Rama Mandi has no govt school for boys

Nikhila Pant Dhawan

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, November 22

Baljit Singh (15) cycles from Rama Mandi to Bangi Kalan and covers a distance of about five km every morning. He is no fitness freak but has no option but to cycle everyday to his school.

Rama Mandi, with a population of nearly 30,000, has no government school for boys.

After studying in government primary school located in Rama village till Class V, girls pursue further studies in Government Girls Senior Secondary School located in the town but the boys are left with only two options.

“I have a small land holding. I couldn’t afford to send my son to any of the two private senior secondary schools located in the town. We got him admitted to the government school located in one of the neighbouring areas,” said Gurmeet Singh, Baljit’s father.

There are hundreds of such boys who have to travel for five to 13 km to reach their schools.

Their families have no option but to send their boys to schools located in Bangi Kalan, Sekhu, Bagha, Jajjal (all about 5-6 km), Malkana (7 km), Teona (12 km) or Talwandi Sabo (15 km).

Another resident of Rama Mandi, Subhash Bansal, said, “My son also goes to Jajjal and travelling gets difficult in extreme cold and hot weather conditions. We had raised the issue with the earlier nagar council members but nothing was done. We will take up the issue again with the Talwandi Sabo MLA.”

Nagar Council president Krishan Mittal complained that repeated requests of opening a government school for boys in Rama Mandi fell on deaf ears of the state government.

“Deputations of residents and Nagar Council members have met ministers several times in the past but in vain. Every time we brought the problem to the attention of the ministers, we were asked to provide land and were promised that a school will be started there,” Mittal said.

“We were always told that the government didn’t have enough funds for land and constructing school building. They promised us that the Education Department could only arrange for staff but not for other infrastructure,” Mittal added.

Officials in the District Education Department said earlier, the department had received requests for construction of a government school for boys in Rama Mandi but no such request was received by the department in the past year.

The officials also claimed that presently there was no plan for opening more schools in the state as the existing schools didn’t have adequate infrastructure and there was shortage of staff.