“Sarpanch sir, please motivate people and see that toilets are constructed in all the houses and we will see to it that you get the Best Gram Panchayat award.”
Pathetic scenario
This was what students of the Zilla Parishad High School (ZPHS) in Chintalakunta, the last village of Mahabubnagar district and Telangana, adjoining Raichur mandal of Karnataka, had to tell the sarpanch Rajashekar. And they said it in the presence of Mahabubnagar District Collector T.K. Sreedevi, who visited the school on Wednesday, in an expression of anguish at the horrific situation in the village that has 760 households and a population of 3,000 where barring half-a-dozen houses, the rest do not have toilets.
For a bit of background, recently 1,667 students of over half-a-dozen Government schools in Gattu and Aija mandals had written to the High Court complaining of absenteeism by teachers and how they were being deprived of education.
Responding swiftly, a division Bench of the High Court comprising Acting Chief Justice D.B. Bhosale and Justice S.V. Bhatt on Monday (August 17) ordered notices in the ‘suo moto taken-up’ case regarding non-availability of teachers in nine government schools of the district. The Bench expressed its anguish at the way education of these rural children was being treated and asked the government and Director of School Education to respond by Thursday. “I am amazed at the levels of awareness in students of the ZPHS, Chintalakunta and another school in Gattu mandal headquarters that I visited on Wednesday.
A 10{+t}{+h}grader Shanti spoke to me about the Right to Education Act. I spent over an hour at Chintalakunta and as I was leaving, the students clung to me for a photograph. Most kids I spoke to displayed commendable awareness about education, cleanliness and hygiene,” Ms. Sreedevi told The Hindu over phone.
Vacancies
The ZPHS in Chintalakunta has six posts of teachers, of which three are vacant. The District Collector had recently said that teachers with transfer orders could not be relieved unless a reliever was posted. She has also written to the Commissionerate of School Education asking for 1,900 Academic/Teaching Assistants so that their services could be used at schools in remote areas.
