A committee tasked with investigating safety violations at a rented school for girls in Jeddah has found that the school building fails to meet 15 out of 16 required safety regulations. The committee found Saturday that the students at the 114th Girls' Elementary School were squeezed into poorly ventilated small rooms and kitchen with small exit doors, which posed safety hazards. They also had to contend with exposed and hanging power lines. About 30 students were jammed into one small kitchen area. The school headmistress had earlier filed a report with the Education Department in Jeddah outlining the poor conditions at the school and recommended the rental contract be terminated, but the proposals in the report had gone unheeded. An official at the department had allegedly forced the headmistress to write a second report showing that the building was safe for use by students and for the contract to be renewed for a sixth year at a cost of SR250,000. When the story first appeared in Okaz/Saudi Gazette, the female official at the Educational Supervision Center in North Jeddah asked the headmistress to deny the documented published report. But the headmistress refused to comply with an “unethical” and “baseless” order. “We don't accept such pressure to be practiced on headmistresses,” said Ahmad Al-Zahrani, assistant director of the Girls' Education Department in Jeddah. The department “fully understands” the authority and decision of the headmistress to have an ideal education environment for her students, he added. The headmistress said that the committee had a discussion with her about the deteriorating condition of the school for the safety of her students. The committee has all the facts about the school and the main office is responsible for replying to the published report, she said. According to Al-Zahrani, the engineer tasked with investigating the condition of the school building had approved the renewal of the contract without consulting the headmistress. The education department will make a decision on the fate of the school based on the committee's investigation, he said. Al-Zahrani paid a visit to the school on Wednesday where he saw narrow hallways and small-sized classrooms. “But the school has a plus, it has a large playground for the kids,” he said. “But with the increase of new government school buildings, we have a problem now finding good rented building for schools as landlords opt for longer rental contract terms, not only a couple of years,” he said. The Control and Investigation Bureau (CIB) is currently investigating the claim that an official at the Educational Supervision Center had pressurized the headmistress to repeatedly renew the SR250,000 yearly lease.
