Transit schools bringing a change in many young ones

Updated on: Monday, August 03, 2009

Chennai: If not for the transit school that they attend, many school going children would have spent their entire day doing household chores or simply loitering around home.

Situated in the vicinity of a construction site in Kelambakkam where her mother toils as a labourer, â€˜homeâ€™, run by a small NGO, is the place for many school dropouts and other small kids who are unable go to school due to various reasons.

A non-governmental organisation (NGO) Rural Development Trust, operating the transit school out of a modest brick structure with an asbestos roof. It also functions as a day care centre. About 60 children between the age of two and 14 gather here and play or take lessons under the supervision of two teachers and a helper.

Some students have been attending school here for three years now and can confidently read and write words and sentences in English and Telugu and also workout some fundamental problems in arithmetic.

The chief of the trust, T.K. Ezhumalai, says children like her become vulnerable to abuse in the absence of their parents, but the school provides a haven. Several children even end up assisting their parents at the site and turn labourers, he says.

Transit schools like this get support from Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA) that provides uniforms, books, stationery, a school bag and footwear to these children. SSA has three schools in Sholinganallur and Semmanchery where some 250 Telugu-speaking students are studying. Some of the schools also have children from Orissa.

Children from northern States, rescued by labour officials are usually accommodated directly to mainstream schools, where they pick up basic skills through activity-based learning.

Mr. Ezhumalai says that in areas such as Perumbakkam and Akkarai no such transit school facility is available. The government should allocate more funds for setting up these schools for migrant workerâ€™s children, he says.

'There are many children and few teachers. Amenities such as good drinking water is also lacking in most schools,' he says. 'After school hours, the children are usually back home doing household chores or out in the open playing. They need secure homes to live in as well,' he says.

The school typically start at 8:30 a.m. and continue till 4 p.m. 'The children are sent back only with their parents,' he says.

A teacher of a transit school observes that most children of migrant construction workers move from place to place in search of work with their parents and therefore a residential school, if developed, would work well for such children.

Transit schools bringing a change in many young ones

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