After educating one girl student during 2017-18, the Adi Dravidar and Tribal Welfare Department was temporary shut because of zero enrollment. The 76-year-old school at Chinnakallar in Valparai has now reopened for just one student.
Rajeshwari, a worker at a tea estate at Chinnakallar, wanted to admit her six-year-old son Shiva to a nearby school, but she was upset as the Adi Dravidar school in her locality was closed and the Adi Dravidar school at Periyakallar was 4km away.
So her last resort was to request the officials to reopen the school and admit her son and much to her surprise the officials accepted her request.
TOI
¡°Shiva was admitted in Class I on Monday based on a request from his mother. I was given additional duty to take care of the school and teach the kids. The department has taken special efforts to open the school,¡± M Sakthivel, headmaster of the school at Periyakallar told TOI. He said the headmaster and teachers were transferred to other schools about a year ago.
¡°The school was opened in 1943 to educate students of tea estate workers in the locality, as over 300 workers lived there. The school functioned for over 70 years, educating more than 50 students every year. It lost its shine in the past few years as workers started to migrate to other regions,¡± an official from the department told TOI.
Another reason parents don¡¯t want their kids to study in this school is the frequency of elephant attacks and animal menace, as Chinnakallar is located in a dense forest, the official also said that the number of families residing in the region has also drastically reduced to 15. ?
¡°In 2017-18, we kept the school open with a teacher and head master just for one student. After this, no student was willing to enroll as elephants began roaming in the area, even breaking the window and doors of the school, said another senior official from the department.
Representational Image- Reuters
¡°At present, no such attack has taken place in the locality. But the threat is there. As the family is from the same locality and is used to elephant visits, they are not scared. Still, we have been trying to convince his mother to move her son to the school at Periyakallar. If she agrees, the school would be closed,¡± he added.
In another incident, The Kesharwanis residing in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh wanted to expand their family home but one giant fig tree became a hindrance to their plans. However, instead of getting rid of the tree they came up with a novel idea instead. They ended up building their house around the 150-year-old tree. The thick trunk of the tree now grows through the middle of the building, according to AFP.