1 teacher for 1 student in this Bathinda school

Tribune News Service

Sukhmeet Bhasin

Bathinda, February 3

One teacher for one student — though hard to believe, the rare 1:1 teacher-pupil ratio does exist in a government primary smart school in remote Kothe Budh Singhwala village of Punjab’s Bathinda district.

Here, the solitary teacher, Sarabjit Kaur, has been catering to her lone student, Bhinder Singh, enrolled in

Class V. Despite having only one pupil, Sarabjit spares no effort in extending to him all the facilities mandated in smart schools — access to a projector, library and daily mid-day meals.

Equipped with modern facilities, the school has a provision to enrol students from LKG to Class V, but the villagers have been preferring to admit their wards to private institutes. The village has a population of about 400.

As most of the people have a single child, they, as a matter of prestige, prefer sending their wards to private schools, she says. “I have been regularly moving door to door in the village, trying to convince the parents for admissions. But they seem to show more faith in the private sector education,” says Sarabjit while talking to The Tribune.

Sarabjit joined the school in May last year when three students were enrolled. “The names of the other two pupils had to be struck off due to prolonged absence,” she says. But the bigger worry for Sarabjit currently is that once the final examination get over in March, her lone student too would have gone. Bhinder would leave the primary school and seek admission in a middle school.

Villagers Prefer private education

I have been regularly moving door to door in the village, trying to convince parents for admissions. But they seem to have more faith in private sector education. — Sarabjit Kaur, teacher

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