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 the students continued their studies.

Karamadai BEO M. Ramesh Babu along with four teachers from Panchayat Union Middle School, Lingapuram, decided to visit the hamlet by traversing the Kanthayar on a coracle and reached out to the students who had completed Class V at a government tribal residential primary school in Kanthavayal.

“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 headmistress P. Gajalakshmi and the teachers at the Lingapuram school had told him that none of the students from Kanthavayal, who had completed class V, enrolled for Class VI at the Panchayat Union Middle School.

In an attempt to persuade the parents, the BEO and teachers reached the other side of the river in a coracle and met them.

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 would arrange for coracles and motor boats to help 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, a mathematics teacher at the Panchayat Union Middle School, Lingapuram, one of the teachers who made the trip.

As many as 28 students had enrolled for Class VI. This includes the seven students enrolled from Kanthavayal on Friday’s visit, six others 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, 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.