Prempura (Fatehgarh Sahib), April 17
It’s not a school for scandal but certainly has something queer about it. The government primary school at Prempura lacks the very thing that forms the core of a school: Students. But it certainly has a teacher — 32-year-old Rupinder Kaur.
In many ways, Kaur is a unique teacher as her responsibility extends beyond doling out lessons. Everyday, while on her way to school, she has to convince the villagers and sometimes even plead with them to send their wards to the government facility. But till now her efforts have been in vain as the school has not seen even a single student enrolling in the current academic session.
The villagers, who scoff at lack of basic facilities at the school, are happy sending their children to nearby private institutes. “The private schools are much better as compared to the government school, which even doesn’t have basic infrastructure,” rued Manjit Singh, a villager.
Around seven years ago, the school was closed down due to lack of teachers. It was started a year ago under the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyaan. Kaur said she taught two Class I students in the just-concluded session. “But there are no students now. Despite our repeated requests, people here don’t want to send their kids to the government school,” she said.
The villagers maintain that it is a prestige issue for them to to send their children to private schools (there are more than three in the vicinity of the village) where there are teachers, who
no teachers give lessons in English, and latest facilities, including computers.
Manjit Singh said since there is no student in the government school, the teacher should be deputed to some other school that is reeling under staff crunch.
“The money being spent on maintaining the school and the salary of the teacher should not go waste,” he added.
Manjit Kaur block chairperson of Human Rights Manch and member of Block Education Committee said that efforts should be made to improve facilities in government schools to attract students. She said that there are some other schools in the area where the strength of students is quite low.
When told that there was not even s single student enrolled in the Prempura school, DEO (primary) Surinder Singh said: “I will have to check it.”
