Kendrapara: The state government has been allotting lakhs of rupees to the district under the Sarva Siksha Abhijan (SSA) for improving infrastructure in schools, but the programme’s objectives are far from being achieved.
At the Pokharikula Primary School here students are studying in the office room of the gram panchayat. There are 29 students in the school from Class I to Class V, in the Taradipal GP of Pattamundai block.
The school has two teachers, but it has been functioning with just one teacher, Bhabagrahi Das, as headmistress Bishnupriya Sahu is on leave.
The school was established in 1989. Over the years, due to lack of maintenance, the school building’s condition deteriorated. The asbestos roof of the school was damaged by monkeys during the Durga Puja vacations, and later the cyclonic storm Tili played havoc with the damaged roof.
As the roof has not been repaired there is a possibility of it falling on the students. Cracks have also developed in the school’s walls and they can crash anytime.
The school does not have a kitchen. So the mid-day meal (MDM) is prepared inside its office.
When the school reopened after Puja holidays students started studying on the veranda. Later, the veranda’s roof and wall also became unsafe and the school started functioning under polythene sheets, said teacher Bhabagrahi Das.
As snakes were coming inside the classrooms very often the students found it difficult to attend classes.
The school management committee and the locals requested the sarpanch of Taradipal to provide a room in the panchayat office and the latter agreed.
The students are now going to the panchayat office, which is a km away from their village, to attend classes, said Purusottam Tarai, a local.
Since four days, the school has been functioning from the Taradipal panchayat office.
“We shifted the school after a resolution was passed by the school managing committee in the presence of the sarpanch,” said cluster resources centre coordinator (CRCC) Sudarshan Pati.
Sarpanch Priyadarshini Tarai said she is aware of the condition of the school’s roof. She said she had sanctioned funds for repairing the asbestos roof. But the school management committee and the locals demanded construction of a new school building.
The locals also gave a memorandum to MLA Kishore Tarai and the Collector to construct a new school building.
Block education officer Himanshu Bhushan Ojha said the condition of the school was very precarious. He brought this to the notice of the district project coordinator (DPC) of SSA, and had urged him to construct a new building.
DEO-cum-in-charge of the DPC of SSA Kendrapara, Kalpana Behera, could not be contacted.
PNN
