Kendrapara: Here is a government primary school with a difference. The government primary school has been operating under a bamboo bush and school toilet for the past one month, thanks to callousness of Education Department authorities.
The school lacks basic infrastructure including a building. While the state government claims to provide educational infrastructure in primary schools by sanctioning crores of rupees under Sarva Sikhya Abhijan (SSA), this government primary school is deprived of the benefits.
A casual visit to Kadua Primary School under Ratadia Khandasahi GP of Derabish block would expose how its students are forced to study in an unhygienic condition under a bamboo bush.
The classes function between school toilets and a small jungle. According to sources, the Kadua Primary School set up in 1934, has 15 students from Class 1 to Class 5.
The Education Department has engaged two teachers including a lady teacher to provide classroom teaching at the school.
The asbestos roof and the walls of the school are in a dilapidated state due to lack of repair for which the education department has declared the school building unsafe for classroom teaching in 2014. In the absence of other options, the school functioned in the unsafe building until August 2018.
Later, the sub-collector who paid a visit to the school directed the teachers not to teach in the classrooms. He also discussed with the locals to provide the village clubhouse to the school for six months before SSA funds are made available for its building.
Ironically, more than a year has passed, but the district administration has failed to keep its promise. The concerned department has also failed to set up a school building under SSA. Consequently, the local youths locked the clubhouse in October 2019 and did not allow the teachers to run the school in their premises, alleged teacher Naliniprava Mohanty.
“We were forced to run the school near the school latrine under a bamboo bush without getting any suitable place in the village,“ said Subhashis Prasad Jena, the headmaster of the school.
The locals and schoolteachers took up the matter higher-ups in Education department but to no avail. Even, the SSA authorities did not sanction any monetary allocation for the building on the pretext that the school does not have its own land although the villagers claimed that the school has its own land.
When contacted, Derabish BEO Narahari Sutar said he is aware of the problem. He too had gone to the village and discussed with local youths to provide their clubhouse for the school until the school building was ready to occupy. Derabish BDO has taken up the initiative to start the school building at the earliest.