The Hindu : Karnataka News : Classes in dining hall of ashram school in Udupi

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Classes in dining hall of ashram school in Udupi

Ganesh Prabhu

Sick students sleep there, as fifth standard class goes on

Six classrooms housed in three rooms with no partitions
There is no dearth of funds for development, says official

Udupi: Three sick students, two suffering from chicken pox and one from fever, sleep in the same room, while mathematics is taught to students of fifth standard in the dining hall of the Scheduled Tribes Ashram School, near the Deputy Commissioner’s office, at Bannanje in Udupi, on Thursday.

That is not all, first standard students are sitting in the same hall, though facing the other direction. Such is the state of the ashram school.

The ashram school, which is a residential school run by the Department of Social Welfare, was established in 1958. It has classes from first standard to seventh standard.

It has 127 students — 49 belonging to the Scheduled Tribes, 35 students to the Scheduled Castes and 43 students to the Other Backward Classes. Of the 127 students, 64 are girls.

According to a teacher and school in-charge Leelavati Uchila, only students from poor Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and Other Backward Classes and migrant labourers’ families are admitted.

But the lack of planning has hampered the functioning of the school. The first and second standards are housed in the same classroom.

There is no partition between the classes making it difficult for teachers to impart lessons. So too are the third and fourth standards housed in one room, while classes for the fifth and sixth standards are held in another room, with no partitions.

The difficulty in imparting lessons for two classes in the same room has forced the authorities to have the first standard and fifth standard in the dining hall.

Ms. Uchila said, “It is difficult for both the fifth and the sixth standards to function in the same room. So we shifted the fifth standard to the dining hall.”

Then why are the three sick girls sleeping in the dining hall? “That is because the girls do not want to sleep all by themselves in the dormitory. They fell ill on Wednesday and we took them to the doctor the same day. The doctor has advised that the students be sent home. We have been trying to contact their parents but none is picking up the telephone,” Ms. Uchila said.

Poornima, a fifth standard student from Kundapur, and Sumati, a seventh standard student from Kollur, (who were sleeping in the dining hall), said, “We have been ill for the last two days.” The other student, Rakshita of fifth standard from Kundapur, who is suffering from fever, was fast asleep.

The school has two dormitories, one for the boys and the other for the girls.

While the boys’ dormitory has 50 cots, the girls’ is yet to receive any. A bedspread, a carpet and a bed sheet are provided to each student. According to Ms. Uchila, about three weeks ago, three students had malaria and 40 had the flue. “But they have all recovered,” she said. The dormitories do not have a facility for the students to dry their clothes. Most of them dry the clothes near their classrooms. But when it rains, they have to rush out to retrieve their clothes.

ALL-IN-ONE: Three sick students sleep in the dining hall, while mathematics class of the fifth standard goes on (left) at the Scheduled Tribes Ashram School (right) in Udupi.

According to Ms. Uchila, the school spends Rs. 350 per student per month. The cost of running the school is approximately Rs. 30,000 per month. Students are provided with nutritious food, which includes chicken twice a month, fish and eggs four times a month and sweets twice a week.

“More funds are expected this year and better facilities would be provided to students,” she said.

There are five teachers, three cooks and two kitchen assistants as per norms at the school. Proper toilet facilities have been provided, though the boys’ toilet was filled with stench.

Taluk Social Officer Chandrashekhar Naik said that the department has funds to provide partition to the classrooms. But it would make holding functions difficult. It is difficult to put more cots in the dormitories.

“There is, however, no dearth of funds,” Mr. Naik said.

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