Rajasthan: Another school ceiling collapse, 5 children injured at I-Day event

• Five children injured after false ceiling falls during Independence Day celebrations at Bundi’s St Paul’s Senior Secondary School

• Incident follows multiple recent school collapses across Rajasthan, including fatal cases in Jhalawar, Barmer and Udaipur

• Officials admit private schools were excluded from recent safety surveys despite repeated tragedies

What should have been a morning of celebration turned abruptly into a scene of chaos on Friday when part of a false ceiling at a private school’s auditorium gave way during Independence Day festivities, injuring five children.

The incident occurred at St Paul’s Senior Secondary School in Bundi, where around 350 students, 250 parents, and 49 staff members had gathered to mark the national holiday. According to chief district education officer Priti Bala Sharma, “A portion of the false ceiling of the auditorium in St Paul’s Senior Secondary School in Bundi fell on Friday morning when the Independence Day function was going on.”

The injured children — identified as Aadira Panjwani (6), Aarna Jhakal (11), Shreshthi (10), Twinkle Soni (13), and Vinay Tehlwani (8) — were rushed to hospital. Two required stitches to head wounds before being discharged, while the others were treated for minor injuries. Officials say the children were not directly beneath the section that collapsed; instead, hard paper sheets from the false ceiling broke loose and struck them.

उदयपुर में सरकारी स्कूल का छज्जा गिरने से एक मासूम बच्ची की दर्दनाक मौत और दूसरी बच्ची के घायल होने तथा बूंदी में स्कूल की फॉल्स सीलिंग गिरने से 5 बच्चों के घायल होने की खबर अत्यंत दुखद और हृदयविदारक है।

प्रदेश में आए दिन हो रहे ये दर्दनाक हादसे सरकार की लापरवाही और शिक्षा…

— Tika Ram Jully (@TikaRamJullyINC) August 15, 2025

Rajasthan school building collapse: Rahul demands probe, strict punishment for culprits

A technical team from the district education department inspected the site, and the auditorium has since been sealed pending further investigation. An inquiry has been ordered by state education minister Madan Dilawar. Yet, the reassurances from authorities ring hollow against the backdrop of a troubling pattern of structural failures in Rajasthan’s schools.

Sharma confirmed that while all government schools in the district had undergone safety surveys, private schools had been “left out” of the exercise. In the same breath, she asserted that the Bundi auditorium and school building were “in sound condition”. Such contradictory statements only raise questions about how safety is determined, and by whom.

The collapse in Bundi comes less than a month after tragedy struck in Jhalawar district. On 25 July, a portion of a government school building gave way just as students assembled for morning prayers, killing seven children and injuring 28, several critically.

It is not an isolated horror. In June this year, in Barmer district, the roof of a government upper primary school caved in during class hours, killing a Class Six student and injuring two others. And in Udaipur, a girl lost her life when the balcony of an under-construction school building collapsed, injuring another — a reminder that danger lurks even before schools are formally opened.

Deputy CM Surinder choudhary Deeply saddened by the loss of Ms. Sanjali Sharma (D/O Pawan Kumar, R/O Dhok Banyar, Class 6, Int’l Public Hr. Sec. School) in a tragic wall collapse. Reached hospital to meet her grieving family. The school must face action for defying govt closure… pic.twitter.com/pxPdU0JJx4

— Nc kalakote Sunderbani (@NCkalakote) August 14, 2025

Adding to the litany of near misses, late last month in Udaipur’s Kotda block, two classrooms of a government secondary school collapsed during the night. No one was injured only because the incident occurred outside school hours. Villagers had reportedly complained for months about the dilapidated condition of the building, yet no action was taken until rubble lay where lessons should have been taught.

Education infrastructure in Rajasthan, especially in smaller towns, is under mounting scrutiny following these events. Many buildings — both government and private — date back decades, often with extensions or modifications added over the years without rigorous structural assessments. Experts have long warned that superficial maintenance checks are inadequate in preventing such failures, particularly in spaces like auditoriums where large crowds gather.

While the Bundi incident did not claim lives, it underscores the peril of complacency. In both public and private institutions, safety protocols appear reactive rather than preventative, initiated only after disaster strikes. The fact that 600 people were present in the Bundi auditorium at the time — including hundreds of children — makes the near miss all the more disturbing.

For parents across Rajasthan, Friday’s collapse is a grim reminder that even apparently prestigious private schools are not immune to structural hazards. Until safety checks are thorough, mandatory, and genuinely enforced across all educational institutions, celebrations in school halls will carry an unspoken risk — and assurances of “sound condition” will offer little comfort.