Environment-friendly government school shows the way to go green

Award-winning school and the tale of its foliage

With a green environment and hundreds of trees of various kinds welcoming them, instead of dark rooms of cement and concrete, the students of the Government Lower Primary School at Belaganahalli in the taluk love coming to school.

Entering the campus of the School, which is situated at the entrance to the village and belongs to Huttur cluster, is like getting into a natural park. There are gigantic banyan and tamarind trees, denying the students the trouble of fighting heat and excessive sunlight. Little birds tweet from between the branches as classes go on under the shade of the trees, making learning fun for the students.

Flowers and trees

Little flowering plants are grown in a small area inside the compound. Beyond the plants, silver oaks have grown tall. The children in the School take great care of the little decorative plants grown right below the trees.

Application of rainwater harvesting is another achievement of the School. Boards on conservation of water are put up on campus for the students to read and learn.

The School has a total of 37 children. The classes, from one to five, are organised in three rooms in the School. A fourth room is used as a dining room. The toilets are built at a distance from the School. Hygiene on campus is an important issue for everybody.

Application of rainwater harvesting is another achievement. Boards on conservation of water are put up on campus for the students to read and learn.

Classes are organised in three rooms in the School. A fourth room is used as a dining room. The toilets are built at a distance from the School. Hygiene on campus is an important issue for everybody.

The school, which is a thing of pride for the entire village, recently won the ‘Environment-friendly School’ award, given by the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board, district administration, Environment Research Centre, Shimoga, and the Department for Public Instruction.

The Deccan Herald correspondent, who visited the School on Wednesday, discovered a few special features of the institute.

Local support

H R Krishnamurthy, the headmaster has spent 18 years of the 26 years of his service life in the School. He is extremely popular among the residents of Belaganahalli, who twice opposed his transfer from the School. He also won a popular teacher award in 2001-02.

In his own words, when the School was started 18 years ago, on the land of the dried up water tank, it had no compound wall. There were huge water-filled potholes all around. The School campus had only banyan and tamarind trees.

In the course of time, however, they purchased plants from private nurseries and also the Forest Department. Teachers and students worked hard at growing the plants, watering them and caring for them. The residents of Belaganahalli have even provided a separate water tap for the School. “We could not have achieved so much without the cooperation and help of the local residents or the Forest Department,” said Krishnamurthy.

Pride of district

The School continues to be a popular topic of discussion all over the district in the last one-and-a-half decade for the quality of education. It was presented with the best school awards in the District Primary Education Programme in 1997-98 and in the taluk level in 2005-06 in the attestation conducted by the Karnataka School Quality Assessment Organisation. It won the first place in the taluk level study equipment fair in 2009-10 and in the cluster level.

The School is considered a model among all government schools in the nearby villages.

The prize money is all given for the welfare of physically challenged children.