M. Salam taught at the same multi-grade learning centre (MGLC) or single-teacher school at Edavanna in Malappuram for half his 50 years. This month, he joined duty at Government Vocational Higher Secondary School, Kizhuparambu, near Areekode, in the full-time menial grade, that is as sweeper.
With the government deciding to phase out MGLCs, less than 10 of the 270 MGLCs remain open. The rest, in some of the remotest parts, have been closed down and the children shifted to nearby schools or tribal hostels. Most of the 344 teachers (called Vidya volunteers) who taught in these schools for honorarium have been redeployed as part-time contingent menial/full-time menial after taking their consent and considering seniority.
The Vidya volunteers acknowledge that taking up work as a sweeper after teaching young children for years is not easy. The emotions writ large on the face of K.R. Ushakumari, a Vidya volunteer at a MGLC deep inside the forests near Amboori in Thiruvananthapuram district, as she narrated her predicament had most people sit up and take notice.
