Classes of Katara Primary School being held on the verandah of a home at Randhikpur village in Dahod district. (Bhupendra Rana)Ten-Year-old Payal Rawat has been studying at the government-run Katara Primary School in Dahod’s Randhikpur village for the last five years. A student of Class V, she still hopes to go to school in a uniform, study in an appropriately-furnished classroom, play in a playground during breaks and above all have access to a proper toilet.
But since the establishment of the school seven years ago, the students are still waiting for a proper building as they are forced to attend classes in the courtyard of one Chokliben Rathwa’s (37) house.
The only sign of the school running in the neighbourhood is the beeline of students walking through a narrow trail amidst lush green corn farms to reach the house. As they reach the school, the students spread a rug and accommodate themselves. A blackboard, Gujarati, Hindi and English alphabet board and numbers chart is all that adorns the walls of this space. The temporary arrangement for the school of 43 students, most of whom are girls, does not even have a functioning toilet. At two separate intervals, all the students walk to nearby farms to relieve themselves.
The place is open from one end, due to which during monsoon, most students refrain from attending the school. The mud floor gets wet, which makes it difficult for the students to sit on it. They are then shifted inside.
Like Payal, 42 other girls and boys of the school are eagerly waiting for a building of their own. Payal, who will be promoted to Class VI in the coming academic year, says she bought a school uniform to feel like a student. “ We don’t have a uniform. I miss sitting on a chair like students in other schools. We don’t even have a playground or toilet. We want a school building.”
On the day, The Indian Express visited the school, there were no signs of a teacher until 11 am even as students kept coming till 11.30 am. Soon, Dinesh Baria (38), a teacher at government-run Sakaria prathmikshala, 5 km away, arrived to fill in as a proxy for his wife, Jasuben (43), who has been teaching at the school for the last six years, but had taken a day off for some personal reasons. The school, with 43 students has been running with a single teacher for the past couple of months after another teacher passed away in an accident.
The students from Class I to V begin their day with prayers and yoga. After chanting ‘Guru Brahmha, guru Vishnu’ in Sanskrit and Gujarati hymn ‘Vidya vinyati sobhe che’ with two students playing musical instruments – a small dhol and tambourines – they proceed to the yoga session. Two students take the centre stage and begin giving instructions – “Hands in front… on top… front again…” – and all of them chant “Om”. In the 15-minute session, the students do head, neck and hands exercise, followed by a minute of breathing exercises each and mediation.
After the yoga session ends, the students occupy their seats. One of them stands up with folded hands and asks a general knowledge question like, “what is the national bird of our country” or “what is the capital of Gujarat” and so on. The students, who know the answer, raise their hands. Every student gets a chance to ask a question. After this session, regular classes commence, all under the same roof.
The students then begin reading and writing on their own as the teacher checks individual copies.
The school was started way back in August 2012 in this neighbourhood with 18 students from Randhikpur and two nearby villages, Sakaria and Malekpur. In March 2014, a villager, Mansukh Rathwa (72), donated two acres of his farmland for the construction of the school building. A foundation stone was laid by then MLA and now Member of Parliament Jaswantsinh Bhabor in March itself. However, owing to a land dispute, the construction was stopped.
Mukesh Rawat, whose two children study in Class III and V at the school, says they had made several representations to the panchayat and education officials to expedite the process of the construction, but nothing happened. “Only recently the education officials showed up and assured us that the school building will be constructed soon. These are the crucial years of the growth of a child and they have to spent it without proper infrastructure in school, without a playground, any study aid or sports equipment,” says Rawat.
It’s only after five years, the officials have again started taking interest in the construction of the building, now that the dispute is over.
Former District Primary Education Officer (DPEO) N G Vyas, who was transferred earlier this month, says they never thought of an alternative as they found the current space to be fine. “They have seating arrangements and all the student can be accommodated in the same place.” When told that the students have sit on ground, he said that the children were accustomed to the arrangement. “So, we thought it was fine,” said Vyas who had joined in 2016. “Last December, we went through the files. We visited the spot in February, and now that the dispute has been resolved, funds have also been granted for the construction of the school building,” he said. The schoolteacher, however, said the construction is yet to begin.
