The fate of 18 Class X students of the Government Tribal Residential High School at Kongadai tribal village in Bargur Hills hangs in balance.
For the last one-and-a-half years, they have had no teachers for English and social science subjects, but they are going to face the board examinations early next year.
Started as a primary school in 1993 to serve the people in 10 villages in the hilly area, the school was upgraded as middle school in 1998. Since the students had to travel over 30 km after Class VIII to reach the nearest high school, the long demand of the villagers was fulfilled when the government announced upgrading of the school in 2017.
In 2018, 49 students were admitted to Class IX and in the absence of adequate teachers, the student strength dropped over the academic year with 18 clearing their examinations and moving to Class X in the current year.
An elementary school also functions on the same premises and has 105 students and no teachers. The current strength of the school from Class 1 to 10 is 254. The school has a headmaster, teacher for mathematics and science.
Two teachers for Tamil and science subjects were posted on deputation.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a member of the teachers’ association said that as per norms, each subjects in Class IX and X should have a separate teacher to prepare students for the board examination. But only four full-time teachers were available for handling Classes from I to X in this school, he said and added that 31 students had dropped out from Class IX during the last academic year.
While officials said they were taking steps to fill up the vacancies, S.C. Natraj, Director, Service Unit for Development Activities in Rural, a Sathyamangalam-based NGO, wanted teachers’ vacancies in the tribal schools to be filled immediately as the situation could turn worse in the coming days.
