When personnel from the Vithura police station and the Student Police Cadets (SPC) and teachers of Government Vocational and Higher Secondary School, Vithura, went to the Kalloopara tribal settlement during the first lockdown period as part of the ‘Oru Vayaroottam’ project to provide them food kits and medicines, more than food what the residents wanted was some facility for their children to study.
A study room for 12 children was then arranged at the police station, but when the students informed the personnel of the difficulty to reach the station from the settlement, the police set out to see if a facility could be arranged in the settlement itself. Within five days, the parents of the children readied a temporary structure made of bamboo and reed. The police and the teachers then arranged facilities such as TV, D2H connection, whiteboard, marker and furniture for online education, besides providing study kits.
When the ‘pallikoodam’ (learning centre) at Kalloopara took off, there was demand to set up a similar centre at the Kongamarathinmoodu settlement inside the forests near Kallar. The settlement lacks vehicular access. The police and the SPC joined hands to set up a centre there by the beginning of the second lockdown. The centre accommodates 17 students from the Kongamarathinmoodu and Mullamoodu settlements.
Educators appointed
Schools across the State are closed owing to COVID-19, but these learning centres for students are up and running. The Integrated Tribal Development Project (ITDP) has taken over the two centres and posted one educator each from the settlements on contract to monitor the classes telecast on Victers channel and to provide academic support. Various government departments also ensure that their personnel help the students.
A third learning centre has come up at the Elavinmoodu settlement and another is coming up at Pallipurakarikkakom in the Kombarankallu settlement. Both will be inaugurated together. A fifth centre is also on the cards at Kallar.
People’s representatives, voluntary organisations, banks, and so on provide support in kind for the scheme, be it as TV, D2H connection, furniture, or so on.
How SPC raises funds?
Funds for the study kits are raised by the SPC students by rearing fish, delivering newspapers, making pickles and payasam as part of a ‘lockdown challenge.’
English teacher at Vithura school and SPC community police officer Anver K. credits Vithura station house officer S. Sreejith and sub-inspector S.L. Sudheesh with ensuring all support for the initiative.
A project, he says, has been submitted on the direction of Inspector General of Police P. Vijayan for expansion of the learning centre initiative to other parts of the State wherever needed. “It is a matter of pride that a small project launched in Vithura is set to take off across the State.”
