While the only middle school at Anthoniyarpuram village in Thoothukudi district of Tamil Nadu faced closure due to lack of funds, the villagers resorted to an unusual solution of selling sweet toddy to help fund the school for their children’s future.
As Palmyra trees thrive more in Anthoniyarpuram village in Thoothukudi, most of the villagers make a living by selling products from the Palmyra trees. There are reportedly around 500 families in this village, where men engage in tapping sweet toddy from palm trees over there, apparently making products associated with it. The children in Anthoniyarpuram village attend the RC Primary School, which is the only school in the village.
A decade ago, the school was upgraded to a middle school for students in classes 6, 7 and 8. Meanwhile, the middle school was launched as a self-financed institution, while the primary school was aided and received salaries of the teachers from the state government. However, most of the families here are economically backward to pay the school fees.
Subsequently, a committee was formed by the villagers to manage the functioning of the school as the issue of funding the middle school came up and they did not want to give up the upgraded school.
The villagers decided to set aside the money received from selling pathaneer (sweet toddy) throughout the year to maintain the school and the salaries of the teachers for the past four years. As of recent data, about 100 children from the village are in the middle school. The villagers seek assistance from the Tamil Nadu government and are now demanding to pay the salary of school teachers. The committee get pathaneer (sweet toddy) from Palmyra tappers in the village and sell them to public in small profit.
Read all the Latest Education News and Breaking News here
Comments
0 comment