130-Yr-Old Heritage Odia School in Jharkhand in Dilapidated Condition Cries for Help

Bhubaneswar: A 130-year-old Odia medium heritage school in West Singhbhum district of Jharkhand with over 200 students is in extremely dilapidated condition, reported India Today.

It is now reduced to two crumbling rooms. In 2019, the Jhakhand government demolished six of its classrooms fro their dilapidated condition with the promise that they would be rebuilt, which was never made. As the school has eight classes, the students are compelled to sit on the two verandas to study.

This Odia Middle School in Kera in West Singhbhum’s Chakradharpur has 223 students. It was established in 1895 with the financial support of erstwhile king of Kera, Laxminarayan Singhdeo. It was officially registered only in 1912 in the presence of Utkalmani Gopabandhu Das.

This school has only three teachers for all eight classes of the school. Apart from the three teachers, an Odia teacher from the Utkal Sammilani, comes to teach the students.

It is claimed to be the oldest functional Odia school outside Odisha. Although Odia is one of the most spoken languages in Jharkhand, the state government has released Odia books for Class 1 and 2 students only.

The books for the other classes are provided by the Odisha government, which are based on the 2007 syllabus and not updated since.

Odia people live in 10 districts of Jharkhand, and over 30 per cent of the population in East and West Singhbhum, and Sareikela districts are Odias.