Sunita Tagare, coordinator, JBGVS Samaj Seva Kendra, Aurangabad, said, “With improved school infrastructure, students are finally getting a chance to study in a comfortable, safe and conducive environment.”
Shivrai Ashramshala, a government-aided school in the industrial town of Waluj, Marathwada, is dedicated to catering to the children of nomadic tribes.
For years, the school had been struggling with low attendance, one of the reasons for which was inadequate and poor infrastructure. However, the school witnessed a nearly 25 per cent increase in attendance over the last few months with some simple renovations — repainted building, new furniture, computers and a projector.
Bhagwan V Patil, head of Ashramshala Shivrai, said, “The students as well as the parents have responded well to the newly-introduced facilities. The students feel motivated to come to school now and use new benches, computers etc. We have also witnessed a rise in the new admissions this academic year.”
The renovation work, Patil added, was carried out under the school infrastructure development initiative of Pune-based Jankidevi Bajaj Gram Vikas Sanstha (JBGVS) in these villages, carried under Bajaj Auto’s corporate social responsibility initiative.
The school, which runs classes from 1 to 8, has nearly 350 students, of which 108 stay in its hostel. Patil said, “During winters, in the extreme cold temperature of Marathwada, the students suffered bathing with cold water. But now we have installed a solar heating system (also sponsored by JBGVS).”
As per a survey conducted by JBGVS, seven zilla parishad schools, including a government-aided private school, in villages near Waluj had several classrooms where roofs, flooring and walls were in bad condition.
In some cases, the number of classrooms was insufficient. Hence, JBGVS carried out elaborate meetings with school committees, before commencement of the actual repair work and the monitoring thereafter.
The work started in 2016 and will be completed this year.
Sunita Tagare, coordinator, JBGVS Samaj Seva Kendra, Aurangabad, said, “With improved school infrastructure, students are finally getting a chance to study in a comfortable, safe and conducive environment.”
JBGVS carried out similar work in several other schools in villages, in Gangapur and Paithan talukas of Aurangabad. The work included new classrooms, new sanitation complex, benches, painting, door repairs, waterproofing, compound wall and window replacement.
JBGVS had also undertaken other works in Aurangabad district this year. Elaborating on the same, Randhir Patil, project manager, JBGVS, said, “We installed 163 e-learning units, constructed/ repaired 13 sanitation complexes and six schools, provided other educational equipment to 22 schools and conducted 114 educational/ training sessions.”