Image Source: Suresh Kumar Facebook page
Kolar: The government schools may not be the most popular places to study for those who can afford the same in a private institution. But for those who do not have the luxury of choosing their school, government schools are vital. Many of these schools face closure because they lack the required number of students. This, however, has not stopped one school from doing everything it can to stay open, and their secret weapon is a fifth standard girl.
Nanditha is the only student at Obbenabettu Government School in the Srinivaspura Taluk of the Kolar District, and teaching her is Komala, the only teacher employed here.
Recently, as Komala was away attending a training camp at Srinivasapura, a substitute teacher had to be brought in to teach Nanditha from a neighbouring village.
Rajajinagar MLA and Former Minister of Law and Parliamentary Affairs S Suresh Kumar of the Bharatiya Janata Party recently paid a visit to the school to check upon Nanditha after he heard reports about her being the only student there.
“It’s very sad to know that Nanditha had no friends to play with or to share anything. Only her voice was heard in the corridors of the schools,” Kumar said in a Facebook post. He felt bad that from morning till evening, Nanditha and her teacher were the people interacting with each other as they are the only people at the school. “They don’t even have a helper to help them around,” he wrote.
Speaking about his interaction with the school’s sole student, Kumar wrote, “I and Nanditha sat together and reciting a poem (“Elephant is Big, Elephant is grey………”) (sic)”
Considering that Nanditha is all alone in the school and a young and impressionable little girl, Kumar wrote about his concerns about the mental health of the child on Facebook saying, “According to me a child not just needs classroom learning, talking to friends, arguing with friends playing with friends all these are the process of learning, but I felt very sad when I realised that Nanditha is withheld from all this.”
The most shocking part about the whole scenario, however, is the fact that Nanditha doesn’t belong to the same village in which the school is located. As mentioned in Kumar’s Facebook post, Obbenabettu Government School had zero students and had even received an order to close from the government. In order to save the school from being shut down, Nanditha was brought in from a neighbouring village to enrol at Obbenahalli Government School.
Speaking about the mental health of students in such conditions, Kumar said in his post that there are plenty of schools where there are only two or three students. “I think they are playing with the student’s life just because they do not want to close government schools. everyone needs to think about it and do their bit. I will do my level best to tackle with such events, (sic)” he wrote.
The closure of a school can be a very sad thing, but children should not be made to suffer (alone in this case) just to prevent a school from being closed down. For a child’s well being, it is important for them to be surrounded by children of their own age and have friends so that they are not isolated.
