Roof of heritage Darjeeling school offering Bengali as first language collapses

EOI, DARJEELING,  3 JULY 2023 : The rooftop of the classroom of the Maharani Girls School caved in on Monday, however no injury was reported. The accident occurred in the old building of the school, which is located just outside the town area in Darjeeling.

Fortunately at the time of the accident no students or teachers were present in the classroom. Headmistress of the school, Uma Devi Chhetri said the rooftop made up of wood crashed to the floor due to dilapidated condition. 

"Routine classes were being conducted when we suddenly heard a huge crashing sound. We then heard the children shouting and rushed to find the rooftop of class IX had collapsed," she said.

The headmistress said last Friday the class IX students had been shifted to another classroom located in another part of the building. 

"The classroom was empty, because we had shifted the students to another room earlier. We are really fortunate that no one was hurt," Chhetri said. The school was founded by the effort of Hemlata, daughter of Sivanath Sashtri, a Brahmo reformist ,in 1908. The school was funded by Maharani Sunita Devi of Cooch Behar and her sister Maharani Sucharu Devi of Mayurbhanj; and named Maharani Girls School. It was upgraded to a high school in 1911 and is the only school in Darjeeling offering Bengali as the first language.

However, with a little over 262 students from class V to class XII and lack of funds, the heritage building is seeing bad days. "I think a major painting work was done last in 2008; that too with funds collected during our centenary celebration. The old building where the accident occurred is not in very good shape," said Chhetri. The headmistress said the District Inspector of School has been informed about the accident and the need for immediate repair and renovation of the old building that housed the majority of the classes."

After three days, we will be on summer break. We have been told that there will be inspection and repair work," Chhetri said