Hyderabad: It’s a government primary school with 37 students at Brahmamgari thanda. It would require a very small patch of land and a little money to construct a building for the school.
Yet, for 21 years, the school has struggled to find a site for the building. If it is land sharks on the one side, it is officialdom on the other that has chased it away.
The school has had to change its location five times since 2015. It is now being run in an under-construction building, with no chance to put black board or even the school nameboard.
Currently, it is located in the line of sight officials, 200 metres from the Kesamudram mandal headquarters in Mahbubabad district. Before that, the students have attended classes in sheds and huts.
This academic year began badly. The school could not pay the rent on time and the houseowner forced them to vacate the premises and locked it on the day of reopening. Around 30 students left the school this year and joined the private schools.
The parents, the staff and the school’s management committee members have put up many requests, held dharnas and rasta rokas for a site for the school building. The problem is, land sharks do not leave them in peace at any site the school gets.
Land is allotted to the school at regular intervals. However, the land is immediately encroached upon, and officials sidestep the issue. The land ends up in litigation, leaving the school with no site
In 2012, after many requests, then MRO Bhansi Lal allocated 4 guntas of land for school and sanctioned Rs 10.8 lakh through Rajiv Vidya Mission (RVM). Opposition leaders opposed it, saying the land was allotted to a temple.
In 2019, the new MRO allocated four guntas. The staff applied for funds from the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan but were turned down. The school was granted Rs 23.38 lakh under 'Mana Ooru-Mana Badi’ but the management learnt that half the land had been encroached in the meanwhile.
The revenue officials failed to find the land records to resolve the ownership issue.
The school management decided to construct its building in the left over land but found that the money sanction had been cancelled. School officials were told that that a 2015 report of the Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE) showed that the school had a building, leading to the cancellation.
“Since 2001, there is no school and suddenly in 2015, there is mention of a school building, which mysteriously disappears in the forms since 2016. I feel there is a conspiracy,'' headmaster Venkateshwarlu said.
On August 8, district education officer (DEO) Abdul Hai stated that he had visited the school, checked the reports given by MEO and MRO, secured approval from the collector to set up additional classrooms and sent the file to the school education directorate for sanction to construct the building. It will take one week to update the sanction in the Mana Ooru Mana Badi portal. Once it is updated, the assistant engineer will take up the work.
No land has been allotted to the school till now.
There is another sufferer in this drama: An Anganwadi school with 20 kids up to five years of age. That school was to be shifted to the site where the primary school would come up. The Anganwadi school is run from a single room, pays Rs 500 per month as rent. The rent has been revised to Rs 1,000 and an Anganwadi teacher, B. Jyothi, fears that now they will be forced to vacate. They have nowhere to go.
Appeal for help
"Many officials and political leaders visited the school but none of them addressed our needs," said Abhi Ram, Class 4 student.
"Only a few of us have received EVS, Telugu, Maths textbooks and uniforms. We don’t have a toilet. We are forced to go outside where there are snakes and big insects. Our sir accompanies us." Banoth Pavan, Guguloth Charan, Class 5 students
"With no toilets here me and my friends are forced to relieve outside and our cook Sunitha accompanies us. We only received two textbooks and are waiting for uniforms. When it rains we are unable to sit on the mud floor as our dresses get spoiled," said Ella Hima Sruthi, Class 4 student
"The school is close to the mandal HQ but we are helpless. Other schools far from the mandal HQ have minimum basic facilities, We cannot afford to send our kid to a private school but she is unable to receive good education. Every year we pin hopes on a new school building but only disappointment comes," said Banoth Balu, Autorickshaw driver, parent of Class 3 student Vaishnavi
One owner locks toilet; another wants school out
Government schools in Rammanepet and Patha Thanda of Mahbubabad district are being run in small rented houses.
At the Ramannapet primary school, 65 students study in a single bedroom house, overseen by two teachers. The owner wants the school to move out.
A teacher said that if the media mentioned the school, the staff would be asked for an explanation.
At Patha Thanda, the school pays Rs. 5,400 as rent but the owner has locked the toilets. Students and staff are forced to relieve themselves outside. Headmaster Md Shabeer said, “We pay half the amount from the school's fund for rent.” He said their representations to the DEO were ignored.
