The number of students who have enrolled in Government Higher Primary School at Ballupete in Sakleshpur taluk has crossed 250 this year. The strength is expected to go up to 300 considering the number of parents visiting the school enquiring about the seats. However, last year, there were only 120 students. The increase in the strength is attributed to the new school building that has come up as part of the corporate social responsibility activities of Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL).
The BEL constructed the building at a cost of Rs. 1.85 crore. It has 10 classrooms, a staff room, a headmaster’s room, toilet blocks, a kitchen, a store room, a borewell and is surrounded by a boundary wall. BEL also provided furniture for the classrooms and the staffroom.
M.L. Shanmukha, Director (HR), BEL, told The Hindu that the company chose to develop the school as part of its CSR activities, based on a recommendation by G.R. Basavaraj, former Deputy Director of Public Instructions of Hassan. “We do not select the place of work. DDPI recommended this school for improvement and we did our work. We will return the responsibility to the school administration,” he said.
Shift to new building
The government school was started in 1928. Thousands of students have studied here over the last 88 years. The old building is in a dilapidated condition. V.M. Kantharaju, DDPI, told The Hindu, “The school will be shifted to the new building soon. The old building will be retained and utilised to run a PU college for some time. Later, it will be demolished,” he said. He also thanked the BEL for their contribution towards strengthening the infrastructure of a government school in a village.
The BEL laid the foundation stone for the new building in February 2015 and handed over the school to the government on Thursday.
Former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda, who is also Lok Sabha member of Hassan, Hassan district in-charge minister A. Manju, Sakleshpur MLA H.K. Kumaraswamy and others were present on the occasion.
Strength increasing
Even as the information of BEL constructing the building spread around Ballupete, many people visited the place and thought it was better than many private schools around.
Vittalamurthy, Cluster Resource Person, Ballupete Cluster, said, “In the last one month alone, more than 120 students have taken admission in this school. Interestingly, many children have come from private convents,” he said.
Apart from the building, the attractions for parents were English-medium teaching from Class 6 and teaching of English as a language from Class 1.
“We have begun LKG and UKG classes as well. From now on, the school will record a good strength,” he added.
