Pulpally: For the students of Kappiset Muthalimaran School, one of the leading government high schools in the district, the daily commute has turned into a harrowing ordeal. With the institution having no vehicle of its own, the schoolchildren are forced to rely on autorickshaws and jeeps to reach their classes. 

Crammed inside these vehicles, sometimes sitting on each other’s laps with their school bags shoved onto the floor, they endure long rides under the scorching sun and relentless rain. Many say these journeys leave them exhausted, and during the monsoon they often fall ill with fever and other infections.

Kappiset Muthalimaran School began as a lower primary institution in 1981 on five acres of land donated by a tribal chief, Muthalimaran. Today, it has grown into a high school with 719 students up to Class 10. Equipped with adequate infrastructure, there has been a long-standing demand to upgrade it into a higher secondary school.

A significant portion of its students (about 35 percent) come from tribal communities, and a majority travel from the panchayats of Pulpally, Mullankolli and Poothadi. Students from tribal settlements along the Karnataka border also depend on this school for their high school education.

Teachers, too, share the burden of the commute. With no school bus available, they spend considerable amounts from their own pockets to help ensure children reach school safely. As a mark of confidence in the school’s progress, all the teachers have enrolled their own children here.

Over the years, the Parent-Teacher Association has repeatedly submitted requests for a school bus, pointing out that the institution consistently secures 100 percent results. The Mullankolli Panchayat even took the matter to the MP’s office, but the demand has gone unheard. Ironically, other schools with far fewer students already have multiple buses, while Kappiset Muthalimaran continues to struggle.

Most of the children here come from financially backward tribal families who cannot afford to arrange a bus on their own. Parents and teachers alike now hope that a voluntary organisation or a benefactor will step forward to address this pressing need.