BHADRAK: Students of Sandoda Nodal Primary School do not want to attend classes and their parents have no complaints. However, they have a reason. For them, safety of their children comes before education.
The school was set up in 1992 in Bonth block of Bhadrak district. The school without boundary has no electricity or drinking water facilities. Although there is a tubewell, it pumps out muddy water that is unfit for consumption.
The school has four classrooms of which, two have been declared unsafe. Students from Classes I to V are accommodated in the other two classrooms.
Children share the playground with stray dogs, cattle and in the absence of a boundary wall, the campus turns into a safe haven for anti-socials in the evening. Several portions of the school have developed cracks, windows and doors are either broken or hanging from hinges. “The two unsafe classrooms have not been demolished yet by the School and Mass Education department officials and we keep a watch on the children during recess to prevent them from entering the structures,” said Khageswar Jena, headmaster of the school.
While there is no kitchen room to cook mid-day meals (MDM) and store ration, food is cooked in verandah.
Moreover, the student strength of the school has come down from 200 to 64. Jena said `8 lakh was sanctioned by the department for construction of new classrooms eight months back but the contractor concerned abandoned the project mid-way.