7-year-old girl keeps government school running in Karnataka despite being its only student
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Bengaluru: A seven-year-old girl is single-handedly keeping the Government Lower Primary School in Maddevahalli village, Tumakuru, from closing down.
Manasa, the only student enrolled in the school, will enter Class 2 and is ensuring the school continues to operate, as reported by Deccan Herald on Thursday.
The 25-year-old school has just one student, one teacher, and one cook. Manasa is the daughter of school’s cook Ramya, who shared that poverty made her overlook the lure of nearby private schools.
According to officials of the Department of School Education and Literacy, this school was popular 10 years ago but the increase in the number of private schools nearby resulted in zero admissions to this school. “In fact, the village itself has a mere 35 to 40 households. Even the number of children eligible to be enrolled in schools is low,” Krishnappa C.N., Block Education Officer of Sira taluk, told DH.
Despite efforts from education officials to move Manasa to another nearby government school, her parents refused, citing the difficulty of traveling 7-8 km by public transport.
The teacher, Padmakka, shared that she started working at the school in 2021 when there were 10 students. She added that after normalcy returned with the end of the COVID pandemic, four students withdrew their admissions and six passed out. “This student was admitted in the 2024-25 academic year for class 1,” she said.
The school continues to provide all government schemes and facilities, including mid-day meals and eggs for Manasa. Meanwhile, Padmakka hopes to enroll another student for the coming academic year. “There is one student in the anganwadi who is now eligible to get admission to Class 1. I am convincing her parents to admit the child in our school,” she added.
Manasa told DH that she sometimes feels lonely. “When there is no class, I have no one to play with. But my teacher plays with me and also keeps me engaged in music and art classes,” Manasa mentioned.
Notably, the school did not close for a single day in the last one year except on public holidays with neither the teacher nor student availing leave for a single day in the entire academic year.
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IAF to hold 2-day wargame along frontier with Pakistan: NOTAM issued
New Delhi, May 6 (PTI): The Indian Air Force will carry out a two-day mega military exercise along the border with Pakistan from Wednesday that will involve all the frontline fighter jets including Rafale, Su-30 and Jaguar aircraft, sources in the defence establishment said on Tuesday.
The exercise is taking place amid heightened tensions between India and Pakistan over the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 people.
India's civil aviation authorities have already issued a Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) for the major air exercise that will largely take place along the southern and western section of the Indo-Pakistan border.
India's frontline fighter jets including the Rafale, Su-30 MKI, MiG-29, Mirage-2000, Tejas and AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control System) aircraft are set to feature in the exercise, the sources said.
In the course of the exercise, the IAF will simulate enemy targets on ground and in the air with deadly precision, they said.
The militaries of both India and Pakistan are on a high alert following rising tensions between the two nations.
Soon after the Pahalgam terror attack, India, citing "cross-border linkages" to the strike, promised severe punishment to those involved in it.
In a high-level meeting with the top defence brass on April 29, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the armed forces have "complete operational freedom" to decide on the mode, targets and timing of India's response to the terror attack.
Air Chief Marshal A P Singh met Prime Minister Modi on Sunday and the Chief of Air Staff briefed him about the IAF's operational readiness.
On Saturday, Navy Chief Admiral Dinesh K Tripathi apprised the prime minister on the overall situation in the critical sea lanes in the Arabian Sea.
