There is a lurking fear of accidents involving the students of the Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya of Mundali in Cuttack district as the school is situated close to a busy road and these students have to use the road several times every day.
The Government residential school was opened as per the new education policy, 1986 of the Government of India with a view to provide opportunities to children with special talents to proceed at a faster pace by making quality education available to them irrespective of their capacity to pay for it.
The senior secondary school which imparts education from class 6 to 12 is one of the top schools in the district for its achievements in academics and its excellence in sports, co-curricular, cultural activities and social services towards local society is well-known.
But due to less attention by the district administration, the school suffers from multiple problems. Principal Ram Raj Singh who has joined here a year back told this paper that now a major challenge for hime is to ensure safety of the students. The students pass the busy State Highway that runs between the school and its playground.
The students have to pass the busy road everyday for physical training and game classes.
14 teachers’ quarters and daily wage workers’ quarters are also situated in the playground side and these staff members also come to the school passing the road.
Therefore we barely need a flyover for the safety of the students and the staff, told Principal Singh. Soubhagyalaxmi Behera of class 12, Sushree Sangita Mohanty of class 10, Shreeman Das of class 9 also highlighted the need for a flyover as the road has turned busy since 1996 after the opening of the Mundali bridge. Hundreds of vehicles ferry between Cuttack and Bhubaneswar and Athagarh, Angul, Sambalpur through the road. Teachers AK Nanda, SS Jha, Nibedita Padhi also raised similar concern.
last year the parents-teachers association of the school had met local MlA Pravat Tripathy, MP Bhartruhari Mahatab and the DM for the need of a flyover who are yet to think on the issue. Former School and Mass Education Minister Debi Prasad Mishra last year had attended the Annual Day function of the school and also had promised to consider the matter but in vain. This apart, before this school was situated here, some buildings of the Irrigation department were there and till date these have not been shifted for which officials of the irrigation department run into the school area round the clock which hampers its privacy. Principal Singh urged the Government for speedy shifting of the irrigation office from the school area. He also stressed on making a rest sheds for parents when they come to meet their children. The parents have to wait at the main gate beneath the open sky which is not decent, argued Singh.