Madhya Pradesh: Tribal children walk 100 km in two days, demanding new school buildings and teachers

Tribal students walked 100 kilometres in two days to make the District Collector of Chhindwara aware of the miserable condition of schools and the lack of teachers in their village.

Chhindwara (Madhya Pradesh):Tribal students of Amarwada village in Madhya Pradesh's Chhindwara district travelled 100 kilometres on foot in two days to the District Collector's house with a demand to arrange teachers who could teach them in their village. They also demanded the construction of new school buildings.

The tribal students were accompanied by the sarpanch, deputy sarpanch and the villagers during the protest against the declining situation of education in their village. They reached the District Magistrate's house on Friday, July 21.

Raghunath Singh Banjara, deputy sarpanch of the village said a middle school was opened 10 years ago in the village but to date, no permanent teacher has been appointed. "We also tried to reach out to the concerned officials but there was no response from their side. Hence, we had to come to the Collector's house on foot to make him aware of the situation," he said, adding the building was also in a dilapidated condition.

While protesting, the students carried placards, displaying their demands for the school building and teachers. The student protest was sloganised with 'Build a building... Build a building' and 'send teachers, send teachers'.

According to the villagers, the existing primary school building which is 50 years old, has become dilapidated and is closed for the last year due to the lack of teacher. They claimed that deprived of education, children are working in the fields. The villagers urged the District Collector to visit their village once and see the miserable condition of education.

District Education Officer JK Idpaachi said, "There are a total of 132 students in Kahuwa, for which one teacher is posted in the primary school, while no teacher is currently posted in the middle school, but arrangements are being made for guest teachers."

Another official from the Education Department said that permission has been received from the State Education Center for the construction of the school buildings last year itself, but they are yet to receive the budget. The official conceded that presently the school buildings are dilapidated and water drips everywhere and the buildings may collapse anytime during the ongoing rainy season.

According to the officials, most of the teachers do not like to go to the rural areas of tribal development blocks, so most people get their attachment done in another school or near the city.