One of the classrooms at the Government Model Primary School at Hosahalli in Bengaluru has luggage trunks stacked up and clothes hanging next to the blackboard. Another classroom, which has colourful learning material on the walls, is stocked with vegetables and groceries.
It’s 8 a.m. and a group of students is busy putting on shoes, helping each other tie ribbons and arranging their bags to go to “big” private schools.
These two classrooms in the government school serve as dormitory and kitchen-cum-dining hall for 22 students who hail from Madhogarh village in Ashoknagar district of Madhya Pradesh. Of the 22, 18 are enrolled in private unaided schools under the RTE quota.
The life of these students was very different just a year ago when they begged and sold balloons at traffic signals. These are children of migrant labourers belonging to a nomadic tribe and their parents continue to live on the streets.
One of the oldest in the group, 12-year-old Mela who is busy packing lunch boxes for the younger children says: “We never thought we would be able to study as our parents move from one city to another. But now, we all go to school and have a big room of our own.” Ashok, a class one student says: “Idar dimak lagana padata hai.” (Here we need to exercise our brains.)
Sadiq Pasha, who doubles as their warden-cum-auto driver, swells with pride when he talks of these children. He cannot stop praising them, from the English words they have picked up to how they have mastered the art of tying their own ties. “They did not even know how to hold a pencil when they first came. Look at their handwriting now,” he says.
Four girls — Sakshi, Aarthi, Sannidhi and Anchal — study at RNS Vidyaniketan and their teachers say that the four bright girls are quick learners and have made tremendous progress in their academics as well as extracurricular activities. They show their notebooks and say that increase in number of smileys and stars over the past few months are a testimony to their progress. One of their teachers says that the students had completed their Christmas holiday homework even before their holidays began.
Nagarathnamma D., Block Education Officer, South Range 2, identified these children during the Out-of-School Children survey in November last year and put them in tent schools and organised a bridge course for them. “Their parents were very reluctant, but the children were eager to study. So, we enrolled them in private schools under the reservation quota and have made arrangements for them to stay in the government school,” she said.
Jayanthi, mother of two girls who also takes care of all the children, says, “Initially, we did not think this arrangement would work. But now I know my children do not deserve to sell balloons any longer. When I had to enrol my children to school, I had to put my thumb impression. I want my daughters to study and do all that I could not do.”
The Education Department plans to compile a report on these children and present this as a “success story” to the Ministry of Human Resource Development.
