Teachers a rare sight,students work as farm hands

She is not alone. Arvind,who studies in Class VII,and Kalpana,who a Class VI student,and many of their classmates have bunked school to work here.

“Even when teacher comes,she hardly takes class. So it is better to work here and earn some money rather than waste time in the school,” says Arvind,whose parents are farm workers.

At the ramshackle government primary school (Class I-V),situated near the field where these children were busy working,nearly 15 of the 45 students enrolled here could be seen in classes,waiting for their teacher who never turned up.

As they wait for their teacher,students say if he teacher comes,he will bring along with him their share of mid-day meal and will teach them language and alphabet. But this is few and far between,locals say. “He arrives once in a week,a fortnight,or even in a month,” a villager says.

In yet another government primary school in Budha Jaldani village in the same region,there is just one teacher for 70-odd students. “It is easy to understand what quality of education one teacher gives to 70 students. The teacher usually comes once in two weeks,” says Ramesh Bangia,who lives near the school.

The situation in similar in 17-18 villages in Naswadi,where teacher presence in schools remains erratic,forcing children to skip school and instead work with their family members,mainly preparing land for cotton and maize sowing during the current crop season,locals say.

Villagers say absenteeism among teachers have affected the education of their children,many of them can’t do simple arithmetic or write Gujarati alphabets. “My daughter is in Class III,but she does not know how to add 2 and 2,or write alphabets in Gujarati,” says Ambalal Dobhil,who lives in Kukarda.

Locals say teachers remained absent from schools because most of them have to travel from far-off places to teach in villages that do not have proper approach road,and where lack of electricity makes teaching hard,especially during summer and monsoon.

Varsha Valvi,a teacher at a primary school at Wadia village,is from Surat who was appointed at a primary school here two years ago. She says she has to travel seven kilometres everyday from Ralyamba village to reach school and has to walk a long distance before she reaches the main road from where she gets vehicle. “I take my mother along when I have to go to school,” she says.

Several schools in the region are without benches and doors. A primary school (Class I-VIII) in Kukarda village got a computer room with 15 computer monitors around three months ago. “They are not working because there is no electricity,” a teacher said.

A teachers’ quarters at Ralyamba village,constructed two years ago with funding from the district panchayat to accommodate 42 teachers appointed to teach in nearby primary schools,remains unoccupied due to some local land disputes.

“The Ralyamba teachers’ quarters was constructed for teachers who come from far-off places so that this could improve their presence. But that too remains closed due to local land dispute,” a villager said.

While primary schools in these villages open once in a while,the quantity of mid-day meal they receive from the Naswadi mamlatdar office remain more or less same. “In July,we gave Rs 4,70,000 to these schools to buy spices and other cooking items,apart from 285 tins of edible oil,24,300 kg rice,9,700 kg pulses,and 24,300 kg wheat for 248 primary schools in the taluka,” Naswadi mamlatdar R D Patel said.

Students in these schools,however,complain that the mid-day meals,which they happened to get once in a while,contain only maize,grown commonly in the region. There is no rice.

JU Parmar,the district primary education officer in Vadodara,said his office had proper mechanism and manpower to tackle absenteeism among teachers in primary schools. “We’ve not received such a report so far,but since I have joined the office recently,I cannot say much on this,” he said.