Bantala: Betar village in Sharadhapur panchayat in Angul district is hardly 20 km away from the district headquarters. But its hilly road stands in between the village and any kind of development.
Developmental activities, though elusive for ages, is not the cause of recent focus on the village. The reason for it grabbing the public attention is the number of teachers equalling the number of students in the village school.
The village with a total population of 177 is not fortunate to get any facilities, not even an ASHA or an Anganwadi worker, except a primary school that was established in 1974.
Despite being a tribal village, it has a good number of educated children. According to the figures available, there were 19 children studying in the village primary school in 2014-15. In 2015-16 and 2016-17 there were 23 and 26 students attending the school. But in 2017-18 their number plummeted to four.
In the current term, the school has only two students — Pushpanjali Dehury in Class-III and Babu Behera in Class IX — creating a bizarre situation where the number of students and teachers is the same.
The villagers hold the district administration solely responsible for such a pitiable condition of education system in the village. “The administration is yet to construct a fair weather road to our village. In the absence of road facilities and the school being neglected for years, parents show no interest in sending their children to this village school. The children are being enrolled at distant residential schools instead,” a villager said.
In the prevailing conditions, the school will soon be closed for good, some villagers rued. While some others alleged that the administration is intentionally neglecting the school so as to close it down sooner or later.
The administration is yet to lay a single road to this village. An 8 km hilly terrain from the side of the panchayat headquarters is to be trekked to reach the village. A shortcut from Jarpada Ugi side reduces the distance by 2km. But as is the case with shortcuts, this road comes with death scare thrown up by elephants and other wild animals.
With no Anganwadi centre in the village, locals depend on the centre in Pathargada. According to Anganwadi worker Babitanjali Dehury, Betar has three children in 6-12 month age group; four in 2-3 years age group; 10 in 3-6 years age group; two in 5-6 years age group; and two in 6-8 years age group.
PNN