Bengaluru: Until last Thursday, a day at this private school in the city followed its usual rhythm — classrooms filled with lessons, children heading out for lunch, and teachers going about their routines. Since then, however, the campus has taken on an entirely different character — Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) officials have occupied the premises for Special Intensive Revision (SIR) work, leaving the school teeming with members of the public.“We have a small campus. Our children have lunch outside the classrooms, on the stage. That is where the public is meeting with officials. Where will our children go? There has been so much noise on the campus that teachers are unable to teach and students are unable to focus in classrooms. We’re also worried about the safety and security of children, with strangers loitering around,” said the school’s headmistress.The school has 650 students, of whom 36 have special needs. “There are autistic, specially abled, and deaf and mute students in the group. They get anxious with the commotion around. We requested that SIR be conducted after school hours or on weekends, but officials told us that this might go on for the next two months,” she said.The school has now written to the election commission that the SIR work be conducted during non-school hours.Several other private, aided, and govt schools are in a similar fix. “SIR hearings began in our school on Sept 5. There are 12 booth-level officers sitting here. Around 50 people come to meet each BLO every day. Our school has four rooms, of which three are occupied by these officials. All our students — around 60 of them — are seated in the office room. This will go on till Oct 22,” said a teacher at a govt school in east Bengaluru.TOI has highlighted in the past the plight of several teachers recruited for SIR work.School associations have slammed the state govt for ignoring the needs of schools. “On one hand, there are no teachers available for teaching, and on the other, school infrastructure is being hijacked for other work. For elections, schools were taken over for 1-2 days by govt. Now, they are being taken over for months altogether,” said D Shashi Kumar, secretary of the Associated Managements of Primary and Secondary Schools of Karnataka.
