This room hosts five classes and a kitchen

One and only: Village development meetings too are organised here

A single classroom which functions as the Government Lower Primary School in Mittiganahalli of Malur taluk is used for a variety of purpose depriving the children of a proper place to study.

The one-room School is used to accommodate 29 students from standard I to V. A corner of the same classroom is used to cook the midday meal with the gas stove burning. This poses a hazard. “I have to be alert all the time,” says Manjulamma, who does the cooking.

And whenever there is a discussion pertaining to the welfare and development of the village it is held in this very classroom after the children are sent out of the classroom.

Mittiganahalli, which is located about 8 km from the town, comes under the Araleri grama panchayat. Most of the people in the village belong to scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. There are 80 such families and the voters in the village number 350.

The School, which is like a cattle shed, was established in 1976. People who see this School wonder if it will survive the onset of monsoon.

People of this village who prefer an English medium School send their children to the town. As a result there are only 29 students from standard I to V and two teachers with four students each in standard I and IV and seven students each in Standard II, III, V.

In 2009, the Government had sanctioned funds for a new building in the heart of the village next to a temple. However, some villagers brought a stay on the construction stating that the School had encroached five feet of the temple land.

If the villagers co-operate permission to construct a School building can be obtained from the revenue department on the revenue land which is on the opposite side of the village, says Gram Panchayat member Venkateshachari.

Block Educational Officer Venkatarama Reddy says that if the government grants, the department is ready to sanction funds for the construction of the building.