Bargarh: San Saraipali village, 60 kilometres from Bargarh town on Odisha-Chhattisgarh border, has produced four doctorates and aims to achieve 100% literacy but ironically lacks a high school.
The village consisting of two wards with 700 residents is called the village of educated persons. Four persons from the village have earned doctorates and are working at established educational institutions in Punjab and New Delhi. Many youths are also engaged in teaching and other jobs.
The villagers of San Saraipali do not discriminate between boys and girls, they aim to provide better education to all. 80 students of this village are pursuing higher education at New Delhi, Pondicherry, Chhattisgarh, Punjab, Bhubaneswar, Puri, Cuttack and Berhampur.
The educational foundation in the village was established by late Nrusingha Supkar, a resident of the village. His son Premananda is a teacher and Ramesh Chandra is a lecturer at Sohela College, in Bargarh district.
It is worthwhile to mention that the villagers had together funded the education of Ramesh.
Talking to OTV, Premanda Supkar said, "When father had returned to the village after studying in seventh class, he imparted education to the villagers. There were no schools at that time, he gathered the villagers together and taught them."
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Despite the respect the village shown towards education, children can only study till ninth class in the village which was also started two years back at the Upper Primary School.
"We have to go to nearby village to study in Class nine and ten. Travelling seven to eight kilometres braving the sun in summer season and negotiating floodwater flowing over the connecting bridges during rainy season are the problems we face. We all would be able to study well if our village gets a High School," said a school student.