Children, parents take out march for primary school

KANNUR: School students, parents and the people of Kalanki, a remote village in the hill area of the district, staged a march to the Collectorate on Wednesday demanding that a government primary school be started in the village.

Action committee leaders who organised the protest said the long-standing demand of the local people for setting up a government school in the village, about 70 km from here, was yet to materialise despite a resolution passed by the Ulikkal panchayat and the purchase of 50 cents jointly by the local people and the panchayat.

An unrecognised school had been started under the initiative of the parish church there in 1996 in view of difficulties of students going to a nearby school at Mattara, seven km from the village, they said adding that the school had later been included under the alternative school scheme of the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA).