Siddipet: Teachers, parents unity improves strength in Govt school

The Mandal Parishad Primary School in Borragudem village of Wargal mandal is one such school, where parents in surrounding five villages got their children out of privats schools and got them admitted to this school.

Siddipet: Have you ever seen parents arranging bus transport facility to send their children to a government school in a different village, despite there being a government school in their village?

The Mandal Parishad Primary School in Borragudem village of Wargal mandal is one such school, where parents in surrounding five villages got their children out of privats schools and got them admitted to this school. Its not just that, they also contribute Rs 2500 per head every year just to help the school head mistress meet the salary expenses for the private volunteer teachers recruited.

---

Just about ten years ago, the school was about to be reclassified as a single school teacher school with the student strength dipping to a mere 10. As there were only 50 households in Borragudem , there would hardly be any admissions every year. Then headmistress Anuradha and a teacher Bhagya Lakshmi visited neighbouring villages Jangampally and Dandupally villages to convince people to send their wards to their school with an assurance that better education would be provided than private schools.

However, there were no takers for their proposal. After days of effort, they succeeded in convincing one parent Narshimhulu to send his two daughters to Borragudem school after withdrawing them from a private school. Soon people began noticing their progress within months and other villagers slowly began admitting their children to the school. The strength slowly started buileing up. Since the students were coming to school without having breakfast, teacher Bhagya Lakshmi has found it was impacting their academic performance.

She spoke to some of her relatives staying abroad and convinced them to donate money to arrange breakfast with bread, fruits, biscuits and milk. When the strength started improving, the two teachers found it difficult to handle the students. It was then the parents came forward to donate money to to hire volunteers. Three volunteer teachers were hired at a salary of Rs 5,000 each per month. Since the school had just three rooms, the teachers found it difficult to accommodate 128 students in the rooms, when the parents came forward to build two sheds by spending Rs 30,000 on each.

Villagers in Nacharam, Ananthagiripally, Veluru, Dandupally and Janampally used to send their wards in autos initially but they hired a bus recently to provide safe transportation to children. Though Nacharam, Ananthagiripally, Veluur and Dandupally had government schools, parents preferred to send them to Borragudem which was five kilometers away. Most of these parents withdrew their wards from private schools and got them admitted to Borragudem school after noticing the improved performance of the students there.

It was not just that. When they found rain water was stagnating on the school premises during rainy season, they pooled around Rs 2 lakh to get a concrete flooring done. The school has become so popular that when admissions start in April every year, the school management displays a “No admission” board in June due to a lack of classrooms and teachers.

Speaking to Telangana Today, the school headmistress Bhagya Lakshmi said the school has been selected under Mana Vuru Mana Badi, but the construction of classrooms is yet to begin. She disclosed that villagers had also donated five guntas of land to build new classrooms. Since the school was selected under the CM breakfast scheme, the students were getting nutritious food now.

The students here are taught Karate, Dance, Yoga and other extracurricular activities by roping in teachers with the support of the parents. The students and parents have appealed to the government to build new classrooms at the earliest time possible. After the transfer of teacher Anuradha, J Narendar Reddy had joined here and has become a part of the school’s progress.