Kundapur: Gangolli Ratha Beedi school - Children, teachers have tough time

Silvester D'Souza
Daijiworld Media Network – Kundapur (SP)

Kundapur, Jun 5: At a time when children are happy attending schools after summer vacation with fresh clothes and new friends, the students of the school at car street (Ratha Beedi) Gangolli shudder at the thought of attending their classes. They are not afraid of the teachers or the lessons, but the terrible stench and filthy environment at the school that have turned schooling into a nauseating experience for them.

The Ratha Beedi government lower primary school at Gangolli in the taluk is located by the side of the local fish market. The effluent from the fish market gushes into the school compound, and the students have an aversion towards the bad odour of decomposed fish spread around the school, which stays in their nostrils much after they leave school.

There is a tube well in front of the school, but as the tap there has rusted, the school people have to struggle to get even drinking water. The fact that only three small rooms are available at the school to accommodate first to fifth standard students besides making room for teachers room and space for ‘Nalikali’ programme, have complicated the matter. The parents of the school children are worried at the discomfiture of their small ones, who do not get even basic facilities at this school.

The vendors at the fish market are contributing to the mess by using the space at the back of this school for relieving themselves. The drunkards have found the backside of the school a convenient space for tossing the empty liquor bottles at night, and students can be seen curiously looking at these bottles and trying to get more knowledge about them.

The children of this school do not have a good ground to play. Although the school is located very near to the road, it lacks proper compound wall, posing the lives of the small children to increased risk.