Post News Network
Bhanjanagar, Dec 21: In a scene uncharacteristic of a school, students of Galeri Harijansahi primary school under this block in Ganjam district can be seen carrying their mid-day meals home to eat there, thanks to the lack of adequate infrastructure in the school.
The school having 115 students on its rolls from classes 1 to V has only two rooms. This has greatly hindered classroom teaching as all the students have to be crammed into the two rooms.
Moreover, with the school having no kitchen, MDM has to be prepared in a derelict hut on the premises. After preparation of the food, students take the MDM home and eat it there. Some students can also be found moving around on the school premises, eating their food.
Even some students have to cover a distance of 1 km to reach home to have their lunch. This state of affairs has triggered resentment among the villagers.
Sources said, funds were sanctioned for construction of classrooms in the schools a few years ago. Later, the district administration decided in favour of an alternate venue after space crunch posed problems for construction of classrooms.
However, the building had to be constructed at the old place as suitable land was not available elsewhere. As a result, two classrooms and a makeshift kitchen were constructed in the place with no space left for further construction, a teacher said on the condition of anonymity.
When contacted, a junior engineer of the Sarva Sikshya Abhiyan programme said the funds were exhausted on the construction of the school building in 2012-13 fiscal. He has applied for more funds which will be utilized on colouring the building and constructing a kitchen, the JE said. PNN
