Nahan: Parents worried over Sirmaur school merger notification

Nahan: Parents are quite worried after the recent government notification regarding the merger of schools in Bakarla village and surrounding areas near Nahan district headquarters. The government decision announced a few days ago includes a proposal to merge Government Primary School Bakarla with Government Primary School Surla located in Surla Education Block. The distance between Bakarla and Surla is more than 5 km, and most of the route passes through rivers and streams. Since travelling on this route becomes challenging during monsoon, parents have raised concerns about disruption in their children’s education. Most of the families in Bakarla and surrounding areas belong to the Scheduled Caste community, and depend on daily wage labour for their livelihood.
The parents have accused the government of violating the Right to Education (RTE) Act, under which every primary school should be within 2 km radius of children’s homes. According to them, the decision to merge Bakarla school with Surla school has disregarded this legal requirement. The School Management Committee (SMC) of Bakarla has written a letter to the Chief Minister urging him to cancel the school merger. The SMC stressed that such schools play an important role in ensuring the right to education for children in remote and far-flung areas. Bakarla villagers Pritam, Rakesh, Rajesh, Roshan Lal, Suman Kumari, Deepika, Seema Devi and Reena Devi have strongly opposed the decision. They have called upon the government to reconsider the merger.