The transition from a smooth national highway to a bumpy service road at the Boyapalem crossroads was quite a jolt. A 3-km pothole-filled mud road led to an interesting juxtaposition of a modern, well-equipped, self-sufficient campus of B.R. Ambedkar Gurukulam, a residential school for boys run by the Department of Social Welfare at Edlapadu mandal of Palnadu district in Andhra Pradesh.
A government educational institution with such well-maintained facilities, especially the spacious, tidy campus and well-laid paths, reflects the thoughtful planning that has gone into creating a conducive environment for students.
The immediate question that comes to one’s mind is what prompted groups of students to jump over their compound wall to escape from this place on two different occasions in quick succession recently.
Escape attempt
On November 1, seven students of the 10th Class jumped over the school compound wall to escape from the campus. A few staff members who saw them managed to bring back four students, while others fled the scene. They were later brought back to the campus.
What was disturbing for the school management was that a bigger group of 42 students, also from the 10th Class, committed a similar act on September 23, 2024. When asked, the students said they fled their campus due to alleged harassment, poor food quality, and academic stress.
A few were brought back, but most climbed up the hill behind their hostel building and descended only when the local police personnel intervened and convinced them to return, promising that their problems would be addressed immediately.
Cry for attention
The group of adolescent students took a bold and somewhat reckless action to grab attention, to represent a state of mind that was simultaneously defiant, desperate and deeply misunderstood. In their minds, this act was a cry for recognition, a need to be heard by the management, which, they allege, had turned indifferent to their problems.
“We were vexed with the apathy of the principal and chose to communicate our grievances through this mode,” said Vinay Goud softly with lowered eyes.
A native of Chennaipalem village in Machavaram mandal, Vinay said a few teachers and the principal made his friends and him easy targets for being outspoken.
Sitting next to each other in their sprawling dining hall, the boys opened up and shared their grievances. “We were made to clean the bathrooms,” chipped in Kiran Raj, his face conveying anger and displeasure. Their friends Pawan Kumar, Gangadhar and others, all with furrowed brows, complained that they were overburdened with academic work, forced to contribute money for no valid reason, and falsely accused of consuming liquor and smoking cigarettes on the school campus and thrashed up black and blue.
The teacher-student bond, built on mutual respect, trust, and open communication, is evidently missing on this campus now.
A few ‘unruly’ teachers
The management blamed it on the ‘bad apples’ among the teaching staff. “A rotten apple quickly infects its neighbour,” said temporary in-charge principal K. Sirish Babu, blaming a certain teacher whose “manipulative and vindictive behaviour led to tension and disruption in the school environment, leading to the unfortunate incidents”.
K. Padmaja, Andhra Pradesh Social Welfare Residential Educational Institutions’ Society (APSWREIS) coordinator for Guntur, Palnadu, and Bapatla districts, supported his views, saying that this particular teacher, with the support of three other teachers, openly defied the principal’s authority, challenging management decisions and refusing to follow school policies.
She said to get back at the principal, the teacher influenced a gullible bunch of students’ opinions about the principal, painted the school administration in a negative light and even encouraged disobedience in the classroom, using them as pawns in his professional conflicts with the principal. This, she said, had contributed greatly to eroding the positive environment that the school cultivated.
A fresh start
To address the students’ concerns, the authorities have transferred the principal and the entire teaching staff, replacing them with a new set of staff to facilitate a fresh start and rebuild the lost trust among the young learners. The ‘unruly’ teacher and his three supporters have also been removed from the service for vitiating the school atmosphere.
For now, the students appear to be convinced about the management’s ‘corrective measures’.
“Adolescence is a time of grappling with authority. Their act of jumping out of the school compound wall was more of a cry for recognition, a need to be heard by the management, which in their eyes, seemed indifferent to their problems”Anitha AreClinical psychologist
“Adolescence is a time of grappling with authority. Their act of jumping out of the school compound wall was more of a cry for recognition, a need to be heard by the management, which in their eyes, seemed indifferent to their problems,” says clinical psychologist Anitha Are from Hyderabad.
She says a sense of control is critical during adolescence, and teens seek to exert control over their lives as they move through social, cognitive and emotional developmental stages.
Clearly, in this case, there is a mutual distrust that has created a cycle that feeds itself. The teachers’ frustration seemed to have led to harsher measures and stricter rules, which only alienated the students further. The latter’s disrespectful behaviour, in turn, exacerbated the teachers’ feelings of inadequacy and disappointment, leading to even more rigid authority in the classroom. The cycle continues with no clear resolution in sight.
