WHERE STUDENTS ARE FORCED TO DROP OUT OF SCHOOL !
SAMBALPUR: It is patch of land lying on the river Mahanadi and one has to take a boat to reach the village. Welcome to Kudgunderpur, located about 35 kms from here. And interestingly it is Gram Panchayat comprising 6 villages – Kudgunderpur, Tabda, Jampali, Amlipali, Mahada and Patakhai - where people continue to suffer with communication badly reflecting on the fate of the residents. Denied of virtually all amenities including health and education, it is education, which seems to be badly hit.
The GP has four Primary School which has 6 teachers making a mockery of the much hyped Sarva Sikhya Abhijan. And even if some students manage to get through the Primary Education getting High School education is an uphill task in this GP, which has a population of 2, 178. While there are no school in Jampali and Patakhai, there is Primary School in Tabda and Amlipali, the Upper Primary School comprising Class VI and VII is located in Kudgunderpur and Mahada. The Upper Primary School at the GP headquarters at Kudgunderpur built exactly a century back in 1907 has 64 students has just two teachers besides a Sikhya Sahayak.
But the students are not only deprived of teachers. Leaks in roof of one of the room during monsoon has made the room unsafe for use with threat of it being razed looming large over the fate of the students who have to go to their homes to drinking water with the school devoid of a tube-well. The school also does not have a boundary wall.
In Mahada Upper Primary School, which has 76 students, there is only one teacher to teach the students. After attending to daily office work and arrangement of mid-day meal, he hardly has much of time to impart education to the students. And in case he is engaged to some survey or enumeration work by the administration, the school remains closed. This has made the teacher look like a ring master out to ensure that the students sit silently rather than teach them anything which would make them responsible citizens of tomorrow. Here also the classrooms built under SSA have leaking roofs and the office and kitchen may cave in anytime.
But the problem of Tabda Primary School is different. Although two teachers has been posted here for 40 students on pen and paper, villagers have not seen one among them since last more than a year even as he is being paid salary. They alleged that despite repeated requests and pleas to replace the teacher in leave, no action has yet been taken. In Amlipali Primary School the situation is equally grim with students almost like having to read under the open sky with gaping holes in the asbestos roof of the classrooms. However, they are blessed with two teachers.
None have of the schools in the GP has a tube-well or boundary and villagers said that request to DI of Schools have evoked only false promises. Ironically the GP does not have a High School and this forces many students to drop out of education after clearing the Upper Primary School. Even though some take the pain of traveling 10 to 15 kms to join the High School in Khuntipali, Chiplima, Bargaon and Dhama, going to school during monsoon gets impossible due to swelling water in river Mahanadi which the students have to cross in country boats to reach the school.