Children of most tribal hamlets across the State will be deprived of the excitement of attending online classes when the schools reopen after the summer vacation on Monday. Many of them have no idea what online classes would be like.
“We too are children with dreams and ambitions. We want to study and grow up in life. But we are living in a squalid condition, having no house to call ours and under constant threat of wild animals like elephants and leopards,” said Nitya V.V. and Sudarshan B.V., eighth standard and fourth standard students respectively from Vaniyampuzha tribal colony, near Munderi, and in Pothukal grama panchayat.
Nitya is a student of GTUP & HS, Munderi, and Sudarshan a student of Alternative School, Vaniyampuzha. Like them, there are about 100 school-going children in Vaniyampuzha and neighbouring Iruttukuthi, Tharippapotti and Kumbalappara tribal colonies.
They have been marooned since the devastating floods of August 2019, which washed away the two bridges across the Chaliyar connecting the colonies with the Munderi mainland.
None of the students have any idea about the online school re-opening. “We have not heard from anyone. And none has told us what to do,” said Nitya.
The condition of children in tribal colonies elsewhere is not much different, though they are not marooned as the Vaniyampuzha children.
Exceptions
Interestingly, some exceptions too are there like the children of Nedumkayam tribal colony in Karulai, near Nilambur.
A tribal hamlet adopted by P.V. Abdul Wahab, MP, the Nedumkayam colony has modern facilities with computers, projectors and airconditioned classrooms.
