Mocked for accent, 80 Narikurava kids drop out of Thanjavur school

TIRUCHY: Unable to bear the continuous abuse by classmates, thanks to their typical slang and lifestyle, as many as 80 students from a Narikurava settlement in Thanjavur dropped out and took up their traditional works. This was revealed during the annual enumeration of school dropouts after which the officials have recommended setting up a primary school close to their habitat.

To identify the school dropouts and readmit them to the school, the School Education department entrusted the task to five government departments in Thanjavur district under the supervision of District Collector Dinesh Ponraj Oliver.

Accordingly, five departments, including Integrated School Education Department, Anganwadi staff, police and Childline were roped in to complete the task led by a supervisor, BRT (Block Resource Teachers) to undergo the study. And the team could identify 1,700 school dropouts in the district.

Among them, as many as 80 students were from Mela Uloor village Narikurava habitat studying in primary sections.

“It was shocking information for us. So we went to the village today (Saturday) to find out the reason when we learnt that these students were subjected to abuse by their classmates continuously for their peculiar slang and their lifestyle,” BRT supervisor GR Kavitha told DT Next.

She said there was a temporary school in their locality but it closed after the COVID pandemic lockdown. Though the particular school is one and a half km from their locality, they were to cross rivers and other water bodies.

“Despite all the inconvenience, they went to school but there they were ill-treated by their classmates, who mocked and called them nicknames. With no help, they soon stopped coming to school,” said Kavitha.

She said the team has recommended the government open a full-time school with an adequate number of teachers. “This could only be the option to bring back these children on rolls,” Kavitha added.