REPORT ON SATELLITE SCHOOLS

In April this year, an order was issued by the Andhra Pradesh Government for the closure
of satellite schools (which are run locally within villages by volunteers) across the state in tribal
areas, for the reasons best known to them.
This resulted in

701 Satellite schools shut down in Visakhapatanam, Vijayanagaram,Srikakulam

and Khammam agency areas.

More than 10,500 tribal children adversely affected.

Children are shifted to main schools which are at 5km to even 25km distance.

All the 10,500 Children deprived of mid day meals from February 2013 till date
due to schools closure.

In order to test the efficacy and desirability of the state governments order, a fact-finding
mission was taken by a group of people belonging to various civil society organisations, NGOs,
educationists and concerned individuals to 4 districts namely, Vishakapatnam, Vizianagram,
Srikakulam and Khammam. Understanding the impact of the schools closure on tribal children
was key objective.
It was clear from the outset that closing down the schools and expecting the children to
traverse 5km-25 km (to attend school) on hilly terrain and depriving them of mid day
meals amounts to violence and infringement of child rights. Its clear violation of right to
life guaranteed by constitution of India.
Background:
The satellite schools, located in the same village as students, had been in existence for
just 1 year (previously they are called alternate schools and they operated for 3 years), and were
started with the mandate to educate adivasi children in remote villages up to third standard.
While closing down the schools, the education department has merged them with other main
schools, which are as far as 5km to 25km away, in an area marked by difficult terrain such as
hills, absence of roads and rivulets that swirl with raging waters during monsoons. The schools

were closed without any intimation to either parents or teachers and leaving these students to
their own fate.

1. VISHAKAPATNAM AGENCY AREA

I never saw Vennelakota village in my life. How can you expect our children to
walk to Vennelakota 12km away? -Korra Apparao,Ubarlapadu, Vanjari Mandal.
The motley group comprised of following members: Mr. Venkatesh( MV Foundation), Mr.
Chakradhar Buddha (Convenor, Samalochana), Mr. Prasad Boddupalli and Ms. Eshanee
Shukla (student of Hidayattulah National Law University, Raipur). The group visited the
villages of Vullivarappadu, Thatipalem, Korrapadu G,Madugula mandal (Vanjari panchayat) and
also Vennelakota and Gonnelabba schools on 2nd and 3rd August. The group found that almost all
students, who are in the age group of 4-7 were earlier attending satellite schools and now have
been forced to stop schooling due to long distances of other schools, lack of transportation, and
incessant rains. All the students from Thatipalem(20) and Vullivarapadu(16) are out of school. It
is tremendously unreasonable to expect the students to undertake this journey twice a day just to
be able to realize their right to education. The villagers realize this, and were willing to send
children to ashrams but they dont want to put young children at risk by sending them up and
down the hill every day. The Vullivarappadu satellite school was merged with the Mandal Praja
Parishad (MPP) School in Vennelakottla, which is 12 kms away. In the absence of a motorable
road, the committee members walked 5kms from Vullivarappadu to Korapalli village which is on
the way and further 7 kms from Korapalli village to Vennelakottla, to see the working of the
MPP School there. We visited the main school in Venalokotla to which satellite schools are
attached, we were surprised to see that it is even in more pathetic condition with no proper
infrastructure and poor quality of education. It was also found that School Monitoring
Committees (SMC) were not constituted in many villages which is necessary as it involves
people in the functioning of school. The closing down of schools has also automatically shut
down the midday meal scheme in all villages. The group tried to meet the Mandal Education
Officer (MEO) at the Mandal Headquarters, who was however away in Visakhapatnam. The
committee then met Cluster Resource Persons (CRPs), responsible for administering the satellite

schools, who pointed out to the tragic-comic ways of the functioning of education department.
The CRPs came to know about the closure only through a chance occurrence and not through a
communication from higher authorities. The Mandal education office directives to not mandate
certificates for admission in Ashram schools are being ignored by schools management, which is
yet another point to chinks in the functioning of the education department.

