Single Teacher school, Batanharra
Nagri Block, Dhamtari, Chhattisgarh
Purusottam Singh Thakur
Azim Premji Foundation
Of all blocks of Dhamtari district, Nagri is the most backward, most populated by tribals, and covered with forests. The condition of the tribal schools in this remote part of India is in no way different from that of those in many tribal areas of the country. Primary School, Batanharra is run by the Department of Tribal Welfare, Government of Chhattisgarh. Batanharra is 60 km from Dhamtariand 17 km from the block headquarters, Nagri. It is located in a remote and jungle area. There is no pucca road; we reached the school through a jungle route from the district headquarters (Dhamtari) by bike. 
When we visited the school one afternoon, we found the students doing some task on their own in an openmandapThey greeted us with “Good afternoon, Sir” and some of them bent to touch our feet despite our protests (in Chhattisgarh, students normally greet teachers and elders by touching feet). When we asked about the teachers, they showed us into a classroom; when we went inside we found the teacher surrounded by students as he corrected their books.
It was time for the mid-day meal, so he came out of the class and the children assembled in the open mandap with their utensils after washing their hands at the hand pump. We have seen some other schools where the school authorities complain that there is no dinning space for children; here we saw the solution in a mandap. The mandap has been built by the villagers themselves and is being used for several purposed including teaching, as a dining space, for School Management Committee (SMC) meetings, children’s meeting, and so on.It is a small village under Ghotgaon Gram Panchayat with a population of about 700 villagers and less than 100 households. This is almost a 100% tribal village and people are dependent on both agriculture and forest produce for their livelihood. The school has a strength of 64 students which comprises of 29 boys and 35 girls. 
The school has a boundary wall, but there is problem of water, hence they are not able to maintain a kitchen garden, explains Head Teacher, Mr. Puranikaram Netam. The school building is dilapidated, and this is a big problem in the rainy season. The Cluster Academic Co-coordinator (CAC) has assured the school of sending the proposal to the authority for repairing the building. Mr. Netam says the government is providing free study materials like books and school uniforms.
The sanctioned number of teachers for the school is three but it has been a single teacher school for long. This is obviously problematic for the school as the students are deprived of subject-specific teachers. “Since there are 5 classes and I am covering all the classes, we are not able finish the chapters in time. I am not able to maintain the CCE documents and many other things which I should have done. Official as well as academic work is both getting disturbed. So I am very worried about it.”says Netam Sir. Not just the teacher, the villagers and the SMC (School Management Committee) are also worried about this. “We have been to the Collector to apprise him of the situation and demanded immediate postings of teachers. The Collector assured us that this will be done within a week, but all in vain! We are still waiting, and weeks have passed.” says Anil Kumar Som, member of the SMC and a member of the Halba community. “We are obliged to Netam Sir. Despite all odds he regularly comes to school and teaches the students, and he is trying his best to build the future of our children,” explains Ramchand Taram, another villager and a member of the Gond tribe. 
We observed that despite all these odds, Mr. Netam, the HT, regularly comes to school; he had taken only 4/5 days of leave in all of last year only because he was not well. In his absence, the middle school teacher managed the school. He says, “My school is a single teacher school, so I cannot afford to be absent when it’s not very urgent. Because students are regular, they are very active, they participates in cultural and sports activities. They are always ready to learn and are very affectionate among themselves.”
The school may not be a model school based on different parameters set by educationists and the norms of RtE Act and NCF, but after visiting the school and meeting the students, teacher and parents, one cannot say it is not a good school. In a remote pocket, a school with a teacher who is regular and sincere and who has great concern for students and people is a definitely a good school at least in the eyes of the villagers. |
