Students learning their lessons with cattle
BHOPAL: Young students at Devapada, some 350 kilometres from Bhopal have their classes peopled with cattle. They have a stable for a classroom and animals and poultry for company.
One of the students Shaitan Singh said, “There is no sitting facility for us; also, animals are tied here when we study. The animals at times kick us and also attack us with their horns.”
There’s no roof either. So, when it rains, the students have to run helter-skelter and classes are often called off.
When enquired it is seen that the District Collectorate finds nothing wrong with it.
“When I went to the classroom there were no animals tied there. I even enquired with the villagers, they told me that during the school timing the animals are left in the village to graze,” said Collector Rajendra Sharma.
This school was meant to have its own building but the Collector accuses village heads of embezzling funds, and also questions the state government’s claims of having built primary schools every three kilometres in rural Madhya Pradesh.
Sarva Shikhsha Abhiyan aims to ensure all children complete five years of school and have access to good quality education, but this is the reality of education across India.
Around 10 million primary age children remain out of school and some independent surveys have shown that half of all children in the 7-14 age groups cannot read.
