After a unit of the girls’ dormitory of Mongar Higher Secondary School was damaged by a fire on Monday, the school management relocated all 198 girls to the school dining hall and the multi-purpose hall. The school management says the girls will be moved to the dormitory once the renovations works are fully complete.
18-year-old Thinley Pelmo who is currently studying in class XII is among the 48 students who lost all her belongings to the fire incident on Monday. Since she lost some of her books and the clothes to the blaze, these days she has been spending sleepless nights copying notes from her friends.
“I mostly lost my clothes during the fire incident but I didn’t worry much about it. However, since I lost my notebooks to the blaze, I was worried about how I will be able to manage time to write notes and do my studies simultaneously. I now stay till 1 or 2 in the morning to finish my homework and write notes. However, being a student, I thought that we have to face such hardship and I keep on writing notes late into the night,” she said.
Like Thinley, her other friends also shared similar stories.
“I didn’t bother much when I lost my clothes to the fire but I was worried when I lost my notebooks. We are extremely happy and thankful to His Majesty The King for providing us semso kidu. But we didn’t expect that such a mishap would occur,” said Ugyen Chezom.
“Though we lost all our belongings including clothes to the fire, we are grateful to His Majesty The King and the Dzongkhag for giving us timely support by proving us necessary clothes,” added Norbu Lhamo.
The fire, which was suspected to have broken out from a short circuit has completely razed a unit of a four-unit girls dormitory on Monday morning. However, the Office of the Gyaltshab, school management and the Dzongkhag Administration made all the necessary arrangements for the affected girls.
“We are so grateful to the Principal and the teachers of Yadi Central School for coming here to provide us necessary support. And we are also thankful to His Majesty The King for granting us necessary uniforms, clothes and books as a semso kidu,” said Sherub Dorji, the Vice Principal of Mongar HSS.
As an interim measure, since the school management has been using the dining hall and multi-purpose hall as a girls dormitory, the school is in immediate need of a dining hall for other boarding students to serve meals.
“The Dzongkhag Administration has also instructed us to renovate the girls’ dormitory without much delay and we are also planning to soon move the girls to the dormitory from the multi-purpose hall. But we are not sure when will we be able to move them back to the dormitory. The school management is hopeful that we can soon shift the girls into their dormitory by working closely with the Dzongkhag Administration,” the Vice Principal added.
For the maintenance of a dormitory razed by the fire, the dzongkhag administration is compiling an assessment report and will be submitted soon to the department of disaster management for budget approval.
Mongar Higher Secondary School was established in 1959.
Sonam Tshering, Monggar
