A single three-storey building in Pimpri-Chinchwad is currently home to five different school units, together enrolling more than 1,100 students, but teachers across these schools say chronic space shortages, crumbling infrastructure, and understaffing are making it increasingly difficult to run classes.The building houses the nursery and primary sections of the Bharat Ratna Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad Urdu School in Shramik Nagar, Nigdi, along with the nursery and primary sections of Prabodhankar Thakare Vidya Mandir, and PCMC’s Thakare Secondary School in Nigdi’s Rupee Nagar. Teachers at both institutions, who spoke on condition of anonymity, detailed a long list of unresolved problems.Staff shortageStaffing shortages run through almost every department, teachers said. The Thakare Secondary School currently has just 13 teachers on its rolls for 380 students, with no full-time teacher for science and mathematics. “There is also no lab assistant for the science, computer, STEM, tinkering or library sections,” a teacher said.Clerical work has fallen on the shoulders of teaching staff as well, with only one clerk currently employed at the Thakare school. “We have to do the teaching as well as the clerical work, like gathering data for RTI applications. There are so many RTIs coming in, asking for detailed data spanning five years or more, that most of our time goes into that instead of teaching,” a teacher said. The entrance gate of the building in Nigdi that houses five school units. (Shubham Kurale) The problem was compounded further during the recent Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise, when 10 of the 13 teachers were deployed on SIR duty for at least two months, leaving a single teacher to manage an entire floor of over 90 students. “We are now struggling with syllabus completion,” a teacher said, calling for urgent recruitment of additional teaching and clerical staff.On the security front, the vice-principal of the Thakare school said that while CCTV cameras have been installed across the premises, there is no electricity backup to keep the system running during power cuts.Story continues below this adSpace crunchThe space crunch is most acute in the secondary section of Prabodhankar Thakare Vidya Mandir, where 380 students are currently packed into just eight classrooms. “Currently, our 380 students are studying in just eight classrooms, and we need six additional rooms,” a teacher from the secondary section said, requesting not to be named. Waterlogged patches dot the school playground (Shubham Kurale)Adding to the problem, teachers said land that once belonged to the school has been handed over to the PCMC-run hospital that is now functional on the site. Even the school’s cultural hall has not been spared – it has been partitioned and converted into additional classrooms, leaving no space for cultural programmes or events. The staff room, too, is inadequate for the number of teachers using it.Adding to the frustration, teachers said the schools reopened for the academic year on June 15, but students are yet to receive essential items such as uniforms, notebooks, sweaters, shoes, water bottles, school bags, tiffins, or compass boxes.Smart boards gathering dustTeachers also flagged the poor state of digital infrastructure in the school. Smart boards installed around 2019, once used to play instructional videos and double up as whiteboards, have largely stopped working since 2022. Of the 13 smart boards installed, 11 are currently non-functional, teachers said, adding that even when the boards were in use, frequent internet connectivity issues limited how effectively they could be used.Story continues below this ad“We have asked for maintenance several times. Once, a technician from a private agency inspected the boards but never returned,” a teacher said. According to teachers, a technician from the agency visits the school once a year to inspect the boards, but simply collects a signature indicating an inspection has taken place, without doing any work. “When we resist giving the signature, officials call us and ask us to do it anyway,” a teacher alleged. As things stand, classes are being conducted using traditional blackboards. A broken slide lies damaged in the pre-school play area (Shubham Kurale)The shortage extends to computer education as well. The computer lab has just 13 functioning computers for a batch of 130 students in Class VIII, meaning roughly ten students share a single machine. With no computer operator on staff, teachers said they are only able to cover the theoretical portion of the syllabus during computer periods.Teachers also pointed to the lack of a proper drainage system on the school playground. As a result, the school is unable to hold assemblies on the ground even during dry spells in the rainy season, since the waterlogged patches take days to dry up.During a visit to the school premises, it was also observed that play equipment in the pre-school section, including a slide used by young children, had broken down and remains in a state of disrepair.Story continues below this adNo regular water, insufficient toiletsThe condition of sanitation facilities emerged as one of the most pressing concerns, particularly near the Urdu Primary School. Teachers there said the schools do not receive a regular water supply, with water arriving only on alternate days throughout the year. “We do ask the cleaning staff to clean the toilets regularly,” a teacher said, but acknowledged that the irregular water supply makes it difficult to maintain hygiene.Compounding the problem is a severe shortage of toilets. For over 1,100 students across all five school units functioning in the building, there are just four toilets for girls and eight for boys. Teachers at Prabodhankar Thakare Vidya Mandir echoed similar concerns, saying that toilets for both students and staff remain insufficient, and that irregular drinking water supply is a persistent issue as well. A dilapidated toilet block at the school (Credit: Shubham Kurale)Responding to the issues raised, Sangita Bangar, education officer with PCMC, told the Indian Express, “Uniforms and other essential items would be provided within eight days, and we are following up on the issue. I’ll check about the smart board issue, and also coordinate with the respective principals of the schools to ensure clean toilets.”The Indian Express approached the PCMC commissioner and the Education Department’s deputy commissioner through phone calls, text and WhatsApp messages multiple times, but did not receive any response.