates of several hundred students who have passed JSC and SSC examinations, educational equipment and other valuables worth Tk one crore were gutted in the fire. The fire burnt everything in the school including 77 admit cards of examinees preparing for SSC examination and around 20,000 certificates of previous SSC and JSC examinees, to ashes. Among the 77 admit cards, 75 have been distributed among the students on Thursday and only two admit cards were not distributed as the students were not present at that time.

 

A farewell ceremony was held in the school for the SSC examinees in a festive atmosphere on Thursday morning. But that festive mood turned into a sad one on Friday morning. Villagers along with teachers and students of the school burst into tears over the fire incident.

 

Villagers think that the fire incident is a kind of sabotage. Miscreants have set fire to the school deliberately. Guardians of the students alleged that some local people were interrupting the activities of the school recently and some people were planning for another school in the area. Anyone of them might have set fire to the school, they alleged. Those who were behind the incident have done a very shameful act. This is an unpardonable offence.

 

The school was established in 2003, aiming to provide education facilities to the poor and unprivileged children of the char in the Brahmaputra River. The number of the students in the school is around 600. It is good to know that this year 77 students are expected to sit for SSC examinations from such a school of remote area. So setting fire to that school is totally unimaginable. Civil society cannot accept it.

 

There is no chance to undervalue the matter. This fire incident has created an obstacle on the way of taking the education of the people of the village forward. It is needed to investigate how the fire was erupted in the school. Stern action will have to take against those who will be found guilty after the investigation. Otherwise, the culprits may commit more major crimes.

 

Development of our society will be seriously hampered if exemplary punishment is not ensured against the culprits. Immediate steps should be taken to restore the academic activities of the school after repairing it.

 

risingbd/DHAKA/Jan 31, 2017/Ali Nowsher/Amirul/Augustin Sujan

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