RAIPUR: As many as 41 schools shut down by bullets and bombs of the Maoist insurgency in Bastar two decades ago, now echo to chants of children learning their alphabet and tables. These schools have reopened for primary students in the past few months in Bastar division.
In Bijapur district, one of the worst hit by insurgency, 34 schools have been born again, while five have reopened in Sukma’s Konta region and two in Narayanpur.Most of these schools were closed under pressure of Maoist violence in 2005-2006. At least 532 students have already enrolled, half of them girls, an education department official of Bastar division told TOI.
One of these schools is in Mudvendi village, a remote forest hamlet in Bijapur district, where two children died in Maoist IED blasts in May and July this year. For now, it’s a tin and bamboo shed, but the administration will upgrade it soon. “What’s important is that children are coming back,” said an official. Prior to this, if parents in these areas wanted their children to study, it meant sending them to far-off places as boarders in porta-cabin schools. Most schools shut down in Bastar during the Salwa Judum movement, where police raised a local militia force to counter Maoists. Thousands were displaced and schools were either bombed by Maoists or vacated to be turned into security camps during this period. There have been instances of schools being reopened across Bastar – in 2020 in Dantewada, surrendered Maoists rebuilt a school they had demolished – but now it has gained momentum.
“With the beginning of the new academic session, schools that closed down years ago in remote parts of Bastar due to Naxal violence, have come back to life. We are trying to make them much better by implementing features of National Education Policy 2020. In subsequent academic sessions, we will open more such schools in Left-Wing-Extremism areas that have roads,” school education secretary Siddharth Komal Pardeshi told TOI.
These schools are mostly two-three partitioned spaces under tin sheds, but they are a sign of hope that Bastar is past its worst nightmare. There’s a dearth of teachers since these are hard-to-reach areas, so the education department has appointed ‘shikshadoots’ – unemployed educated youths of the same village, who are paid an honorarium to teach children.
There are 37 teachers and 44 ‘shikshadoots’ in these schools. Teachers are being coached on foundation literacy and numeracy. The initiative is being taken to empower Bastar kids and youth so that they can resist Maoist attempts to recruit them.
In Bijapur district, one of the worst hit by insurgency, 34 schools have been born again, while five have reopened in Sukma’s Konta region and two in Narayanpur.Most of these schools were closed under pressure of Maoist violence in 2005-2006. At least 532 students have already enrolled, half of them girls, an education department official of Bastar division told TOI.
One of these schools is in Mudvendi village, a remote forest hamlet in Bijapur district, where two children died in Maoist IED blasts in May and July this year. For now, it’s a tin and bamboo shed, but the administration will upgrade it soon. “What’s important is that children are coming back,” said an official. Prior to this, if parents in these areas wanted their children to study, it meant sending them to far-off places as boarders in porta-cabin schools. Most schools shut down in Bastar during the Salwa Judum movement, where police raised a local militia force to counter Maoists. Thousands were displaced and schools were either bombed by Maoists or vacated to be turned into security camps during this period. There have been instances of schools being reopened across Bastar – in 2020 in Dantewada, surrendered Maoists rebuilt a school they had demolished – but now it has gained momentum.
“With the beginning of the new academic session, schools that closed down years ago in remote parts of Bastar due to Naxal violence, have come back to life. We are trying to make them much better by implementing features of National Education Policy 2020. In subsequent academic sessions, we will open more such schools in Left-Wing-Extremism areas that have roads,” school education secretary Siddharth Komal Pardeshi told TOI.
These schools are mostly two-three partitioned spaces under tin sheds, but they are a sign of hope that Bastar is past its worst nightmare. There’s a dearth of teachers since these are hard-to-reach areas, so the education department has appointed ‘shikshadoots’ – unemployed educated youths of the same village, who are paid an honorarium to teach children.
There are 37 teachers and 44 ‘shikshadoots’ in these schools. Teachers are being coached on foundation literacy and numeracy. The initiative is being taken to empower Bastar kids and youth so that they can resist Maoist attempts to recruit them.