2. VIZIANAGRAM DISTRICT
Team comprising of following members: Arushi Garg (Student, Magdalen College,
University of Oxford), MK Gourav (National Alliance for Peoples Movement), SK Goush
(Action in Rural Technology and Sciences), D Prakash (MV Foundation), MRN Bhattu
(Action in Rural Technology and Sciences).
They toured 4 villages namely, Rangapuram, Gondilawa (PANCHAYAT: Biyya Lavalasa
MANDAL: Kurupam), Gandra(PANCHAYAT: Balesu-MANDAL: GL Puram), and Kutum
(PANCHAYAT: PK Jammu-MANDAL: GM Valsa) on 2nd and 3rd August, 2013 in which satellite
schools were shut down. The villager informed that no information was disseminated in the
village regarding the policy of shutting down of satellite schools, and absorption of the children
enrolled therein into the nearest government school. On enquiry, the team was informed that
even the students who have enrolled in the school at Dadpuram are often unable to attend school
because their parents dont always have the time to drop them to school. Many students have
dropped out because they hadnt received a proper education in grade I or II, and were given
admission straight in higher classes, where they were unable to deal with the workload. The way
to the school is long and arduous, and is often interrupted by sharp inclines. Chinna Reddy
(volunteer in rangapuram village) has undertaken the task of picking up and dropping the
children to the school in Sekupadu. However, this is very risky, because he generally takes all the
students by bicycle, and runs the risk of slipping and falling on the undulating road. Further, an
amount of Rs 250 has been promised by the government to each child who has transferred from
the satellite school to the government school, but no such amount has been received by the
children. In many places, there is no way of accessing these villages except by wading through a
stream. Predictably, in the rainy season the stream becomes too full to be crossed by anyone,
leave alone young children. The team visited MEO who stated unambiguously that he realized

the gravity of the problem and had often raised it with his superiors, but he has not been
successful in making any substantial change. He said that he intends to raise this issue again
when he can.
3. SRIKAKULAM DISTRICT
The team comprised of Suman Chatterjee (Media), Ramalu (MV Foundation),G. Kondayya
(HRF) visited villages of MauriManiGuda, Chapraiguda, Kondowadi Gora, Haripuram,
Chilakavalsa on 2nd and 3rd of August, 2013. The geographic position of these villages in the
high hill region makes it an uphill task for the children in the age group of 5-10 to commute to
school daily. Scarce availability of transport has allied with the difficult terrain where people
have to come down by 1km to catch the car. Also the age of the students dont permit their
parents to let them travel alone. In all the villages visited, the parents of the drop out children
said that the distance is a major problem for continuing study. The team realized that distance,
adverse terrain, scarce transport resource and age are the main contributing factors for the
discontinuation of study of these adivasi children. The team visited to Baddumasingi Village
Primary School and Mandal Parishad Elementary School and found on enquiry that in
Baddumasingi 3 children from the Chilakavalsa village have been absorbed. The teacher had not
received any circular notifying him about the impending tie up with the Satellite school. He was
verbally intimidated by the ITDA P.O. He was also not informed about any payment of transport
bill of Satellite school children. Later, the team visited Velagaapuram (Polla Panchayat)Mandal
Parishad Elementary School where 8 out of 12 children have joined this school from Kondowadi
Gora village. Here children have been provided with textbook only and not uniforms. Both
schools are getting maintenance fund and using it as well on papers but when we visited the
schools we found that only fan is operational under where the teacher sits.
4. KHAMMAN DISTRICT
The Members of Fact finding committee were: Mr.Adinarayana (HRF), Mr.J.Bhaskar (MV
Foundation), Mr.Satyanarayana (Reporter, Andhra Jyothy) Ramakrishna, (Reporter,
Namaste Telangana) ,Mr.Venkatesh(ASDS) and Balu(Action Aid). The team visited villages
on11thAugust,2013namelyRamachandrapuram(PANCHAYAT:PochavaramMANDAL:Kunavara
m) and Narasingapadu (PANCHAYAT:Yedugurallapalli- MANDAL,Chintoor). The Team visited

Ramachandrapuram village where during the interaction with the people of village it came in
knowledge that presently no school is functioning. 25 Children are attending LITDS residential
School in Katukapally village, this is 25 Km distance from their village, 2 children attending
intermediate in Social welfare college at Palvancha. These children are facing the problem to get
the Residential and Cast certificates from the village. In the village of Narasingapadu Children
have to Walk 5km to reach nearby school of Thatilanka, 17 children are studying from the village
and are staying in different hostels and villages, 10 children are out of School and they do work
in the agricultural fields and cattle grazing. In the villages of Kukunuram Mandal children dont
have school access in nearby, Pulapugudem primary school which is 1km away from Cheepuru
chelaka village but it doesnt have accessible foot way to children to reach school.
KEY OBSERVATIONS:
I am deeply enchanted by the mystic beauty of this forest. But equally depressed by the plight of
these forest dwellers- SatyaCharan from Aranyak
Right to Education(RTE) Violations:

Large scale rejection rate is seen in all the four districts with more than 10,500 children
are out of school by the decision to close down satellite schools.

