In three single-student schools in Uttarakhand, it takes a village to educate these children

Currently, the state has 146 single-child schools, 131 of these government ones, and 1,379 government schools have an average of three students.

According to the 2023-24 report of the Unified District Information System for Education, a Central database, Uttarakhand is the state with the second highest number of schools with fewer than 20 enrolments (37.5%), only after Arunachal Pradesh (39.1%).

Aditya and Kanhaiya’s schools are located a short trek apart in Mathian village. (Express Photo by Aiswarya Raj)

In 2021, Uttarakhand was forced to shut down 255 primary, 46 upper primary and 23 secondary government schools over zero enrolment, say state education department officials. In 2022-23, among the state’s government schools, nine primary, two upper primary and three secondary schools had zero enrolments.

In Bhatoli, a village with just 113 people, according to the 2011 Census, Ansika, in Class 3, is the only child in the 5-10-year age group.

Worn out shoes and a daily trek

And so, at 8.30 am daily, wearing a blue tracksuit and a pair of tattered black shoes that she has been using for two years now, Ansika embarks on a 1-km trek from her house to the spot where the headmaster waits daily to take her to school and back.

Headmaster Bijalwan says when the school was built in 1959, it had 50 students. “Over the years, most youth have moved to Delhi or Dehradun for work. Of the 30 families living here a few decades ago, only 18 remain today,” he says.

He says the number of students has dipped since he took over. “When I took over as headmaster in 2004, there were 18 children in school. In 2016, we had 10 students. In 2023, two of our three students graduated to middle school, leaving just Ansika,” he says.

Bijalwan says the primary school nearest to theirs is at least 5 km away. Even the nearest upper primary school (for Classes 5-8) is 3 km away from Bhatoli and there is no private school in that radius either.

Kanhaiya, 7, is the only student at the Government Primary School at Mathian village in Uttarakhand. (Express Photo by Aiswarya Raj)

Before getting back to the English lesson, Bijalwan says, “Ansika will go to the upper primary school in two years. By then, a four-year-old at the adjacent anganwadi will join the school. We will keep going as long as there is a student.”

During the English lesson, Ansika is asked to read aloud from the textbook. Asked to show her homework, she says apologetically, “There was a power cut when I got home. It was restored only this morning.” At this, she is given a short extension.

Eating a bowl of snacks in the anganwadi room during recess at 11.30 am, Ansika says, “I want to be a teacher when I grow up — but in a school with children.”

When her father Vikram Singh Rawat, a driver who earns Rs 10,000 per month, studied in the same school, it had “45 students”. He says, “All three of my children have studied in the same school.”

On why he continues to send his daughter to a single-child school, he says, “The village is a safe place. Also, I don’t have the money to send her to a private school. The headmaster picks her up and drops her off. If he is busy, the anganwadi worker does it. Last week, in a competition among 12 schools, Ansika stood second. Being the only student seems to have paid off since all the attention is focused on her.”

Bijalwan agrees with him. Praising Ansika, who answers all his questions correctly during the Hindi lesson, he says, “She is a good student.”

And yet, there are struggles. Uttarakhand allocates funds for Ansika’s education — Rs 318 for a pair of shoes and bag, Rs 600 for two pairs of uniform, Rs 6.97 daily for her mid-day meal and Rs 5 as additional allowance for weekly special meals. Though lunch is usually hot dal, rice, and one sabzi, Ansika looks forward to Thursdays, when she gets an egg with her meal.

“These amounts work when a school has 20 students, not one,” the headmaster says, adding that the staff pitches in now and then, either for her recess snacks or an extra sabzi for Ansika’s mid-day meal.

This, despite the government spending nearly Rs 10 lakh annually on a single-child school. The expenses include textbooks, furniture, electricity and the headmaster’s salary, among others. Two teachers mean an additional expense of Rs 6 lakh annually.

“Even if the school has one child, we cannot deny them education,” says Hemlata Bhatt, District Elementary Education (DEE) Officer, Tehri.

The Government Primary School in Uttarakhand’s Bhatoli village. (Express Photo by Aiswarya Raj)

However, the solution to the Bhatoli school’s funding problems may lie in a government proposal on cluster schools.

