Most of the rented buildings are old and lack emergency exits, jeopardizing student’s lives in case of an emergency.

A number of girl schools in Taif are improperly ventilated and they can become like furnaces. Large amounts of steel had been left at the entries and windows of some of these schools, turning any emergency evacuation into an impossible task. There were no empty plots of land in a number of districts in Taif where school buildings were to be constructed.

In a rented school for boys in Jazan, there were only 19 classrooms for more than 600 students, setting the ratio at 58 students per classroom. Even though citizens had collectively donated pieces of land for the construction of government schools, the building work had either not been completed or it had not been started in the first place.

An elementary girl school in Al-Kaboos was described by one of the parents to be a total ruin. “In the school I saw nothing but dirt and toilets full of insects and rodents,” said Umm Ahmed, a mother of one of the students.

She said the school has an emergency ladder extending for three stories. It is only one meter wide, which is not enough to handle a stampede of students during an emergency evacuation. “The emergency exit on the third floor is closed because there are no stairs leading up to it. The emergency door on the first floor is locked from outside,” she added.

Ahmed Muhammad, a father of two girls studying in this school, complained of a lack of signs indicating the exact location of the school. “Every time I come to the school I lose my way. I have appealed to the concerned officials to make signs so that in case of emergency, the Civil Defense units can easily find the school,” he said.

Teachers at schools in Al-Badea and Al-Qarfi said their buildings were in dire need of maintenance. They had talked several times to the administration but to no avail. They said the landlord was adamant in his refusal to undertake any repair or maintenance work.

“The school building is completely useless and we are suffering. We have a new building but we have not moved to it yet,” said schoolteacher A.H. who only wanted to give her initials. She worried that leaking water might lead to a short-circuiting and wondered what would happen if a student got an electric shock.

A. Sh., another teacher, said that leaking sewage water caused a nasty smell and attracted a large number of cockroaches and rats. She said the Civil Defense asked the administration to move to another building after the electric meter got burnt twice. “The Civil Defense also asked to change the electric wiring and to install emergency exits but nothing was done about this so far,” she added.

The schoolteacher said her school had been appealing for three years to have the Department of Education do something about the school, but nothing happened. “We were overjoyed when we were told we would be moving into a new building. Our happiness turned into sadness and shock when we came to know that the contract of the old building had been renewed,” she said.

Parents and students at Al-Jaho elementary and intermediate school complained that education was still continuing in the very old school. “I studied in this school 20 years ago. For many years Civil Defense has called for the evacuation of this school, but its instructions were never followed up,” said one of the parents, who did not want his name to be published.

The ceiling of Al-Shiqairi intermediate and secondary school in the region was coming down inch by inch, threatening the lives of the 600 students. About 10 years ago, residents donated a piece of land to construct a new building for the school. The project was never completed though the contractor was supposed to have delivered it to the Department of Education about three years ago.

Ali Hassan Mansour, undersecretary of the school, said the rented building was no longer suitable and hoped the Department of Education would compel the contractor to quickly finish the new building.

Abdul Aziz Al-Mualim, a teacher, said the principal asked for the construction of a third story on the new building. The engineering division of the Department of Education informed them this could not be done before the contractor had officially handed over the building to the department.

Teachers and students of Kadma Al-Dush elementary school in Al-Muwasm village were unanimous in their fears that the school building might fall on their heads any time.

“There is no air conditioning in the classrooms. The National Electricity Company was asked several times to repair the electric wires but nothing was done. Work on the new building was halted suddenly and without reason,” said one of the schoolteachers on condition of anonymity.

Muhammad Al-Riyani, director of media at the Department of Education in Jazan said the contractor had been warned several times and was finally given 45 days to complete the new building for the school but so far he has failed to honor his commitments.

Director of the engineering division at the Department of Education in Sabyah, Majed Haddad, said the number of rented school buildings would be cut in half in a matter of years. “There are 330 schools in the region of which 160 had rented buildings,” he said.

Director of the Department of Education in Sabyah, Ibrahim bin Muhammad Al-Hazmi, said the delay in the execution of construction projects and the lack of empty lands constituted a real nightmare for the department. “We talked to the contractors several times to expedite finishing the projects but so far they only gave us deaf ears,” he added.

An official source at the Civil Defense in Jizan said a number of government schools in rented buildings in the region lacked safety measures. “We have addressed the Department of Education but these schools are still open,” he added.

The Department of Education in Taif said it was currently searching for pieces of lands ranging from 1,200 to 4,000 square meters to build about 100 new schools.

The director of administrative and financial affairs at the ministry, Saleh Al-Himaidi, recently signed contracts worth SR2,2 billion to construct buildings for government schools in various regions. He hoped that these new projects would end the problem of the rented buildings.