Hyderabad: Government blind school to be ready by year-end in Darulshifa

Darulshifa: The construction works of newly proposed school building housing both hostel and classrooms of Government Blind School for Boys at Darulshifa, which started recently, are projected to be completed by the year-end.

A report was published in this regard in The Hans India with title "Hostel razed, blind students forced to stay in classrooms" on August 28. The old hostel structure was razed around 2 years ago with the objective of building a newly proposed hostel and classrooms and the foundation stone was also laid in February 2019 by the local MLA. But the works were delayed and the students were forced to stay and sleep in classrooms. "The construction works were started in the month of December and we hope that they would be completed at the earliest," said K Venkatramulu, the school headmaster.

As part of Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan, the state government sanctioned an amount of Rs 1.53 crore for the construction of new building which will house both hostel and school.

Venkatramulu said that it was a gift from the then Hyderabad District Collector Yogita Rana during a visit to the school. For its development, she sanctioned an amount of Rs 1.5 crore and the school was razed for new construction, but left without any further progress. During these months, the officials paid a visit to the site only in November and carried out a survey. Construction works were started in last week of December.

According to Syed Sohail Quadri, Patthargatti division corporator, the works were started with a different plan. He instructed the engineering department and contractor to stick to the revised plan and also instructed them to raze the extra pillars which were constructed.

A RICH LEGACY

The Government Special School for Blind was established in the year 1939 by the Nizam. It was named in Persian as 'Madarsa Barai-KoKar-WaGum. It was later renamed as Government School for Blind. In its first decade, school became one of the best schools in the world for blind. In the year 1952, the principal of the school K Ramchandra Rao, was invited to France for honouring the Louis Braille posthumously in France. Inspired by the success of the blind school, Egypt government also started its first blind school in its country. In 1954, as a part of world tour, Helen Keller (an American educator who overcome the adversity of being blind and deaf to become one of the 20th century leading humanitarians), visited Hyderabad and the school was added in the list of best schools in the world.