The old building of primary school at Nuapada village
BHUBANESWAR: SARVA Shiksha Abhiyan has been of little help for students of Kalahandi. Although several crores of rupees are being pumped into the district to improve the quality of school education at primary level, not much work is being done.There are 2,444 government schools in Kalahandi of which, 1,039 classrooms of 263 school buildings have been declared unsafe by the R&D department. Five primary schools do not have buildings of their own and function from huts and rented houses.
Consider the case of the primary school at Nuapada village under Koksara block. The three-room building is dilapidated and can collapse if it rains heavily. The building was abandoned last year after a portion of it collapsed following rain. Constructed in 1990, the building’s condition deteriorated within 17 years due to poor quality of construction.
When no government official paid heed to their request of repairing the school building, parents of the schoolchildren searched for an alternative and a widow, Saja Rout, volunteered to let the schoolteachers use her partially constructed Indira Awas Yojana (IAY) house to teach students. While Rout stayed in her hut, her IAY house is being used to organise classes daily from last year. Although aware of the arrangement, authorities concerned have done little to renovate the old building.
Another primary school in Raisinghpur village, located on the outskirts of Bhawanipatna town along the NH-26, functions from a dilapidated temple. The school was set up in 2008 and for construction of its building, `6.44 lakh was sanctioned. However, as no land was identified for construction of the school building, villagers decided to allow the school to function from a temple. Last year, a government plot was demarcated for the school by the local tehsil office but construction is yet to begin.District Project Coordinator of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, Gabakhya Naik, said he had taken stock of the situation and steps would be taken to renovate the Nuapada school besides, construction of Raisinghpur school will begin soon.
