No more treks to school, but miles to go

CHENNAI: School going children from the remote  village of Kollathukom-baiputhur in Salem, who trekked seven km to school everyday, can now rest their feet, as the bus now comes to their village, albeit after 20 years of petitioning.These children shared their new found excitement with Express on the sidelines of the third Childrens’ Right to Education conference organised by Samakalvi Iyakkam, a collective of Educationists on Monday.Gayathri (12), who is in Class 7, said, “I will never forget the first experience of going by bus to school from my village, all my life. Thanks to the Collector for giving us a bus, I feel less tired and now I can study better.”After relentless petitions by the villagers, the children on June 27 staged a dharna in front of the Collector’s office with support from Samakalvi Iyakkam. In four days’ time, the first bus entered their village.Earlier, Gayathri used to wake up at 5 am everyday to reach school on time. Most of the children from this village had dropped out because they were fatigued by the long walk in the hot sun. Besides, it was not a very safe trek.They still have one grouse; the bus comes to the village at 9 am and they are late for their classes that begin at 9.30 am. Another complaint is that the bus stops at Rajapattinam from where, they have to walk one more kilometre to reach the school at Neermullikuttai.Illakiya (12) said, “We are happy that the bus has come to our village. Since the bus comes only at 9 am, we are going late for our classes. We request the government to change the bus timings to help us reach the school on time.”While this addressed the morning requirement, in the evening, the bus makes the return trip from Rajapattinam only at 6.45 pm. Hence, in the evenings, most of the children walk back to their village.For these children, their petitions and prayers were finally heard. But for the children of Othiyur village along the ECR in Kancheepuram, they still have unanswered prayers. Said Kaviya (14), “We don’t have any buses. We have to walk eight km to reach our school in Cheyyur. The road is full of potholes and it is a low lying area adjacent to the backwaters. So, when it rains in October-November, for one and a half months the road gets submerged, and we have to wade through chest deep water. So, we don’t go to school.”Deepika (14) and Deepa (15) said, “Most of our parents are daily wage labourers, with great difficulty they give us Rs 20 a day to keep us in school.  We want to study well, but for that we need a good road and a bus.”  While RTE Act 2009 says neighbourhood schools within one km distance from the residence of the students or transportation should be organised, the reality reminds us we have miles to go.