Morung Express News
Dimapur| May 18
Imagine eighty people sitting in a 12 x 14 room without windows, no fan and leaking roof. Added to the dilemma are seven people cramped on a six feet bench and heavy bags filled with books on their lap. The odour of sweat fills the classrooms as occupants keep tearing off each other’s notebooks with their elbows while writing. A left-handed person finds it difficult to write as her neighbour is right-handed because their elbows keep hitting each other. And hilariously one person says, “Half my buttock is out of the bench!”
Sema Tila Government Middle School in Dimapur is one such place where your imagination comes to reality. Ever since the school was taken over by the government in March 2008, the school has been waiting to get their first mid-day meal. With over 600 hundred students enrolled in the school, the school can hardly manage to seat 400 students. There are 12 classrooms but not enough to even accommodate the lower primary section of students who comprise more than 80 percent of the school’s population.
One classroom is cramped with 15 or 16 benches which leave hardly any room for students to stretch their legs or for the teacher to pass through. Some benches are placed so close to the blackboard that the persons sitting on the front bench have to tilt their necks backwards and ogle at the board! When it rains, the students have to hole up in one corner of the classroom to prevent getting wet. Yet, it’s amazing these children still have a zest for learning even though most of them share their textbooks as the school is faced with a shortage of textbooks.
The school also faces problems of intrusion by local youths from in and around the colony because it does not have a boundary wall. There is one watchman who has been employed privately by the school as the department has not appointed one. The school is also short of Mathematics and Hindi teachers. While the Hindi teacher has also been employed privately by the school, the Science teacher is double tasking by teaching Mathematics as well. This arrangement has been made so that students don’t suffer due to inability of the department to provide teachers for these subjects.
The schoolchildren also suffer from the absence of a toilet facility. A temporary unhygienic shed has been built while the concrete toilet, built during the time the school was run by the community, is not in usable condition. The school also does not have drinking water facility and raw water is provided from a nearby tap.
The condition of teachers is no better here. Not having received their salary for four months, there is little reason for them to jubilate. But recently on the arrival of chairs in the staff room after a year, they are feeling better.
The Village Education Committee is trying to fill in the voids left by the department, so much so that punctuality and discipline of both teachers and students is said to be remarkable. The first batch of class eight students secured 100 percent pass result while the efficiency of school teachers is said to be excellent. And as the school’s enrolment grows every year, only time will tell if the department will pay more attention to a school that is performing despite limitations.
