Krishnagiri: Doddamanju Tribal Panchayat village in the Western Ghats lacks schools, colleges, or any other educational institution. With just one high school in the panchayat, students have no choice but to leave education after passing Class X and find odd jobs for a living.
With no transportation for school children handy, the option of going to a nearby village Natrampalayam for higher secondary education also becomes dim. Parents and students have although requested authorities for transportation modes such as a school bus. According to The New Indian Express, the school in Doddamanju panchayat in Anchetty taluk is about 110 km away from the district headquarters of Krishnagiri and 20 km away from Doddamanju.
However, the School Education Department said that the government high school in Doddamanju tribal panchayat was upgraded to high school in 2011 and since then a total of 213 students have appeared for the Class X exam.
Among those 174 students, 92 boys and 82 girls passed the boards, while only 45 have opted for higher education (Class XI and other ITI courses). Sadly, only one boy has completed his post-graduation from the village.
In the academic year 2019-20, 46 students appeared for Class X exam and cleared it, only seven students joined for Class XI and four for the Industrial Training Institute said an educational department source.
According to the daily, a few students after completing their boards switch to jobs in spinning mills at Erode, Tirupur and Namakkal districts.
Among others, early child marriage, death by suicide over love dispute, are also reasons why students drop out of schools in the village. Frightened parents (due to love affairs) are thus reluctant to send their wards to faraway schools and urge the government to upgrade the school in Doddamanju to a higher secondary school.
A school teacher said that the government should arrange a bus facility to its higher secondary school at Natrampalayam, which would prevent dropout after Class X. Teacher also mentioned that a junior assistant should be appointed for administrative work as there are only five teachers for the total 304 students.
Denkanikottai District Education Officer Jothi Chandra said that they are processing the work to upgrade the school and have communicated with the state-level authorities.
Thally constituency MLA, DMK’s Y Prakash said he would speak about the transport issue to the district authorities and try to arrange a bus facility from Doddamanju to Natrampalayam.
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