Kolar student wages lone battle to save her school

This class V student of the government primary school at Obenahalli in Srinivaspur taluk of the district is forced to live a lonely school life.

Nanditha is the only student in the school which has a single teacher. When the teacher is sent on training, a teacher from one of the nearby schools is deputed there. The third person in the school is the mid-day meal cook. But Nanditha has none to give her company during the lunch time except the teacher.

The student wrote about her unique plight to Speaker Ramesh Kumar, the MLA from Srinivaspur, and former minister Suresh Kumar, representing Rajajinagar, Bengaluru in the Assembly.

She has urged them that her school should be like any other, where scores of students study, play and share ideas and feelings.

Suresh Kumar visited the school recently to see for himself Nanditha's plight. The girl read out a English poem for him: "Elephant is big, elephant is grey..."

Later, in a Facebook post, Suresh Kumar said the girl was actually a student of the government school at Hebbata and was transferred to the Obenahalli school as it had reached the zero-student status and was on the verge of closure.

The MLA says there are other schools in the taluk which have two and three students and face the threat of closure. He feels experts and the government must think of ways so that no other child faces a lonely life in school, which should be a place to play with boys and girls in the same age group and exchange ideas.

Now, it is a struggle out there for the girl and the teacher at the Obenahalli school to save it from the threat of closure.