The Hindu : Karnataka News : One teacher in class, another elsewhere

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

Karnataka

One teacher in class, another elsewhere

Ganesh Prabhu

A CLASSIC CASE: The Government Lower Primary School at Shadaberu village in Udupi district.

Udupi: Though Deputy Director of Public Instruction (DDPI) K. Ananda denies the existence of any single-teacher school in Udupi district, the information available with The Hindu points to the fact that there are at least three such in the district.

Take the case of the Government Lower Primary School at Shadaberu village coming under the Kerady Gram Panchayat in Kundapur taluk. The naxal-affected village of Shadaberu is located 70 km from Udupi. The Government Lower Primary School was started in 2002 because it was difficult for students of the nearby villages to go to Kerady (5 km from Shadaberu).

Though the school (with classes from first standard to fifth standard) started functioning from 2002-03 in a building constructed at a cost of Rs. 3 lakh under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, it has remained a single-teacher school for the last two years.

The school has facilities such as classrooms, and uniforms and mid-day meals are provided to the students.

But the road from Kerady to Shadaberu is in a bad condition and it is difficult to reach the place even on a two-wheeler.

The school had 38 students and two teachers when it started. An official at the Kerady Gram Panchayat, speaking under the condition of anonymity, said that there are now only 18 students. A woman teacher was working at the school, but another teacher, who was appointed here, has gone on deputation to another school in Udupi taluk.

“The gram panchayat has passed many resolutions urging the Department of Public Instruction in this connection. It has promised to look into the matter, but has done little or nothing. Teachers do not agree to come here because they have to walk from Kerady to Shadaberu,” he said.

There are two more single-teacher schools in the Kerady Gram Panchayat. They are the government lower primary schools at Ayangaru and Kharibailu villages. The school at Ayangaru village has 25 students and the one at Kharibailu has 33 students. The official at Kerady Gram Panchayat said that a cook took classes for the students at the school at Kharibailu after cooking.

A zilla panchayat member Sudhakar Kulal, under whose constituency the three schools fall, said that he had brought the matter to the notice of the DDPI.

“The department says that they have put a teacher on deputation from Kerady to Shadaberu. But when I visited the school once, the second teacher was not to be seen. I will raise the matter in the next general body meeting of the zilla panchayat,” he said.

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