School shut as files show ‘no student’, teachers disagree

GURUGRAM: The last time students ran up and down the 24 steps to reach the Government Primary School (GPS) on a hilltop overlooking Sehrawan village, was three years ago. On paper, this school was shut down this year, in reality, it has been locked since 2015.
Sehrawan’s students now travel 2km to village Dhani to reach the nearest school. Sat Singh, an elderly resident, said: “I’ve myself studied in the GPS.It was running fine. I don’t know why the government decided to shut it down.” Most parents in Sehrawan said they find it hard to send their kids to school now. Sukhvinder Singh said, “Even though Dhani is not too far off, I can’t send my son there, as the national highway runs between our villages, and it’s dangerous to cross it every day with the kid. So he’s sitting at home. This was the only school in the village, and they have closed it.”
The elementary education department at Panchkula has decided to close or merge 62 GPSs having “zero student strength” this year. Of these, four are in Gurugram, including the one at Sehrawan, as well as GPS at Daultabad, Government Girls Primary School at Garhi, GPS at Rampur. An education department official said: “This decision was taken by the department. We had no say in it. Officially, the reason is low attendance.”
According to official records that TOI has sourced, at the time of being closed down, GPS Sehrawan had zero students and two teachers. Charan Singh, one of the teachers at the school, said: “I don’t know what the records say, but at the time the school was unofficially shut down in 2015, we had around 26 students.” Today, the four rooms in the school lay deserted. A poster in one room displays the midday meal schedule, that includes among others chaat on Monday and dal on Wednesday. One of the walls has a political map of Haryana, showing different districts.
A letter sent by the education department earlier this year reads: “The government has decided that 62 government primary schools having zero student strength may be closed down or merged. Posts sanctioned and teachers working in schools which are to be merged may be shifted to schools with which it is proposed to be merged. However, at the time of rationalisation, posts of teachers will be rationalised on the basis of actual requirement at that point of time. All such teachers shall compulsorily participate in the next transfer drive.”
Officially, there are no students at GPS, Sehrawan, although the school has two teachers. Following the education department notification, the staff have been told they may be transferred to a school facing staff crunch. Tarun Suhag of Haryana Primary Teachers Association said, “Primary schools should never be shut down. If at all, closures should happen based on data from three consecutive years, not from a single year.”