… school waiting for the additional structures 

Chimi Dema | Tsirang

Dagana dzongkhag  administration’s monitoring committee penalised two contractors for compromising the construction quality of a six-unit classroom building in Tsangkha Middle Secondary School on January 29.

The committee has directed the contractors to dismantle and rebuild the partition walls and reinforced concrete beams of the building.

Dzongkhag engineer Jamyang Dorji said that one of the contractors would also be imposed penalty as his site engineer failed in monitoring the work.

“This is according to terms and conditions that both the parties have agreed upon,” he said.

Jamyang Dorji said that the contractors have reported that the dismantling is complete. “We have sent one of the officials to the site to inspect,” he said.

Dagana planning officer Sonam Jamtsho said that the visit at the site was timely. “Otherwise, we wouldn’t have noticed the defect later.”

The dzongkhag took decisions in the past. Two contractors were penalised last year for poor construction quality of a school kitchen and office building.

Meanwhile, the project worth Nu 12.9 million for construction of additional structures in the school began in April, last year.

The school was upgraded to a middle secondary school with hostel facilities in 2018 and started class X only from the following year.

To ease congestion and accommodate more students, the project is constructing a 120-bedded hostel, a storeroom and kitchen besides classrooms.

At the moment, the school has two six-unit classroom buildings, two 64-bedded hostels, each for boys and girls and a few old structures.

Principal Tshultrim said that five classes are being conducted in the old structures.

To address the space issue at the hostel, the gewog administration constructed a semi-permanent hostel block in 2019. The hostel accommodates girls of pre-primary to class three.

Tshangkha MSS has 520 students. Of that, 314 students, 159 boys and 155 girls, are boarders. All students from pre-primary to class X  residing beyond 5km from the school are boarders.

The principal said that the number of students would increase as the school is yet to receive new students for lower classes.

“We don’t have enough spaces now but we will soon get additional structures,” he said.

With the school also hosting students who complete class VI from Largyab PS, Khebisa PS and Zinchila PS, Tshangkha Gup Tawla said that the additional structures would benefit both the parents and students of three gewogs.

“The students will not have to go far from home even if they study as boarders,” he said.

The construction work is expected to be completed by mid of this year.