Kids of 14 villages walk one hour to reach school

LUDHIANA: After more than seven decades of Independence, children of more than 12 villages of Bet area of Ludhiana have to walk for about an hour for the sake of education in the absence of a senior secondary school.

The Bet area includes villages of Miyani, Ratangarh, Mand Chaunta, Dholanwal, Gujjarwal, Jhungiya, Salempur Bet, Selkiyana, Kaleyal, Boda, Baliyewal, Jonewal, Hadiwal and Machhiyan. But for these 14 villages, there is only one government senior secondary school -- in Chaunta village.

Government Senior Secondary School, Chaunta, however, is already burdened due to shortage of staff and classrooms. For 800 students, the school has only 14 classrooms and 10 posts are vacant. The institute has only humanities stream and if someone wants to pursue science or commerce, they have to go to Machhiwara, which is about 12 kms away.

Due to the unavailability of transport facility, children either walk or cycle to Chaunta school.

The TOI team visited these villages in morning hours and found roads filled with children in uniform, walking to reach the school. From a group of about 15 girls walking from Selkiyana village to Chaunta village, a Class X student, Amandeep Kaur, said, “We walk to Chaunta as our village has only a primary school.”

A student of Class XII, Ritu, said, “We don’t have any transportation facility, therefore we walk for an hour to reach the school.” When asked what do they do in extreme weather conditions, Ritu replied, “We take leave.”

Situation was the same in several other villages.

Laxmi Kaur, a student of Class XI from Jonewal village who studies in Government Senior Secondary School, Machhiwara, said, “I go to school by bus. The bus comes at the stop at 7.10am sharp and leaves in two minutes. After which there is no bus to Machhiwara. If we get late, we have to skip school.”

In afternoon, the students return home under soaring sun.

With the apathetic government and local administration failing to build more schools, the private institutes are taking advantages of the situation. Though the private schools charge high fee, they provide transport facility. The villagers who can afford have started sending children to private schools.

Education minister OP Soni said, “I am not aware of the situation. I will ask the district education officer to visit these schools and villages and submit a report.”

No college in area

The entire Bet area has no college, and the students travel to Machhiwara, Sahnewal or Ludhiana city for higher education.

Panchayat offers land

Nirmal Singh, sarpanch of Miyani village, said, “I have approached MLA Sharanjeet Singh Dhillon several times with the demand of upgrading school and opening a college, but to no avail. The panchayat had also offered to donate 15 acres, but got no response. People who can afford have started sending their children to private schools, but many families cannot pay high fees.”

Jam-packed institute

The Government Senior Secondary School, Chaunta, has an enrolment of 800 students, of which more than 400 students come from these 14 villages. The school has only 14 classrooms and 10 posts of teachers are vacant. Due to the shortage of teachers and space, over 70 students are packed in one classroom. As per rule, a classroom should not have more than 35 students. School in-charge Joginder Kaur said, “Since there is no other senior secondary school in nearby villages, there are many students studying here. From classes VI to X, we have two sections each and further for classes XI and XII we have one section each. Due to shortage of teachers and space, we have to make maximum students sit in one classroom. We have 91 students in class IX-A and 89 students in class IX-B. In Class X, we have 145 students and in Class XI, 95 students. With admission for Class XI under way, more students are expected.”

Schools run by single teacher

The condition of primary schools in some of these villages is not good as they are handled by single teacher. The TOI visited three government primary schools in the villages of Hadiwal, Miyani and Salempur Bet, where only one teacher teaches all five classes. The Government Primary School, Salempur Bet, has no boundary wall.

Government Primary School, Hadiwal, has six students in all five classes and one teacher for them. When the TOI team visited the school, teacher Parun Devi had gone to another school to update information of a survey — Shaala Siddhi under National Programme on School Standards and Evaluation — as the Hadiwal school has no computer facility. The mid-day meal cook was handling the students.

Government Primary School, Miyani, has 13 students who sit in one classroom. Its two other classrooms have been declared unsafe. Single teacher has been handling all students since 2016 after which the panchayat provided a private teacher this year.

Government Primary School, Salempur Bet, has 11 students and one teacher. The school is sans a boundary wall and animals often roam near classrooms.

In Government Primary School, Chaunta, the panchayat has hired a private teacher to help head teacher Heera Lal.