With no basic facilities, meagre teaching staff and petty politics among elders, these students lose out.
With no basic facilities, meagre teaching staff and petty politics among elders, these students lose out.
NASHIK: They spell knowledge as 'nolej', circus as 'sarkas' and the plural of 'boy', they say, is 'girls'! What's more, these are class X students we are talking about. Studying at the Vasantdada Patil high school run by the Nashik Taluka Vidhayak Karya Samiti at Mahdsangvi, these students haven't even had one practical session since their fifth standard as their school does not have a laboratory.
The room with a 'laboratory' sign hanging at the door is being used as a make-shift staff room. During their physical education period, these kids don't play table tennis or badminton. Instead, they just sit under a tree and chat. However, these kids are smart and are aware that there's a want of knowledge and facilities at their school.
"There are no proper facilities at our school. We don't even have games and extra curricular activities," says Sarad Barve, a class X student. Another student Yogeeta Godakhe couldn't agree more. "We don't know spellings. We don't want to go back to that school," she said.
All students except one have stopped going to this school and are attending make shift classes, an arrangement made for them by the villagers. The only student attending this school is a class X boy named Abhijeet Pekhale. "I like this school and I don't think anything is wrong with it. Also, my parents told me that the elders agitating have ulterior motives. Why should I stop coming to my school for that?" he says.
But for the rest 650 students, the school, environment and facilities are grossly insufficient. After their Marathi teacher was transferred, they lost patience over the mismanagement by school authorities and voiced their protest against the insufficient teaching and infrastructural facilities. In Jan 2005, the students walked upto the Grampanchayat with their complaint and refused to leave the premise till some action was taken.
"Parents decided to remove their wards from the school and almost all of them sent applications for a leaving certificate to the grampanchyat. The matter has been discussed with the ZP education officer and decision is awaited but at no cost will we allow our children to go to the school run by the same institute," states Sarpanch Sampat Pekhle.
The villagers, rising above party politics got together and have made arrangements to start classes elsewhere. Since last three days the class X tutorials are being held in the cultural hall of the village. Private tutors have come forward to teach and some retired teachers and professors from nearby have been invited so that the students don't lose focus. In the latest development, on Thursday evening the ZP education officer has appointed an administrator over the school.
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