Power of one: Class 2 girl is lone student of this govt school in Karnataka

Bengaluru: A seven-year-old girl is keeping the Government Lower Primary School at Maddevahalli village in Tumakuru (Madhugiri educational district) from shutting down.

Manasa, who will enter class 2, is not Greta Thunberg protesting the school’s closure. By simply being the only student enrolled, she is making the government honour her right to education, keeping the 25-year-old school running.

The school, which was once listed as ‘zero’ enrolment, now has one student, one teacher and one cook. In fact, Manasa is the daughter of school’s cook Ramya, who says poverty made her overlook the lure of nearby private schools, saving this state-run school as a result.

According to officials of the department of School Education and Literacy, this school was popular 10 years ago but the increase in the number of private schools nearby resulted in zero admissions to this school. “In fact, the village itself has a mere 35 to 40 households. Even the number of children eligible to be enrolled in schools is low,” said Krishnappa C N, Block Education Officer of Sira taluk.

Department officials even tried to convince Manasa’s parents to shift her to a nearby government school. “Officers requested us to shift her to nearby government school. But we refused since that would have meant travelling 7 to 8 km by public transport to pick up and drop her at school, which is not feasible,” Manasa’s mother Ramya said.

Sharing her experience of teaching a lone student, Padmakka, the teacher said, “I was posted here in 2021-22 when 10 students were admitted. Interestingly, the majority of them were shifted from private schools. But sadly, soon after normalcy returned with the end of the Covid pandemic, four students withdrew admissions and six passed out. This student was admitted in the 2024-25 academic year for class 1.”

Padmakka said the girl is not deprived of any of the government schemes or facilities. “We cook the mid-day-meal and serve her eggs. The student is also very bright and I am happy to teach her,” she said.

Meanwhile, Padmakka hopes to get one more student for the coming academic year. “There is one student in the anganwadi who is now eligible to get admission to class 1. I am convincing her parents to admit the child in our school,” she added.

Manasa told DH that she sometimes feels lonely. “When there is no class, I have no one to play with. But my teacher plays with me and also keeps me engaged in music and art classes,” Manasa mentioned.

Interestingly, the school did not close for a single day in the last one year except on public holidays with neither the teacher nor student availing leave for a single day in the entire academic year.

Data available from the department shows that there are over 6,000 schools with single teachers and over 3,000 schools with admissions of between 1 and 10. The Government Lower Primary School at Maddevahalli is among them.