Joint Secretary, APSWREIS, N. Sanjeeva Rao, said the department has taken immediate measures to re-establish the trust and confidence of the students and their parents. “We called a series of meetings with students, their parents and members of the school management committee and sent out a message loud and clear that students’ well-being and their academic performance is paramount for us,” he said.
Winning the students’ trust and respect is key to creating a positive, productive learning environment, he says, adding that teachers were instructed to be fair and impartial, show genuine care and interest, make extra efforts to know their students and offer them emotional support, not just academically but also personally.
Mission to uplift
To provide quality education to children belonging to the marginalised communities, the government started social welfare, tribal welfare and BC welfare residential schools across the State.
The social welfare residential schools were renamed ‘Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Gurukulams’ in 2022. The Department of Social Welfare runs 190 such institutions in the State, of which 67 are for boys and 123 are for girls. Besides, there are 161 integrated institutions (school-cum-college), 25 exclusive high schools and four exclusive junior colleges.
In the current academic year 2024-25, these 190 institutions have a student strength of 1,04,536, against the sanctioned strength of 1,17,360. The department also runs three IIT-NEET coaching centres at Eedupugallu in Krishna, Chinnatekur in Kurnool and Adavithakellapadu in Guntur districts.
Despite constant efforts by those at the helm to provide the best amenities and facilities to uplift these children, unforeseen and unfortunate incidents occurring at welfare residential schools have been a matter of grave concern. The reasons may vary from systemic challenges and lapses in oversight to wide gaps in the planning and implementation of initiatives aimed at helping these children aspire for great things in life.
Leaders of student unions have been at the forefront in bringing such lapses to light. Incidents of food poisoning and snakebites suffered by inmates of welfare hostels have led to demands for greater vigilance and strict monitoring mechanisms.
“Almost 60% of these welfare institutions function from rented buildings, and a large number of them are in a dilapidated state,” says the State president of the Student Federation of India, K. Prasanna Kumar.
‘Insufficient allocations’
““A paltry ₹45 is allocated to each child per day for three meals and snacks. In the State-sponsored Anna Canteens, the government has granted ₹96 per head, forcing us to think why students’ interests are not given priority”K. Prasanna KumarState president, SFI
Referring to ‘meagre’ mess charges granted by the government, he said, “A paltry ₹45 is allocated to each child per day for three meals and snacks. In the State-sponsored Anna Canteens, the government has granted ₹96 per head, forcing us to think why students’ interests are not given priority.”
The federation demands an increase of allocation for the daily mess bill to ₹100 per child in the welfare hostels and an effective monitoring mechanism. “There are no medical services for students of Ashram schools located in the Agency areas, a malady that has caused serious health issues or even deaths in few cases,” he said.
In a recent incident on November 4, two girl students of 8th Class, Sai Divya and Pavani, from a welfare residential school at Kondapuram were bitten by an Indian krait, a highly venomous snake, in the early hours of the day, but they were rushed to the hospital in a critical condition only on next day.
‘Gross negligence’
The parents of the students condemned the inaction of the hostel staff. All India Student Federation (AISF) leader A. Valaraju slammed the hostel authorities and accused the principal and staff of gross negligence.
Mr. Sanjeeva Rao said that they mistook the snakebite for a mouse bite, hence the delay. He admitted that the girls could be saved in the nick of time.
Similar episodes of the neglect of students’ health have surfaced at regular intervals. On August 26 this year, around 47 girl students from Ambedkar Gurukulam at Yeleswaram in Kakinada district fell ill due to food poisoning. Close on the heels was reported yet another similar incident on August 31 from a tribal welfare girls’ residential school at Jamiguda in Alluri Sitharama Raju district, where many girls were admitted to the Araku area hospital after they complained of nausea and stomach pain.
To ensure food hygiene and avoid the recurrence of such incidents, the government has given the food supply contract to Akshaya Patra Foundation. “This will also relieve teachers of the food duty, and they can focus on academics,” says A.P. Tribal Welfare Residential Educational Institutions Society Vice-Chairman K. Kannababu.
State Academic Monitoring Unit
He said that to ensure academic excellence, the society was setting up a State Academic Monitoring Unit. “Two months down the line, the new system will be fully operational and facilitate institution-wise monitoring through a dashboard, thus bringing accountability among teachers and transparency in the administration,” he said. The society runs a total of 748 institutions, of which 199 are tribal welfare residential schools.
The very objective of setting up welfare residential schools is to provide education and support to underprivileged children, but challenges in infrastructure, oversight, and resources have sometimes led to tragic outcomes. To minimise such setbacks, it is essential for the authorities, communities, and civil society to work together and create an environment where children are not only educated but also safe, healthy, and well-cared for.
(Names of all students changed to protect identity)
Published - November 15, 2024 08:47 am IST
