Audit Flags 525 Unsafe Rooms in Govt Schools

GURUGRAM: A school safety review covering 170 government schools across four blocks has described 525 rooms as condemned or in bad condition, according to education-department data released this week.

The schools sit in Farrukhnagar, Gurgaon, Pataudi and Sohna blocks and have been sorted into five status buckets: demolished, declared condemned, awaiting condemnation, files pending, and safe. Thirty-two schools have already demolished affected rooms or structures, 29 have been formally declared condemned, and 48 are awaiting formal condemnation. Required files have not been received from 42 schools, while 19 schools reported all rooms as safe. The review began last month and more schools will be covered as inspections continue.

Block-wise picture and next steps

Room-wise totals show 119 rooms already in the demolished category, 113 in schools where structures have been declared condemned, and 181 awaiting formal condemnation. Pataudi accounts for the largest share of schools in the demolished category, with 26 of 51 listed schools having cleared affected rooms. Gurgaon block has 47 schools on the list, including 10 declared condemned and 16 awaiting condemnation, plus the highest number of file-pending cases at 17. Sohna lists 44 schools, with 10 reporting all rooms safe and 15 still awaiting condemnation. Farrukhnagar has 28 schools on the list, including 12 already declared condemned, the highest count in that category among the four blocks.

Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan district project coordinator Sudesh Raghav said a tendering process would be started to remove condemned structures, after which new classrooms and other buildings would be constructed based on requirement. Inspections are being carried out in a phased manner across the district.

For parents in Pataudi, Sohna and the older Gurgaon block schools, the numbers translate into day-to-day questions about which wings are closed, where children are doubled into safer rooms, and how long temporary arrangements will last. Teachers' associations have for years flagged cracked slabs, leaking roofs and unused condemned blocks that still stand inside campus boundaries.

The tender-to-rebuild sequence matters. Demolition without a clear classroom replacement plan can crowd the remaining safe rooms. Officials say requirement-based reconstruction will follow removal. Until files pending from 42 schools arrive, the true district total of unsafe rooms may still rise as the phased audit continues.

State directions reported alongside similar Haryana school audits have pressed districts to verify and clear condemned structures on a fixed calendar. Gurugram's 525-room figure is large enough that parents' committees are likely to seek school-wise public lists, not only block aggregates, before the next academic planning cycle.

Head teachers have been asked to keep condemned rooms locked and marked so that students are not quietly shifted back into unsafe wings when regular classrooms overflow. Parent-teacher meetings in Farrukhnagar and Pataudi this month are expected to demand school-wise lists rather than block totals, especially where files are still pending from 42 campuses.

Budget lines for demolition tenders and replacement classrooms will decide whether the 525-room count becomes a rebuild programme or only a padlock exercise. Raghav's assurance that new buildings will follow requirement assessments is the commitment parents will track through the winter tender cycle. Until those contracts are awarded, the safe-room schools on the list remain the exception, not the rule, across large parts of the four blocks.