According to RTE the local government can only define the neighbourhood school but it
is seen that the local governments are completely bypassed in the whole process of
identifying the nearest school.

In the Right to Education act the distance of the school from the house is clearly
stipulated for different age groups. But the state government is clearly violating these
norms by admitting the children of the shut down schools in the government schools
which are sometimes as far as 25km.

Cases of government run Ashram/residential school admissions rejected as students were

not able to produce either study certificate, transfer certificate or bonafied certificate
where as RTE prohibits authorities from asking for certificates till class 8 th. Team found
evidences of this happening in Roadbailu, Totlagondhi and Bodagondi villages of
G.Madugula mandal of Visakhapatnam dist.

More than 90% of the so called main schools in the agency are maintaining with either
single teacher or no teacher which is violation of RTE. For example In Visakha agency
out of 184 schools present 21 schools dont have teachers where as all others are having
single teachers.

RTE stipulates the teacher student ratio as 1:30 and its already violated in all schools but
with the merger of satellite schools in to main chools the teacher, student ratio will go
further up. (In Vennalakota the ratio is 1:60 but with the merger of satellite schools the
ratio will become 1:90)

As per the act government is supposed to provide the primary children with text books
and uniforms which was not followed in many villages. For example in Gonnelabba and
Vennelakota Schools (G.Madugula mandal, Visakhapatnam dist) neither the text books
nor School uniforms are distributed.

Violations related to Right to food:

With the satellite schools closure all the children are deprived of mid day meals from
February 2013, It needs to be noted that already adivasi children are reported to be
facing issues of malnutrition.

KEY RECOMMENDATIONS:
The teams have given elaborated short term and long term recommendations which are as
follows.
Short term:

Firstly and foremost Satellite schools need to be reinstated immediately without any
further delay. Any delay would result in loss of one academic year for adivasi children.

The government should take immediate measures and initiate a campaign in these
villages and enrol these students to the Ashrams. This will solve the problem of
certificates, uniforms and mid day meal crises. We were informed by the CRP officials
that around 94 vacancies are available in the ashram school, in this case such dropout

students should be shifted. With CRP taking initiative will make sure that there is no ill
treatment of these students and CRP can have a monthly monitoring.

Volunteers need to be appointed at panchayat level that will act as facilitator and help
students who have passed class 3rd to join the residential/ashram schools.

Long Term:

Residential schools need to be set up in each panchayat.

Ashram schools can accommodate more students as only 2/3rd of the capacity (in terms
of the number of students who can be accommodated) seems to be utilized. Efforts must
be taken to facilitate the enrolment of students in Ashram schools. Current Ashram
schools are quite remote from most villages and hence more Ashram schools must be
established to cater to the increasing needs of people.

Ways to exploit the synergy between satellite schools and Anganwadis must be explored.

CONCLUSION
Neti baalale repati pourulu.(Todays children are future citizens) is statement often heard. But are
the poor adivasi children are treated in a way future citizens are deserved to be treated?
Just imagine what would have happened if Urban or rural schools closed down for one week?
Huge uproar would have risen and all the hell would have broken loose. But with one stroke of
pen more than 10,000 children fate is sealed by the lethargic administration and self centered
political class.
Standing on hill-top and on one side there is lush green paddy farms with streams flowing
through thick forest and on other side plight of these tribal children who have been deprived of
education and left in the hands of a person sitting in that Mandal office who arbitrarily allots and
attaches these students to main- school which is impossible for a child of 5 years to walk. The
policy as it stands is impractical and does not take into account the topography of the region and
the social realities of people in which it operates. The current arrangement has resulted in the
deprivation of education for many of the villages inhabitants. If young children are expected to
traverse the hilly paths to the nearest government school, they will end up jeopardising their

lives. It is recommended that either the satellite schools be restored, or some other local
alternative be worked out so that children do not lose out on their foundational, primary
education. The apathy of the state administration which is paid 25% allowance as they are
operating in agency areas is very striking in the whole story. The importance of primary
education is not being realized by these officials which is the foundation for higher academics
Primary education is the foundation on which an individual--any individual--bases not just his or
her knowledge, but also his or her perceptions of the world. It is because of this dual role played
by primary schooling, in terms of both skill development and character building that it is
essential to ensure that this is one field of education on which we don't compromise. It is only
thus that we can think of a future where people think of nation-building as a priority, and are
unafraid to challenge the things they condemn. Thus as we conclude this report we emphasis on
the fact that satellite schools are opened foremost and without wasting more precious years of
these students a proper education is provided without any hassle and their fate is not left to
officials at Mandal who have arbitrarily shut the satellite policy.