Balasore: The state and Central governments spend crores of rupees to boost primary education, but in a tribal-dominated pocket of Balasore, primary education has gone for a toss due to shortage of infrastructure.
The sorry state of primary education is reflected from the miserable condition of the Taramanti Primary School, located four km from Nilagiri sub-division.
Set up six years ago, the school still lacks a building. The school is run out of a humble thatched house 12ft by 7ft with no walls around. The house causes a lot of problems for teachers and students to enter, locals said.
Though the government sanctioned funds for its building, a major hurdle is shortage of land.
Forest land is available there, but the department has given its permission, they added.
According to reports, the school was set up in 2010 to provide primary education to the tribal kids in Taramanti. Tribals had built a small five-ft high thatched house as a temporary solution.
Locals lamented that the house is so low that their kids have to crawl to enter the house and sit on the ground, which is not floored.
“Nobody can believe that it is a primary school. From a distance, it resembles nothing but a poultry enclosure,” they rued. Surprisingly, the humble house has to accommodate 58 children studying from Class-1 to Class-V.
This correspondent visited the school Wednesday and found that 33 students were crammed inside the thatched structure, with barely any space left.
In the rainy season, the problems of the kids and teachers are compounded in the absence of protective walls while the floor gets damp and slick with mud, making it difficult for children to sit on the ground, locals said.
“In the winter, I teach the kids in the open under the sun. Fears of snakes, reptiles and bears entering the school always grips the kids,” said headmistress Alaka Manjari Biswal.
Besides, in the absence of a kitchen, the mid-day-meal is prepared in a dirty dilapidated shanty where there are chances of insects falling into the meals.
“All the tribal residents are poor. All are daily wagers. Being poor and busy with their daily labour, they are unable to come out in protest against the miserable condition of the school,” the headmistress said.
There is no approach road to the school.
The government has provided `6 lakh for a school building in 2013-14. But, the place where the school is currently located belongs to reserve forest category. The forest department has not given permission for the building.
Several patches of pasture and government land are in the area, but the administration has not taken any step to allot a piece of land for the school building, locals added.
Block education officer Malati Tudu said villagers have applied for a patch of land at local tehsil office, but land has not been made available yet.
Locals alleged the government is providing forest land for mining and industrial units, but it is unfortunate that there is no land for a primary school. PNN
