5 Classes In 1 classroom leave students confused in MP school

In one corner, a teacher teaches students the English alphabet - A for Apple, B for Ball, C for Cat - in another, others are learning the Hindi alphabet, and, in yet another, a blackboard reads "2+2 = 4". With the small classroom, a student raises his hand, confused, "Sir, why did this cat become four?"

This setting, which appears to be plucked from a satirical television program on the school system and infrastructure, is a sad reality in Satna's Uchehra block in Madhya Pradesh, where the Dudha Primary School has set a new standard for what a classroom can be. With a building collapse, 95 students from five grades were packed into one hall, five different blackboards, and five different subjects taught, sometimes at the same time.

This leaves the students hunting for education in the din.

Instructing Teacher Lavkush Kori clarified the reality: "Without classrooms, there was no choice but to merge classes. Boards were required and festivals cut down on the attendance, and when all the children were gathered, the actual challenge was not to teach, but how to keep the students safe from the rain."

Occasionally classes were conducted in a tree shade, and then students would be rushed inside to escape the weather. A student captured the challenge pithily: "It is very difficult to study There is too much noise."

Dudha is not alone. Over 70 schools in Satna are fighting the same conditions. Papers are passed between government departments, as batons in a never-ending relay race, while students wait for classrooms that never materialize. Pushpraj Sharma, headmaster of one of these schools, added that the building had been razed to the ground two years ago and plenty of letters had been sent, but nothing was done.

Approvals Pending

Sunil Saraf, Assistant Engineer at the District Education Centre in Satna, conceded that proposals were submitted and permissions awaited, and work would start only after that.

Even the state capital is not exempt. In a school right behind the Raj Bhavan in Bhopal, classes till the fifth standard have been forced into one room for years now. There is no play area and even the mid-day meal is taken in the same small space.

In Madhya Pradesh government schools, over one crore children were enrolled between Classes 1 and 8 in 2010-11 and the figure has almost reduced to half at 54.58 lakh currently. Hundreds of schools have received zero admissions this year, 7,217 schools are still running single-teacher schools and over 5,600 have no buildings or operate in dilapidated ones.

The government maintains it is acting. School Education Minister Uday Pratap Singh expressed that, under Chief Minister Mohan Yadav's direction, preparations had been made for maintenance and new classrooms with proposals being submitted to the finance department and finance being sanctioned. He admitted shortfalls but asserted the government is making efforts to offer the best possible resources.