education

Updated: Jan 31, 2019 15:10 IST

Students and parents share the same bench at a school in Fejpur village of Yamunanagar district.

The village with just a government middle school, girls drop out after Class-8 as their parents don’t allow them to go to a government high school in Khizarabad town of the district, 9km from the village.

Due to this, a village resident Jabbar Poswal had started a school in 2015 with Class-9 and 10 at Anagawadi building in the village with an aim to educate drop-outs.

Jabbar said, “24 students passed their Class-10 exam in 2015 batch through open board. I had started this to increase literacy rate of our district as we stand at second last position in the tally. After the success of students, their parents had also requested us to join the class.”

Samshad, 40, and his daughter Nashrin, 16, study in the same class. Nashrin was in Class-8 in 2014 but her parents did not allow her to pursue further education from a government school in Khizarabad town, nine kilometre from the village.

Samshad said scared about her daughter’s security, he had not permitted her to go to a nearby village school. After witnessing the success of many village girl students, he had decided to enroll himself along with his daughter.

“After a gap of 25 years I have come back to school and I am very glad about my decision. I had dropped out of school due to my poor financial background. I have a competition with my daughter to get more marks in Class-10 exam which will be held in April,” he added.

There are two teachers in the school, one of them Alima is a postgraduate in arts. She said she wants to educate more and more people from her village and nearby areas.

“In beginning, I felt uncomfortable to teach my village elders. Now I have picked up the momentum and enjoy my duty to change the public sentiment towards education. Age factor doesn’t matter when it comes to education. I am hoping that the state government will think about education crisis in my village and upgrade the government middle school so that all girls can complete their education on time,” she added.

District education officer Anand Chaudhary said two senior secondary schools are just three and five kilometre from Fezpur village.

“In nearby two villages, government senior secondary schools are built and fulfilling the right to education rules,” he added.