Growing up, two-year-old Pradeep is unlikely to have any vivid recollection of his first brush with learning. That may, in fact, prove to be a blessing in disguise.
Besides the scent of biscuits and toffees somewhat sweetening the memories of that premature initiation into the world of knowledge, it would have brought in a flash a painful childhood marked by abject penury and homelessness.
Pradeep and four-year-old Roja are among seven children, some in their early teens, from a nomadic migrant fishing community from Mysuru being given online classes under the second Goshree bridge at Vallarpadam. With only the bridge for a roof overhead, their learning could be jeopardised anytime by a reasonably strong spell of showers.
Serving as a constant backdrop to their class is their parents engaged in myriad jobs, from cooking to mending fishing nets. For, what functions as their makeshift school also doubles up as their home.
“We impressed upon their parents the value of education and keeping them safe from exploitations of a predatory society. We have no other way but to conduct classes under the bridge, and hopefully this will appeal to the conscience of authorities,” said Elizabeth Fernandez, headmistress of St. John Bosco’s Upper Primary School, Ernakulam. A few children were students of the school, while some are about to be enrolled.
The class lasts just over an hour, with the teacher giving lessons with the aid of a laptop. Students are given masks and sanitisers before the class gets under way.
The children are from families living under the bridge alone, while clusters of makeshift dwellings of the community dot Vallarpadam and adjoining areas, with fishing on round crafts being their source of a meagre income. Resource crunch hampers any attempt to reach out to more such children, while the prospect of the reopening of the school with its infrastructure challenges remains far from reassuring, said Ms. Fernandez.