Passing through the narrow and zigzag streets lined with small but multi-storey houses in Takia Sadwahan in the Walled City, one finds a unique, century-old building of Government Modern Middle School (for boys) which is lying completely shut.

The school building, according to the education department officials, has been declared ‘dangerous’ after deep cracks emerged in its façade which is adorned with old-style jharokas.

The school was shifted to another government space close by, in Chowk Nawab Sahib Mohallah Shia’an, where around 500 students take classes in the evening because during the day the building caters to the students of the existing school. The students as well as the school staff have been hearing from the authorities that work on the new building would start soon but it never does.

At another end, the famous Kashmiri Bazaar in the old city is home to a long forsaken school building, situated in a small square in the locality. Its dilapidated façade forces the passerby to pause for a moment and ponder.

The three-storey building, which overlooks a balcony, with faded colours and worn-out windows, is at best a shelter for the pigeons. The school wears a sad look as its main door is saddled with a big lock.

"We want the school to reopen and the historic building to be preserved," says Shoaib Butt, a resident of the area. "The building has been lying vacant for months now but no one seems to care."

Most of the school students would come from the neighbourhood but now they have to travel to another locality for the evening shift.

A teacher, who has been associated with the school for many years, says the whole staff wants restoration of the old building. "The concerned department has issued notice to demolish the structure though the school was completely renovated previously in 1992 and later when some efforts were made to maintain it.

"Some local residents are planning to sell their houses. If the government preserves its beautiful façade and expands the existing seven-marla building [of the school] by buying the houses and upgrading the school, it will be a service to the community,"he adds. "The locals badly need a high school here."

Talib Hussain, Director (Conservation) at the Walled City of Lahore Authority (WCLA), however, is of the opinion that if anyone has a plan to alter an olden building (in the Walled City), they have to bring it to the notice of the Authority.

As per the rules, an official team visits the building and decides if it should be renovated and preserved.

Hussain showed ignorance about any notice regarding demolition of the aforementioned school building.

There are only a few schools in the area and they fall under the jurisdiction of Union Council 28, also the political constituency of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).

Also, there is only one high school near Baba Qulfi Wala Chowk and Rang Mahal Mission High School whose building is also faced with extinction because of neglect.

This sad story of dying government educational facilities in the area further continues because a few hundred yards away from the said school, another municipal corporation-run primary education facility has also been closed for the past many years. When some people tried to occupy the school land, a local group of activists -- Al-Khidmah Organisation (AKO) -- with the consent of the local community demolished the collapsing structure of the school, and started using it as a space for community gatherings, funerals etc.

"This land is government property and we demand a rebuilding of the school here," says Arif Butt, another local and the office bearer of the AKO which is taking care of the plot. "And, if not the school, it should be turned into a community centre rather than leave it at the mercy of the land grabbers."

In another nearby area, on heavily encroached roads the dilapidated structure of the grossly neglected Rang Mahal Mission High School also awaits the government’s attention. Half of the red-brick building of the historic school has been declared dangerous by the city administration and is not being used at all, while the other half, which consists of 15 classrooms, is under-utilised because of the low number of students and the critical condition of the three-storey building with prominent cracks in it.

Historically, the school is considered the first missionary school in the city established by a clergyman named Farmson, in the year 1849. It was originally an 18th-century palace that was later used as a court by the Sikh rulers of the Punjab Maharaja Ranjeet Singh and his son Maharaja Daleep Singh. It also housed the Forman Christian College (FCC) before it turned into the Rang Mahal School. Later, the school was nationalised during the Bhutto regime in 1972. Still, the dispute between the Punjab government and the Presbyterian Church is pending before the Lahore High Court (LHC) regarding the return of the school to the mission.

A 5-kanal piece of land, situated in the middle of the busiest commercial hub of Shah Alam Market, the land is worth billions actually, says Muhammad Shahzad Butt, an old student and resident of the area.

According to Butt, many people think that local land mafia has destroyed the structure to turn it into a plain field, shift the school to some other place and commercialise the new building.

He urges the government to preserve the old building, add new rooms and make the school an attraction for the people of the area.

"There is ample space outside which needs summary removal of encroachments and a good traffic plan to give the school a better look."

Butt also demands that the electricity company should contain randomly spread wires before the façade of the school.

Some locals also talk about rumours that the building may collapse any time and that the government is holding talks with the church to buy it or provide it with land for school someplace else.

There are a lot of encroachments in front of the school. The dying heritage and reduction in government-backed education facilities call for a serious attention of the authorities.

Ajaz Anwar, a conservationist and a painter who has mostly painted the Walled City, and is also a member of the Lahore Conservation Committee (LCC), an official committee set up by the city government to preserve old buildings, says that preserving the schools and their old architecture is very important for the history and culture of this one of its kind part of the city.

"Such subsidized, government-backed educational facilities have been serving the community for decades," he adds.

He smells a conspiracy against such schools housed in the olden buildings and stresses upon the government to make sure the schools survive and their buildings are properly maintained and preserved.

"The old architecture of such buildings in the Walled City is still intact and ought to be preserved. It might need some replacement of rooms and walls as part of regular maintenance. These buildings become dilapidated only when neglected," he says.

There is no proper official inspection and maintenance of such historical buildings. He also demands of the government to remove all encroachments around such old schools on priority basis and effectively plan restoration of school buildings, giving education and history a top priority within the Walled City.