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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Trooper teacher in Saranda class by Kumud Jenamani

Trooper teacher in Saranda class by Kumud Jenamani

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published Published on Nov 20, 2011   modified Modified on Nov 20, 2011

Blackboard 2002: A for attack; B for bomb; C for cops…

Blackboard 2012: A for apple; B for ball; C for cat…

Jamshedpur, Nov. 20: More than 500 students in some 15 primary and middle schools in forest villages of a reclaimed Saranda in West Singhbhum are looking forward to a paradigm shift in their ABCs of academic life, courtesy the CRPF.

The central paramilitary force has taken up the daunting task of donning the mentor’s mantle from next month and helping these children “unlearn” what the CPI(Maoist) had burdened their young minds with for nearly a decade.

Spread over 855sqkm, 56-odd villages of Saranda with a population of 36,500 had not seen development ever since the guerrillas wrested control in 2000. Violence and bloodbath took the heaviest toll on whatever existed in the name of education in this neglected hinterland. Teachers and non-teaching employees began deserting schools and rebels, who had consolidated their position, gained popular support by turning educators.

But if the instructors were new, so was the curriculum. Children were taught in detail about guns, bombs and landmines. They were also told about bad men and strangers (read police and paramilitary personnel). Pictures and sketches were used to drive home the point that weapons were the tools of a better future — a future of freedom, a promise perhaps as hollow as the morals of the people who made them.

CRPF deputy inspector-general (DIG) Bhanu Pratap Singh said imparting proper education would go a long way in helping them rebuild Saranda. CRPF personnel, who have an inclination for teaching, will be sent to Saranda.

“Apart from textbook lessons, which will be a token gesture, our men will also engage the students in recreational activities. The idea is to erase bad memories and awaken their conscience. We are very optimistic,” he said, adding that the details of the programme would be chalked by next month.

Singh also held the local administration and the government machinery responsible for failing to check the mass exodus of teachers from these state-run schools.

Run under the Jharkhand Education Project Council, the 13 primary and two middle schools have 590-odd students on their rolls. As per government rules and regulations, the teacher-student ratio in primary cradles is supposed to be 1:40, which means each of the 13 primary schools that had 30 students each should have had at least one full-time mentor. Similarly, middle schools, with strength of 100 each, are supposed to have seven teachers, including the headmaster.

“However, after the CPI(Maoist) captured Saranda, most of these teachers left. The rebels introduced their own perfidious curriculum. In some schools, where the teachers were local residents, the rebels forced them to teach what they wanted them to. In others, Maoist leaders turned teachers. Blackboards screamed guns and bombs, while walls sported pictures and charts on their use. But things will change now,” the senior CRPF officer added.


The Telegraph, 21 November, 2011, http://www.telegraphindia.com/1111121/jsp/frontpage/story_14778196.jsp


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