Nolia Kids Face A Dark Future
Education, among others, is one of the most important components for development of any state or a community. While political parties in the state are clamouring about their contribution in the development of the state; dishing out more populist schemes for the poor is futile when the future of children of some communities in the state dwells in doubt. The instance of the children of Nolia (fishing) community in Konark, is an unambiguous display of the state government’s negligence towards them as these children struggle to enjoy their basic right to education.
Having migrated to Odisha from Andhra Pradesh, more than seven decades ago, the Nolia community, residing at the Nolia Sahi area of Chandrabhaga, faces a tricky circumstance. Though they have settled in the state for generations now, their status as citizens of Odisha has become a trouble for them when it comes to the education of their children. Most of the members of the community engage in fishing as their major occupation besides working as coolies.
Despite being a prominent group with a sizeable population of 8000, their people still struggle to avail minimum facilities to eke out adequate livelihood for their families. Their children are the worst sufferers, as attaining basic education remains a challenge. There are around 700 children who aspire to receive proper education but fail to do so owing to many factors including lack of basic facilities and communication. Those who enroll in schools end up dropping out.
While the rate of drop outs is increasing every year, those who continue to study, face daily challenges in retaining themselves in the school.
One of the most concerning reasons for the abysmal scenario of education in the region is the poor teacher-student ratio. As disappointing as it is to know that there is only one school for primary education in the area, equally shocking is the fact that there is only a single teacher appointed for the entire school comprising 200 students. It certainly turns out to be a Herculean task for the teacher to single handedly manage the syllabus or provide guidance to all the students from Class 1 to Class 5.
The second major issue in imparting education to the Nolia children is the language barrier that hinders proper communication between the students and the teacher. Since the mother tongue of these children is Tamil, they find in difficult to receive their education in Odia; whereas, the teacher appointed by the state government can speak only in Odia.
As a provisional solution to the problem, many of them have started attending private tutorials in their village. Although, there are three private schools in the village that provide education to these children, they are not eligible to give them their educational certificates.As this issue is paramount for any student on completion of his education, hundreds of students would go to the neighbouring state of Andhra Pradesh, every year, to appear for the examination and obtain a certificate to pursue further studies in Odisha or elsewhere. However, from this year onwards, the future of approximately 120 students, who would have appeared for the exam, is at stake again as their Aadhar cards need to be linked to their admit cards. Being citizens of Odisha, as identified in their Aadhar cards, they cannot sit only for the exams as they are not regular students of any school in Andhra Pradesh.
“Getting good education for our children is becoming a difficult affair for us. Even as we work hard so that we can educate our children, there is no adequate infrastructure for their education. Also, because of the language problem, children find it hard to cope with the syllabus at the government school. Hence, we usually send our kids to the private tutorials; but those tutorials are not authorised to grant educational certificate to the students. Our kids are forced to go to Andhra Pradesh to appear for the examination for the certification, so as to eventually continue further studies in Odisha,” said Pikki Tatil, a parent.
Also, troubled by the situation of the education system in their village, another parent M. Palraju said, “We have been staying here for many generations now, but still do not have the minimum facility of education for our kids.” Explaining further he added, “Though not a permanent solution, our problem was taken care of as our children could get their certificates from the schools in Andhra Pradesh, but with the linking of Aadhar card to the admit card, our children cannot appear for the exams at the end of the year. Thus, this year, more than 100 students are at risk of losing their academic career.”
Issues such as these not only affect the education of children of the Nolia community but also inhibit the many sporting talents from playing for the state. To enroll to play in a national tournament, the children have to show their educational certificates; since most of the students have certificate of schools in other states, they become ineligible to play for Odisha. Resultantly, they play for the state from which they have received their certificates. Unfortunately for Odisha, many of them have won silver and gold medals in state level and national level tournaments for volley ball, footballand cricket but the credit has gone to other states.
A resident of Nolia Sahi, Pikki Apple Raju said, “I have been playing football for a long time now. However, till I was in Class 7, I was eligible toparticipate in the interschool tournaments and would usually win a trophy for our school. It was post my board exams, I got disqualified from the competition even after being selected for inter state tournament because my certificate was not from this state. Currently, I am playing for another state and in the year 2014, I won a silver medal in volley ball. I was adjudged the best performer in three state level tournaments in the year 2015 and 2016.”
Another player named P. Gopi Krishna said, “Although I am a good spinner and started my career from my school, I haven’t had a chance to play for our state. In an ironic situation, in a state level championship held at Cuttack recently, I had participated from Andhra Pradesh and won the second position in the tournament.”
Meanwhile, as MCL spoke to Krushna Chandra Balbantray, the teacher appointed at the government school, regarding the lack of a proper education system and infrastructure, he said, “Given the student strength of the school, it is not very difficult for me to manage. I am teaching all of them as per the prescribed syllabus. That apart, the students are being provided with all the facilities as per the provision of the state government.”
