Baripada: Wading through knee-deep water in a creek to reach their school has been a daily affair for 28 students of Shalabani village under Betanati block in Mayurbhanj district, a report said.
Their plight has been ascribed to lack of a road to the village. Locals lamented that neither the education department nor the rural development has taken note of the children’s miseries.
They said, “Crores of rupees are spent towards rural connectivity and to ensure easy access to schools for children in their periphery, but this has not happened in case of Shalabani village.”
According to reports, 58 students study in five classes of Bagalpur Primary School in Jugal panchayat. To reach the school, the kids of Shalabani walk half a km and wade through a creek before crossing National Highway-18, putting their lives at risk. Even a student was run over by a vehicle on the highway, but the administration has not woken up to this harsh situation, locals said.
The children’s difficulties multiply in the rainy season. “We have been forcing our kids to the jaws of death in the hope of making them educated,” locals lamented.
Besides, shortage of teachers has severely affected studies in the school, they added.
Sunia Marandi, a Class-IV student, said, “Every day, we have to wade through knee-deep water. In rainy season, it is too difficult to cross the swollen creek. Therefore, we stop attending school. We badly need a school in our village.”
“Crossing the creek is as much risky as crossing the highway. Earlier, a classmate had died in a road mishap. Every time we cross the road, the mishap flashes across our minds. Sometimes, our elder sisters help us cross the road,” said Ruyan Murmu, a Class-II student.
“Our problems will be sorted out, if a road is laid to the village,” suggested Biranchi Behera, a Class-III student.
Locals claimed that they had taken up the issues of commuting problem and shortage of teachers with the administration several times in the past, but to no avail.
Terming the issue a serious one, district project coordinator of Sarva Sikhya Abhiyan, Digant Routray, said the school and mass education department will take steps to open a school in the village. PNN
