Crumbling education sector:School of Architecture has three rooms, four temporary teachers

Srinagar Mar 9: Believe it or not, the School of Architecture in Kashmir has no permanent building, no designated classrooms, and only four contractual faculty members.

 Established in the makeshift campus at Abdul Ahad Azad Memorial College, Bemina, in 2017, the School of Architecture was recently shifted to small three-room rented building at Safapora. With an intake capacity of 35 students per batch, the school has currently 100 students on the rolls. 

For the last three years, the students have been left in the lurch with no one from the government coming to their rescue.  On Monday, scores of students held a protest demonstration at the Press Enclave seeking adequate infrastructure for the school.

Waqas Khan, one of the protesting candidates, said the school has been shifted to Government College of Engineering and Technology (GCET) Safapora. “One small block of GCET and lecture hall has been given to architecture school”, he said

Tarub Jan, another student said that they pay Rs 60000 fee annually but there is no infrastructure.  “The school is run by four contractual faculty members and there is no head or principal,” she said

Director Colleges, Mohammad Yaseen Shah said there are certain difficulties and they are in the process of developing infrastructure.

“The government has to follow certain norms for identifying land and other things”, he said

Meanwhile, Divisional Commissioner Kashmir last year directed the school officials to consider shifting the School of Architecture could to the vacated campus of CUK at Nowgam or Baghi Dilawar Khan.