A primary school in Madhepura’s Piprahi village is operating without an approach road and with a leaking roof, forcing its 115 students and three teachers to cross a muddy path through standing paddy fields during the monsoon.
The school is located in the Scheduled Caste-dominated area of Piprahi village in Ghailadh block. Built in 2006 in the middle of farmland, it has no proper road linking it to the surrounding settlement. Children often walk barefoot through the mud while carrying their footwear in their hands, students Anjali Kumari and Sushil Kumar told the Times of India.
Villagers said children frequently slip while crossing the path and soil their clothes before reaching the school. Some return home to change, while others stay away when they do not have another set of clothes. The access problem becomes particularly difficult during the monsoon, when the footpath cuts across standing paddy fields and turns muddy.
The school has four rooms. One is used as an office, while the other three accommodate classes I to V. The building also has a deteriorating ceiling through which rainwater drips during the monsoon. Villagers said no repair work had been carried out since the school was constructed.
The condition of the building and the lack of an approach road affect both school access and the functioning of the campus. The reported difficulties are not limited to students: the three teachers also have to use the muddy route to reach the school. The situation places the burden of inadequate public infrastructure on children and staff in a rural settlement where the school serves as a local public institution.
A woman teacher, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the school has been used as a polling booth during every general parliamentary and assembly election and that the problem is known to officials. The use of the premises for elections indicates that the building is regularly accessed by government personnel and voters, even as students and teachers continue to face the absence of a permanent approach road.
Pooja Kumari, the block education officer for Ghailadh, said she had joined the post recently but that the matter had already been brought to the notice of senior authorities. She said a requisition seeking remedial measures had been forwarded.
Headmaster Karmvir Kumar and assistant teacher Muneshwar Ram did not respond to queries. The next step identified by the block education office is action on the requisition for remedial measures, while the school continues to function with the reported access and building problems.
