A Block Education Officer (BEO) and teachers from a government school near Sirumugai in Coimbatore took a coracle ride on Friday and visited the residences of students in a tribal hamlet to ensure those students continued their studies.
Karamadai BEO M. Ramesh Babu along with four teachers from Panchayat Union Middle School, Lingapuram, decided to visit the hamlet on Friday morning on a coracle to traverse Kanthayar river and reach out to the students who had completed Class V at a government tribal residential primary school in Kanthavayal hamlet.
“The headmistress of the [Lingapuram] school said in a recent meeting that admissions for Class VI was low this year,” Mr. Babu told The Hindu on Saturday.
He said that the headmistress P. Gajalakshmi and the teachers at the Lingapuram school had told him that none of the students from the tribal residential primary school at Kanthavayal, who completed class V had enrolled for Class VI at the Panchayat Union Middle School.
In an attempt to persuade the children, Mr. Babu and four of the teachers took the coracle ride and reached the other side of the river on Friday and met with the children and parents.
They succeeded in enrolling seven students. “We distributed textbooks notebooks, bags and uniforms to the seven students,” Mr. Babu said. Once the school reopens, the Revenue Department will arrange for coracles and motor boats to help the students cross the river and reach the Lingapuram school every day, he noted.
“This is the highest number of students we have had for Class VI so far,” said M. Sivakumar, mathematics teacher at Panchayat Union Middle School, Lingapuram, who was one of the four teachers in the coracle.
The Class VI will have this year a total of 28 students, which comprises the seven students from the Kanthavayal tribal hamlet, six other students from the Primary School at Kanthavayal whom the teachers reached out for admissions last month and 15 students already enrolled through the regular admission process, he said.
With six teachers available at the Lingapuram school, they will visit the houses in the Kanthavayal hamlet twice a week from Monday to teach the seven students till the schools reopen. “Four teachers will take turns and visit them on Mondays and Thursdays,” Mr. Sivakumar said.