Under the cluster school system, the government aims to identify a school that can cater to a larger area — a 3-km radius in the case of primary schools, 5-km for upper primary schools and 10-km for secondary schools — with children being compensated for their travel.

Ram Krishna Uniyal, director, state elementary education, says, “Under this scheme, we will set up cluster schools and provide transport for children coming from villages located over 1 km away. We are not planning to merge schools for now and no one will be enrolled forcibly. However, we hope to persuade parents to send their children to government schools.”

Speaking in the Assembly, Minister Rawat, too, brought up the issue of cluster schools, saying, “The government has decided that if a child wants to be part of a cluster school scheme, they will be given Rs 22 per trip (one way).”

For the residents of Bhatoli, the long walk to school is often a way out of their hardscrabble lives in the village.

Rajani Devi, 40, lives in the village with her younger son, who studies at a senior secondary school located 4 km away. Though her elder son goes to college in Delhi and her husband works there, she and her younger son have no plans to move. “My son walks to school daily. By the time he gets there, he is tired. In the evening, he comes back home and sleeps. If he passes his annual exam, I will think about his future,” she says, lugging fodder from the valley below.

Headmaster Bijayanand Bijalwan teaches 8-year-old Ansika Rawat. (Express Photo by Aiswarya Raj)

Anganwadi staffer Gulabi Devi says women are reluctant to stay in villages now. “At least five men in the village over the age of 30 are unable to find brides since women want to live in the plains. There are no medical facilities or schools here,” she says.

In a village 40 km away

On a hilltop in Mathian village, around 40 km away, seven-year-old Kanhaiya soaks up the sun as he works out a math problem at the Government Primary School.

Headmaster Surender Singh Negi, who has been teaching here for 20 years, says this is the school’s first year with a “single student”.

He says, “We had three students last year. Now, everyone wants to send their children to better schools in Rishikesh and Dehradun.”

The school’s sole teacher starts teaching Kanhaiya from 9.30 am. Forenoon is reserved for English and Hindi, while Maths is taught in the afternoon.

A short trek takes one to the Government Upper Primary School, where two teachers teach Aditya Maithani, 11, says headmaster Kamlesh Semwal, 57.

His colleague Kushla Chauhan, 53, who stays on campus, says, “My house is over 40 km away. I only go home on long weekends.”

Headmaster Surender Singh Negi says this is the Mathian village primary school’s first year with a “single student”. (Express Photo by Aiswarya Raj)

Though headmaster Semwal has worked in other schools with low enrollment, he has never worked in a “single-child school”. He says, “The risk of landslides during monsoon doesn’t help matters. When it rains, the water gets polluted. A few years ago, many children got jaundice. An Ayurvedic dispensary, located 10 km away, is the only medical facility in the area.”

After Aditya leaves in two years, the headmaster says Kanhaiya will join as a student of Class 5. “There is no child left in the village after Kanhaiya. We will be posted elsewhere and the village will lose an institution,” he says.

The teachers, meanwhile, are concerned about Kanhaiya and Aditya’s “restricted socialisation” since the boys hardly speak in school. This, despite the teachers playing badminton and carrom with them, besides encouraging them to speak with each other.

But when the school bell rings at 3.30 pm, Aditya rushes to get his bag. Kanhaiya, wearing a pair of worn-out slippers, is waiting below. After a 1-km trek, the boys reach their homes.

While one of Kanhaiya’s sisters is in Chandigarh, the other is in an intermediate college in the foothills. His brother Shailender is a student of Class 9, but does not go to school anymore because “we don’t get meals after Class 8”.

Their mother Sushila Devi, who has studied till Class 7, says, “Shailender does not pay much attention to his studies. There were other students in his school, but many left for other towns. We are poor and cannot afford to send him elsewhere. If he sits at home, we will not be able to feed him.”

Unlike Kanhaiya’s brother, Aditya’s brother studies in a school near his grandmother’s house. “He wants to become an Army officer. Though I don’t know what I want to do in future, I know that I don’t want to leave the village,” he says.