Govt primary school runs with seven students

All the seven students of Banikanto Government Primary School, the lone one at Shantipur village of Chakamoia union under Kalapara upazila in Patuakhali, pose in front of the institution a few days ago. Photo: Star

Believe it or not, a well furnished government primary school in Kalapara upazila under the district is running with three teachers and seven students.

Primary education department set up Banikanto Government Primary School, the lone one at Shantipur village of Chakamoia union in Kalapara, on 33 decimals of land in 2013, locals said.

The academic activities started with 18 students and the school was nationalised in 2015.

Md Delwar Hossain joined the school as acting headmaster on May 4 in 2015, and assistant teachers Abul Kalam Azad and Suporna Rani in 2016, upazila education office source said.

The three teachers together receive Tk 73,155 from the government every month.

This year, 17 students were shown as enrolled but only seven of them, including three students in pre-primary class, one in Class I, one in Class II and two in Class III attend classes.

The rest are virtually non-existent at the school while no students were admitted to classes IV and V this year, said Moni Lal Sikder, Kalapara upazila primary education officer.

Although there are virtually seven students, the school receives high protein biscuits for 60 students regularly as Unicef made the arrangement for 160 schools in the upazila (excluding municipality areas) after super cyclone Sidr hit the area in 2007, he said.

In last year stipend was given to 12 students from the government fund but the headmaster failed to show list of stipend receivers.

The school authority failed to start Class IV and V in last four years but they receive 10 sets of books for each class from the upazila education office every year.

Delwar Hossain, the acting headmaster, said 17 students took books this year but only seven of them come to school regularly.

“We have shortage of students as there are several schools in nearby villages around. We are visiting door to door to increase the number of students,” he said.

Moni Lal Sikder, Kalapara upazila primary education officer, said he asked the teachers to collect students from its catchment areas.