Education in Shimoga: A long way to go

SHIMOGA: For some students the task of going to school is so arduous that their unhappiness at schools reopening is valid.For about 7,668 students and 152 teachers in Sorab taluk of Shimoga district, commuting to school is still a nightmare thanks to lack of proper transport.According to a survey done by Praja Yatna - the district organising unit, 613 villages in seven taluks of the district suffer from acute shortage of transport facility.Among these taluks, Sorab tops the list with 150 villages with poor transport facilities.Though Shimoga is considered a developed district, many villages of Hosanagar, Thirthahalli and Shimoga do not have proper bus facility, and students have to walk for about two to eight kilometres to schools.District coordinator of Praja Yatna Gopal Naik told Express that Aranelli village of Thirthahalli taluk, Bidarahalli in Amruta Gram Panchayat of Hosanagar taluk and many such remote villages force their children to walk five km to school.In many places, children who enter high schools have to cover a distance of more than five km “It is a major concern as girls have to give up their education because of lack of transport facilities,” said Gopal Naik.Teachers too are not ready to move to such remote places with no proper accessibility.“Though many teachers are posted to high schools or HPS in these areas, they see to it that they get transferred,” the report said.Many villages do not have no proper approach roads while other villages do not have bus facilities, said Gopal Naik.The Education Department is taking steps to provide infrastructure.