How
does your kid commute to school … many of us are not in a position to drop them
to school…. Most make arrangements with private autos; vans and cycle
rickshaws….. and feel that they have done their duty….. not many care to see the way their children commute in the
vehicle arranged….. many a parents would keep on making
calls to their van driver … just to know where the van is, whether their delay
in preparations could impact and whether their children is safely
travelling…….. all ‘without ever thinking that they are imperilling their own
and other children travelling in that van’………..you see some small boyish driver
driving the van rashly ~ speaking on the mobile phone all the time !! and he
could well be answering your call….. duty does not stop with that… after all you are paying for that van,
can’t you care to check whether the vehicle is properly maintained and whether
it is being driven by a person, who possess valid DL and is in a state of mind
to drive it properly….. ???
On
a different plane, did
you occasion to the school you studied a couple of decades ago to see how it is
now ? If you had studied in a rural
village / in a Govt school, it could not longer be the heaven that it was when you studied ! Modern schools charge a fortune
[most parents pay without a grumble], have great premises, good looking
comfortable classrooms [best education may not be guaranteed though !] Today’s The Hindu reports that - Odisha
government has closed down 196 Government-run schools those that could not
manage to enrol more than five students.
Replying
to a query in State Assembly, School & Mass Education Minister Debi Prasad
Mishra said 196 schools, primary and upper primary, in 26 districts of the
State were found to have five students and less than that.While Kandhamal
district has 18 schools failing to enrol more than five students, Gajapati
follows with 17 such schools and Sundargarh and Jharsuguda six each.Mr.
Mishra, said, however, no high school has reached a stage wherein it
has to be closed down due to want of requisite number of students. “We are
taking a number of steps to increase confidence of students on government high
schools.”
Earlier
in the ongoing monsoon session, the minister had admitted that there had been
consistent fall in student enrollment in government primary schools.According to
information sheet, in 2012-13 academic year, 43,41,046 have taken admission in
government primary schools. In the next year (2013-14), the number of students
dropped to 42,77,710 and last year (2014-15) it further fell to 42,23,628
students in government primary schools. In a clear indication of parents
preferring private schools over government school, in urban centres of 10
districts, students studying in private schools have outnumbered their
counterparts in government schools.
There
are 53,455 primary and upper primary schools in Odisha. Of these, 373 schools
do not have their own buildings, 4397 schools have no separate classrooms for
all classes and 1691 schools operate from a single room.Mr. Mishra also pointed
out that National University of Educational Planning and Administration was
considering giving 10 days of special training to 150 headmasters who will be
tasked to improve quality of education in their respective schools.
While
those in Cities may never understand, there are many villages and rural areas,
where schools lack the basic infrastructure resembling those classes held under
trees in open.
Our
Hon’ble Dr APJ who passed away recently, hailed from the beautiful holy island
of Rameswaram- not sure whether there is
a college at his birth place [seemingly none !]. There are a
couple of Government high schools, one each for boys and girls. There are
seven other schools in Rameswaram, of which he studied at ‘ Mandapam
Panchayat Union school’ at Traders street.
The
island of Rameshwaram in Ramanathapuram District of Tamilnadu is a very
religious place housing the famous Ramanatha Swamy temple – the place where
Lord Rama worshipped Shiv in linga form. This is on Pamban island separated
from the main land – the Gulf of Mannar. Inside Rameswaram island, as you go further –
the south-eastern tip is : Danushkodi
(Danush would mean the bow and kodi means the end). Hindu legend has it that at
the request of Vibeeshana, Lord Rama broke the Sethu (the bridge) with one end
of his bow and hence the name Danushkodi.
Cyclone
and heavy weather are not unheard in the southern States of India. Something worst happened on 23rd Dec 1964 – a cyclonic storm wiped out part of the
Nation and took away Dhanushkodi from the Indian map. A severe storm crossed Vavunia of Srilanka with a wind
velocity of 150 knots (280 km/h), moved into Palk Strait and crashed into
Dhanushkodi of Rameshwaram island on the night of 22–23 December 1964. It was
estimated that tidal waves were 8 yards high when it crossed Rameswaram. Those days, it was well connected and there
was a direct train service from Madras called Boat Mail Express. Fatefully,
train No.653, Pamban-Dhanushkodi Passenger, a daily regular service with 110
passengers and 5 railway staff, was hit by the massive tidal wave near the
Dhanushkodi station and was washed away killing all its passengers.
The
high tidal waves ruined and devastated the entire town. Following this disaster,
the Government of Madras declared the town as Ghost town and unfit for living
after the storm. Only a memorial pillar lies there now. The railway track got
covered by sand dunes and was abandoned – no body lives there and the train
services were no longer considered viable.Today in the forlorn place, some
fisherfolk live.
When
we visited this place, reaching was only by a Jeep beyond the checkpoint – it
was no road, but sand and only 4WD would move on. The locals fix a special hub enabling the
vehicle movement on sand, driving along beaten path. There is nothing on the way at many places,
as one could see Bay of Bengal on one side and Indian Ocean on the other.
On
our way back from the southern tip of the island, we saw a small school and
some students happily playing inside the school. A couple of teachers boarded our rickety
vehicle, travelling back to residential locality around the
Temple. One wondered their commitment
travelling in such vehicles to reach the school, educate the children who do
not dream of any facilities. Appreciable
is their work indeed ! ~ and here below are some photos taken at Dhanushkodi
during our visit in Apr 2011.
With
regards – S. Sampathkumar
28th
Aug 2015.
The mangled remains of
what once was a rail track at Dhanushkodi
Jeep being modified to
run on sand
Beaten track
Sea as seen here
Little school and happy students !!
The vehicle and a boat
at the tip of land
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