Headmistress' effort gives lease of life to government school in Mangaluru

Mangaluru: With efforts of headmistress of Dakshina Kannada Government Higher Primary School West (Urdu School), Bolar in Mangaluru, 48 children of migrant labourers especially from Bihar have been admitted during the academic year.

Her efforts have brought a lease of life to the school, which was on the verge of closure due to poor admission of students.

The children of migrant labourers who converse in Hindi have started learning Kannada alphabets and numbers in the past few days. These children of different age group had not entered the portals of the school so far, said headmistress Geetha Judith Saldanha to DH.

She said; “when I took charge at the school, there were only five students. With the admission of children of migrant labourers during the special enrolment drive, the number of children in the school has risen to 53. I visited all the areas where migrant workers especially those working in fish meal industries and engaged in deep sea fishing boats reside and tried to convince parents to admit their children to the school. Initially, they were reluctant to do so. With continuous visit to the areas, I was able to win the trust of the migrant labourers."

Geetha Saldanha who previously served as a cluster resource person (CRP) in Ullal used to visit slum areas to convince the parents to enrol their children to schools.

"They were not even ready to visit the school by applying for a leave to admit their children. I contacted one of their owners, who in turn helped in sending the labourers along with their children to the school. Children are active and are enthusiastic to learn. After the school hours also, I monitor their movement to ensure that they walk back to their houses.”

As 48 children are of different age groups, they have been enrolled into various classes depending on their age. They are not aware of Kannada. In the past 20 days, they have started telling numbers from one to 10 in Kannada and have started learning Kannada alphabets and engaging in framing a simple sentence in Kannada, she explained.

Geetha’s colleague Sudha too had visited slum areas to identify potential children to admit in school. She too is engaged in teaching the newly admitted children. By conversing in Hindi, both teachers are trying to mingle with the children while teaching them Kannada.