Morarji Desai Backward Classes Residential School, which aims at providing education in English medium to students belonging to weaker sections from classes 6 to 10, functions from a private hall at Alevoor here. Poor students from Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes are admitted to the school.
The school has moved places thrice in the last five years. The school, when it was started in 2009, was located at Uliyargoli village near Kaup. Then it was shifted to Majur village in 2010. Because of water problem at Majur, it was shifted to a private hall at Alevoor village near Udupi in 2012.
Five classrooms, a staff room, a computer room, and principal’s chamber, separated by six feet long wood partitions, are housed in the hall. The girls and boys’ dormitories are located on either side of the hall. What is taught in one class can be heard in another class. The teachers felt the lack of separate classrooms made it quiet difficult to teach. The roof of the hall has big cobwebs.
This school, which comes under the Karnataka Residential Educational Institutions Society (KREIS), is supervised by the District Backward Classes and Minorities Department. According to R. Sheshappa, in-charge District Backward Classes and Minorities Officer, as per norms, there should be separate classrooms, a lab, a library and a staffroom. Since no building conforming to these norms was available, the school was shifted to this hall, he said.
There are 136 students (95 boys and 41 girls) in this co-education school. Only 25 per cent of the students are from Udupi district. School Principal Kalpana said the school paid Rs. 50,000 per month as rent for the hall.
Due to space and other problems, the school did not admit students in class 6 this year. According to District Social Welfare Officer S.S. Premnath, the 50 students to be admitted to class 6 were absorbed by four other Morarji Desai Schools in Udupi district.
The school also faces water problem during summer. Shyla Shet, a teacher, said water tankers came once in two days during the summer.
Although 10 acres of land has been allotted to this school at Kodibettu village, the construction was likely to take at least one and a half years. Meanwhile, the Department of Public Instruction has agreed to provide Government Higher Primary School located on 38 cents of land at Ontibettu village for the Alevoor Morarji Desai School as the former had only five students.
“The Ontibettu school has separate classrooms, staffroom, kitchen and toilets. But we will have to build additional toilets and a room. It would take at least two months to shift to Ontibettu. All these matters would be discussed at a meeting called by Deputy Commissioner on July 8,” Mr. Sheshappa said.
