The Hindu : Karnataka News : Kasturi Teacher’s long march to school

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Sep 05, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka

Kasturi Teacher’s long march to school

Girish Pattanashetti

Though she is happy with her job, being a teacher at such a place has its own disadvantages

ONLY GURU: Kasturi Ashok Morab imparting lessons to students at a single-teacher school at Ram Manohar Lohia Nagar in Hubli.

HUBLI: On any working day, Kasturi Ashok Morab walks two kilometres to reach the school where she works. It is not that there are no buses to Ram Manohar Lohia Nagar off Gokul Road in Hubli where the school is situated. But they are either too early or late for her to make it on time to work.

By the time Kasturi, who has put in 21 years of service, reaches school, her students would have opened the door and be waiting for her. Since Kasturi is the sole teacher at the Government Primary School, which was sanctioned last year, the school keys are left with Nagaraj Nadakarni, a school development and monitoring committee member.

On any day, the first to come to the school would get the keys of the school building, which comprises two Ashraya houses (one for the classes and the other used as a kitchen).

“Kasturi Teacher”, as the 28 students of first and second classes studying in the school call her, teaches them Kannada, mathematics, English rhymes and lessons on environment. In between, there will be radio lessons, “Chinnara Chukki”, broadcast by the Akashwani Kendra of Dharwad. She is spared the burden of cooking the mid-day meal as ISKCON serves them food under the Akshaya Patra Scheme. However, at 4.30 p.m. every day, Kasturi takes on a piece of work that she does voluntarily. A mother of four, she gives the children lessons in cleanliness. Along with Tulaja Jituri (the aaya), she washes the faces of the children, combs their hair and applies powder, so that they return home fresh.

Kasturi is happy with her job. But being a teacher at a single-teacher school has its own disadvantages. She cannot afford to take leave, and if she requires leave, she has to ensure that another teacher from the nearby school at Manjunathnagar is deputed to work in her absence. Since she started working in the school (from April 2007), Kasturi has rarely taken leave.

As the school is being run in Ashraya houses, no furniture has been purchased (even though there is a provision for this) as it would mean less space for the students. The only thing that Kasturi wants now is that another teacher be appointed to the school, which she says the Deputy Director of Public Instruction has promised to do at the earliest. Another of her dreams is a school building for which land has been identified.

Deputy Director of Public Instruction R.C. Halagatti said there were nine such single-teacher schools in the district. The building grants for the schools had been released, and with the completion of the recruitment process for teachers, another teacher would be posted in each of these schools, he said.

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