HYDERABAD: Months after a report by TNIE pointed out the lack of schools in the Jawahar Nagar dumping yard area in Medchal-Malkajgiri district, a new primary school has been set up in Kapra mandal. Mandal Educational Officer (MEO) G Shashidhar along with local children inaugurated the Mandal Parishad Primary School in Gabbilalapet on Monday.
Locals, NGO chip in to set up school in Hyderabad
“Soon after, district officials enquired about the ground realities and held meetings with the headmasters of all schools in the area. They sanctioned a government school in Gabbilalapet with the support of the local community,” said Hima Bindu, a child rights worker. While the law mandates that a primary school be established within a distance of 1 km and an upper primary school within 3 km, there was no school within the 5 to 7 km radius of the children living in the area.
When the government sanctioned the school, the locals came forward and with the help of Child Rights and You (CRY), an NGO working for the health, education and safety of children, a private place was identified. The entire initiative was sponsored by CRY’s corporate partner, Ravi Kumar Peesapati, vice-president of Cohance Lifesciences, under its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programme.
The new school, which has been started temporarily from a private space, will soon be moved to a permanent building as the department is looking for suitable land to build sufficient infrastructure. Currently, the school has two rooms and one functional toilet with plenty of verandah space for children to play. The Mid Day Meal scheme will be started soon to encourage students to attend school. As of now, the school can accommodate 40 to 50 students from classes 1 to 4. Two teachers have been sanctioned for the school. The salary for one teacher will be crowdfunded while the government will sanction the salary for the other teacher.However, the students will have to wait till the start of the next academic year for uniforms and books.
In need for more schools
A mother of five, Meena Kaur got her three daughters enrolled in the school on Monday. Along with her husband, she works as a daily wage worker. “We were planning to enrol our children in a private expensive school nearby. However, our landlord told us that a new school has been sanctioned for slum children and asked us to wait for two months,” she said, adding that they are now hoping that the government sanction a high school in the area so that her two sons can continue their education.
Speaking to TNIE, G Ramesh Kumar, retired headmaster of BJR Nagar school and resident of Jawahar Nagar, said that it is the first school that is being established in the area since 2000. “We have been trying to set up a school since 2015. Schools were sanctioned a couple of times but to no avail,” he said, adding that there is a need for at least three more primary schools in the area.
The dignitaries present for the inauguration, including the secretarial officer of Medchal District Education Office (DEO) Ravinder Raju, Assistant Statistical coordinator Iyanna, Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) supervisor Dhanalakshmi and MEO, among others, were facilitated by the children who had dropped out of the schools.
The dropouts include a girl who stopped her education after studying till Class 8 at the Zilla Parishad High School in Balajinagar during the pandemic. Since a lot of girls from the area had dropped out of school, it had become difficult for her to go to school by herself. The 15-year-old girl is now employed with a dry fruit packing company.
Another boy, who came here from Karimnagar, was enrolled into an urban residential school by the DEO itself, but ran away from it and currently works at a nearby construction site. Even though the new school MPPS Gabilalapet has opened the door for new opportunities for hundreds of children, children in Jawaharnagar slums need more primary schools, high schools and junior colleges in their own community to flourish further.