Students, parents turn up at gates of Kuldharvas primary school despite closure

Around 30 of the 65 students enrolled with the Kuldharvas government primary school reported at the school on Saturday morning. But villagers said that neither Apla Chaudhary, the head teacher, nor Dhaval Patel, the assistant teacher of the school, was there to welcome them.

“When we contacted the head teacher, she told us that she had reported at Hussainivandh primary school in Hussainivandh. Therefore, children and parents waited for sometime at the Kuldharvas school building gate and went back to their respective village,,” Meraj Sama, a community leader of Kuldharvas locality said.

Following a decision taken by the district education committee (DEC) of Kutch district panchayat, JP Prajapati, the district primary education officer (DPEO) of Kutch had issued an order on June 16, merging Kuldharvas and Bhuranivandh government primary schools with Hussainivandh government primary school.

The DPEO had noted in his order that the Hussainivandh school was less than a kilometre away from Kuldharvas and Bhuranivandh school and therefore a fit case for merger as enrollement was low in Kuldharvas and Bhuranivandh.

The DPEO had also remarked that the merger will help the government to overcome “shortage” of teachers.

Head teacher Alpa Chaudhary had convened a parents’ meeting at Kuldharvas school on Friday and informed them that no classes will be conducted from Saturday onward as the government had ordered closure of the school and that they needed to enroll their children at the nearby Hussainivandh school.

However, the villagers have been protesting against the district panchayat’s decision, saying their children won’t be able to walk the distance of around 1 km on their own and that post the merger, Hussainivandh school will become crowded.

“The government claims that the distance of Hussainivandh school from Kuldharvas is merely 400 metres. Then, the question is, didn’t the government know about this when it established the school in Kuldharvas in 2005,” Meraj said.

“The school has been merged with Hussaini Vandh school which is at a distance of just 400-500 metres from this school. Our DPEO and TPEO (taluka education officer) would visit this school on Monday and would try to convince the parents to take the school leaving certificate and also for admission in the nearby school,” the collector told The Sunday Express.

Prajapati said that the decision of the merger has been taken by the DEC of the Kutch district panchayat which is presently ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party.

“We are aware that parents are protesting against the merger. But we had to issue the orders following a decision by the DEC. That said, we shall try persuade parents and then report the matter to DEC as the DEC is the competent authority to take decisions in this regard,” said the officer.

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Hasan Sama (45), a Kuldharvas resident who owns five acre land but earns his living by working in a building block manufacturing yard in Khavda was not aware on Saturday that his two daughters Rukiyabai (13) and Nazeerabai (10) had returned home after finding the school gate closed.

“I leave for Khavda at 8 am for work every day. My two daugthers and two nephews went to the school as is their routine early in the morning. I have no idea what happened after that,” Hasan, whose five sons studied in Hussainivandh school said.

When asked why he was not sending his daughters to Hussainivandh school, Hasan, who has studied till Class 1, said, “That school is around one kilometres away from our home. For children, that’s quite a distance though adults in Kutch easily walk four to five kilometres every day.”

Hasan’s wife Zenabbai, who has had no formal education, looks after the family home and a cow and a goat the family rears.
When asked what will happen to education his daughters if Kuldharvas school continues to remain shut, Hasan said, “What can I do if the government decides to shut down the school? I will have to think about options available to me.”

Raheb Sama, who runs a general store in Kuldharvas also hopes that somehow the school will not be shut down. His four daughters—Saiyam (10), Saheema (9), Tahera (8) and Julera, who enrolled this year at Kuldharvas, are studying in the now-merged school.
“I am afraid children will quarrel if they go to school away from our home in Kuldharvas,” says 40-year-old Raheb whose son too had studied at Kuldharvas till Class 4 before the father sent him to a madrasa in Varnora near district headquarter Bhuj.