Walls with paint chipping off, wires hanging outside windows, sparking safety concerns, only two small classrooms for over 100 students and one teacher’s cabin — it does not take a hard look at this Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD)-run Urdu medium school in Bulbuli Khana in Old Delhi’s Sita Ram Bazar to gauge the poor infrastructure. It is one of the four Urdu-medium schools in the area, reeling under similar conditions.In one of the classrooms, students from different grades sit on their designated benches. Rows one and two are marked for first and second-grade students, while the third row is for nursery and kindergarten students. “I give the assignment to students from lower grades in their notebooks. I have to divide the blackboard and teach them,” said a staff member.Apart from inadequate infrastructure, the school also suffers from staff shortage. There is no principal — a teacher and a special educator are compelled to cater to all the students and handle administrative tasks. “I’m teaching every subject from nursery to the third grade. I’m also responsible for maintaining attendance, preparing monthly status reports, managing mid-day meals, and handling the IT desk….and I don’t get paid for all that,” the staff member added.Poor pupil-to-teacher (PTR) ratio is an issue prevailing across schools in the Sita Ram Bazar ward. A few lanes away, in Lambi Gali, another school is grappling with a shortage of Urdu teachers. “The teachers for Urdu are hired on a contract basis. The last hiring for a permanent teacher was done in 2016, but that was for Hindi teachers, and they are unable to teach Urdu,” said a staff member.The lack of Urdu teachers has taken a toll on the performance of the students. “They can’t teach higher classes, because the books are in Urdu, and the overall result gets affected,” a source added.Parents, too, are unhappy. A mother of a boy enrolled in Class 3 said, “I teach him at home and can figure out that he is struggling to read and write Urdu.”While the textbooks are in Urdu, she said, the worksheets are in Hindi, because of which the student gets confused. “It’s hard to translate, neither is he getting fluent in Hindi nor Urdu.”Story continues below this adResponding to this, a teacher said, “We try and translate as much material into Urdu as possible, but due to a shortage of staff, it gets difficult.”The mother of another Class 3 student echoed similar concerns. “It becomes difficult to teach at home, since he is not learning much here.”Meanwhile, an Urdu teacher alleged that the MCD has neither regularised staff nor has it released vacancies since 2010. “If there is a shortage, why don’t they issue vacancies or regularise the temporary staff?” the teacher questioned.The school, with a strength of 450 students, employs only seven teachers. This does not comply with the RTE Act, 2009, which specifies a pupil-teacher ratio (PTR) of 30:1 for primary schools.Story continues below this adAn MCD official said, “Earlier, we had sent a demand for primary teachers to the Delhi Subordinate Services Selection Board (DSSSB), but the recruitment could not happen. Now the same is being reassessed via PTR. The present PTR of schools must be outdated, and so now the student attendance till August 30 will be taken, and the fresh PTR will be calculated then.”The only two teachers at the school in Kucha Pandit are trying to find a solution to another challenge. With the school-in-charge retiring next month and the other teacher set to take a six-month leave, who will teach the children? “Only two of us are here. I don’t know who will be coming to teach these 105 children now. Maybe the special educator will take over. During Covid-19, I ran the school alone,” the in-charge said.“English medium teachers are transferred here, how will they teach?” a teacher questioned.Apart from understaffing, the teachers are navigating safety concerns stemming from poor infrastructure at the school. Few classrooms are now being used as storerooms, owing to water seeping from the worn-out roofs. “The schools are run in old havelis, and houses are coming up around the schools. We have raised complaints about this. Sometimes the washrooms of a few houses are located just above the classrooms, and so there is water seepage, making it unsafe,” the teacher said.Story continues below this adThe situation is no different at the MCD school in Bhojla Pahari. A few years ago, a part of the school was declared unsafe, citing seepage and cracks, restricting student movement. The cramped space forced the Principal to take classes in her cabin. “We manage to run all the classes from nursery to the fifth grade in a few rooms and the Principal’s cabin, because no repair work has been started yet. The classes have very weak roofs,” said a source.Ward councillor and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Rafia Mahir said she recently raised these issues in the first meeting of MCD’s standing committee. However, she added, the civic body maintained that repair work cannot be undertaken because the space is compact, and therefore, a fire NOC could also not be issued.Underlining how grave the issue of understaffing is, the Councillor underlined that out of 11 schools in her ward, six have been shut as new Urdu teachers have not been hired in the last fifteen years. “No student survey has been conducted in the last 4-5 years…The authorities just keep on shutting schools, citing poor enrollment,” Mahir added.As per officials in the finance department, MCD allotted 9.83 % of its total budget, amounting to Rs 1,693.7 crore, for 1,514 schools run by the civic body. This is against the 10.45% allocated last year. Meanwhile, a grant of Rs 2,234 crore has been received from the Delhi government for the current year. This money is used for paying salaries, capital expenditure, and the procurement of textbooks, uniforms, and other educational materials.