NALBARI, May 13 - At a time when the Assam Sarba Siksha Abhijan Mission (ASSAM) has been spending huge sums of money for the uplift of primary education under the Right To Education (RTE) Act 2009, the Paschim Sutarkuchi Primary School is functioning in a pitiable condition in a ramshackle facility that resembles a cowshed, than a school.
In the said government provincialised school which was established in 1980, the minor children who are imparted lessons have to sit on the floor, minus desks or benches. The condition of the building too is dismal, constructed on the slope of an embankment of the Pagladia river.
The bamboo sali ghar which houses the school has no provision of walls to protect the minor children from the natural elements. Sans any sitting arrangement, except the floor, a black board is utilised to teach the students.
Not surprisingly, the students who hail from economically weak backgrounds, make do by sitting cross-legged over a piece of polythene sheet.
However, the school has a concrete kitchen that is located half-a-km away. Similarly, the toilet block of the school is almost 400 metres away on the bank of the Pagladia river. Obviously, both the concrete kitchen and the toilet facility remain unused.
The headmaster of the school informed that earlier the school was located in another plot which was donated by a local resident. But as the school was provincialised, the land donor declined to allow the school to function in his plot.
Finding no other viable option, the teachers shifted the school building to its present location.
To go along with the situation, the student strength of the school is also on the downslide, probably considering the poor state of infrastructure. At present, only five students are left in the school. The guardians do not allow their children to study under a cowshed-like structure, which is considered a threat to their wards� lives.
