Weeks after students left in protest, Kutch sub-school gets upgrade, more teachers

A Special Civil Application filed in the matter had said, “The state cannot wait to act till the damage is done as seen in the present case wherein the state acted only after cognizance has been taken by the honorable court of the fact that all the students had left the school… non-regularisation of a school in a remote area due to lack of infrastructure is not in the interest of the public at large and prima facie demonstrates the state’s inability to abide by the constitution and ensure fundamental rights of the students.”

Residents of this village, which falls under the Jikadi Juth gram panchayat with a population of nearly 700 families, pointed out that the sub-school that had nearly double the number of students than the main school – Ambedkarnagar Prathmik Shala – which had 72 students itself and was two km away – lacked basic facilities and had not been given the status of a full school and was running on only two teachers between Classes 1-5.

In an order dated October 9, Dr N N Patel, the state’s Joint Director of Primary Education, “revised upwards” the sanctioned strength of teachers in Bhuj taluka of Kutch district, adding that the sub-school in Bharatnagar Pul Patiya village had been given approval as an independent school.

This additional sanction of seven teachers, four for Classes 1-5 and three for Classes 6-8, came as a special provision by the state government, whose deadline for sanctioning the strength of teachers in Gujarat ended on July 31, 2025. While the vacancies for teachers in the primary school have already been filled, those for Classes 6-8 will be done after Diwali vacation.

Taluka Primary Education Officer (TPEO) Nilesh Gor told The Indian Express, “After the court took suo motu cognizance of the matter, the school was approved on August 8 itself with effect from August 12. Since Bharatnagar Pul Patiya got an independent school and the villagers had made a representation for teachers, a total of seven teachers were approved for this new school, which included 4 teachers for Classes 1-5 (lower primary) and 3 teachers for Classes 6-8 (upper primary).”

The school now has 167 students, which includes those who left in protest and others as well, who were studying in schools far away, and five other students who had never been to school and have joined under the Right To Education (RTE) Act, Jetmalji Jadeja, who is temporarily running the new school, told The Indian Express on Saturday.

On August 8, Justice Nikhil Kariel of the Gujarat High Court took cognizance of reports in The Indian Express on this school where the novel protest began after a letter from the state education department on July 23, which stated that the Kutch district was advised to continue running the school in Bharatnagar Pul Patiya, as a sub-school.

The court quoted from The Indian Express report and tagged it in the order as it made the state government respondents through the education Secretary, Director of Primary Education, State Project Director of Education, the DPEO of Kutch, the TPEO of Bhuj, the district panchayat of Kutch and the Jikadi Juth Gram Panchayat.

The order dated August 8 said, “The core issue involved in the present motion is the fundamental right of education of the students in rural areas vis-a-vis the responsibility of the State Authorities to provide effective mechanism for the betterment of education infrastructure at such levels. The rights of the students and the obligations of the authorities flow from Article 21A of the Constitution of India read with the provisions of Right to Education Act and The Bombay Primary Education Act, and other government schemes…”

According to the court documents, the Assistant Government Pleader Aditya Pathak intervened and requested the court provide opportunity to the respondent state to explain and act after which the matter was adjourned to August 12.

An action taken report submitted by the Director of Primary Education, during the hearing on August 12, mentioned that the office had “granted approval to the school concerned, as an independent school, on August 8 itself, at 9:30 pm.”

This report, submitted in court, added, “It is to be noted that the sub-divisional school in question was not approved as an independent school vide communication dated June 23, 2025 since it lacked the requisite infrastructure, water, electricity and sanitation facilities.”

On August 12, Government Pleader (GP) G H Virk submitted to the court that the school had been categorised as a main school and that a prominent citizen had given a reasonably good accommodation for the school to function. The government pleader also submitted that after the intervention of the district and state authorities around 90% of the school leaving certificate had either been withdrawn or cancelled.

Notably, it was Sikandar Alana Sumra, the activist and community organiser who had been at the forefront of the movement, who had given his family’s property to use as a temporary school. Sumra said, “We have our ancestral home in Bharatnagar Pul Patiya which are two buildings with roof tiles roofs. One of them has two rooms and the other has one room and both are located next to each other. My cousin Kasam Alimamad Sumra has stated in an affidavit that he is ready to offer these two buildings to start an independent school on a temporary basis till the time infrastructure can be built by the government.” The Indian Express has seen a copy of the affidavit.

Jadeja said, “In the sub-school, which was a tin-shed community hall, earlier, all children had to sit in one room and in the new place, we have three different rooms so that the students can be divided into sections. We have further requested a division of timings so that half the children can come in the morning and the other half at noon, this properly dividing the students by their classes.”

However, the state government has not yet sanctioned the post of a Principal, which is mandatory for schools that have more than 150 students, a criteria that has been met at Bharatnagar Pul Patiya village.

The ATR has also stated that from August 9 onwards the local Taluka level offices of the state had initiated the process of readmission of all the students who had taken LCs.

The Indian Express had reported this action on August 10, quoting from the approval letter signed by BD Bariya, the Deputy Director of Primary Education, Gujarat.

Sumra told The Indian Express that he had first raised the issue in 2019 when there was “no education facility” in the village. “Our children used to go to another school in the vaadi area (farmland) school. But since they had to cross the Bhuj-Khavda highway to get there, and a student was maimed after an accident, we demanded our own school. Instead, we were given a sub-school with a promise of a full-fledged school within 6 months, but six years had passed without any action”, he had told IE

They had made follow-up representations in 2023, 2024 and 2025 and even submitted recommendation letters from the Kutch MP and Anjar MLA, but to no avail.

In an order on September 18, the court, satisfied with the action taken by the government, disposed of the suo motu SCA.

New school may take time

Notably, after the sub-school in Bharatnagar Pul Patiya got approval as an independent school, the TPEO had sought a plot of land to construct the new school. In August itself, Valji Ahir, the Sarpanch of Jikadi Juth Gram Panchayat, had, through a resolution, identified requisite land to set up a new school in the village. While TPEO Gor has sent the proposal forward to the District Primary Education Officer (DPEO) of Kutch, the sanctioning of the land will take time as it has to be approved by the Collector, after which a survey will take place before the land can even be handed over to the education department for construction. Officials told The Indian Express that a conservative estimate for the start of construction would be at least six months.

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