Rendezvous with Kallar

Kallar school comprises of a primary school and a middle school.

Primary School
It is a government school, but just not a school – it is a “complex”. A complex means this school has some more primary schools affiliated with it. This school in Kallar has 4 other primary schools affiliated with it. Due to this reason, there is lot of administrative tasks which teachers have to do – month end reporting which is a consolidated view of all the affiliated schools, fund management and reporting etc.

When I came here, there were 3 teachers and a principal in the school. Just after a week of my arrival, one of the teachers, Mr. Kumant, got transferred elsewhere. So, now we are left with only two teachers – Ms Raj and Mr. Shyam – to support Ms Bimala as the principal. Their photographs are here -







Ms Bimala













Mr Kumant
















Mr Shyam

















Ms Raj








Primary school has an office, three rooms, a kitchen for mid-day meal programme and a store cum recreation room. While there is no distinct division of rooms between primary and middle school, this is how it is operating right now. The strength of the school is as following –

In total, there are 62 students supported by just 2 teachers, right now. There is no furniture in the school and everyone sits on the floor. The school has electricity and fortunately, every room has a ceiling fan otherwise I don’t think very many kids can survive the sweltering heat of this place.

Middle School
This part of the school has 3 classes – 6th through to 8th. There are total of 6 teachers – Mr. Rajesh, who also doubles up as headmaster, Mr. Karm Chand (aka Shastriji), Mr. Narottam Dutt, Mr. Sukh Dev, Ms Beena and Mr. Ram Chand. Amongst them they cover everything right from social science to arts and PT. Following are their photographs -



Mr Karm Chand



Mr Narottam Dutt



Ms Beena



Mr Sukh Dev



Mr Rajesh

NOTE: I could not take Mr Ram Chand's photograph, before the school closed down. Will put his photograph here once school opens arrond Aug 17/18.

This school has 3 rooms for each of the classes and an office. Following is the strength of this school –

Both the schools are in the same compound and, as such, there is no physical separation between them. Only that the teachers and students are different and generally they operate within their own schedule etc. One of the differences is that the mid-day meal programme is only for primary school and not for middle school.

Earlier, there was no proper drinking water facility, though over the years somehow the teachers out here managed to get two separate tanks built which were used for drinking water purposes. There were no toilet facilities earlier, and students used to use the field around the school for calls of nature. Now, with the help of BackToRoots, the trust with which I am working, there is proper toilet facility for both boys and girls and drinking water is also available easily.