Sangargalli is a village, near Gunji, in the Khanapur taluka of Belagavi District in North Karnataka. Belagavi District shares its border with the Kolhapur District of Maharashtra. Gunji thus has a Marathi Medium school because of its proximity to Maharashtra though located in Karnataka where the official language is Kannada.
The acute shortage of English medium schools, the shortage of transport facilities and the lack of facilities in the rustic remote undeveloped villages, saps the little interest lingering in children to go to schools. If the children are to pursue English medium, they are to stay in hostels which leads them to separation from their parents. As the education in these schools is not interesting and exciting and also because of economic difficulties and demands of field work, budding pupils’ dropout of school and most of them go to their fields, graze the cattle.
Further, the nearest English school was in Khanapur, which is at a distance of 12 kilometres. Accessibility to this English medium school is poor as the neglected village roads are in a dilapidated state and travel to Khanapur is back breaking, tiresome and time consuming. Therefore, students who had a high calibre for pursuing intellectual study had been going to the Marathi school, which did not give them enough chance to compete at the national and international level.
Education, being an important factor for the growth and development of the children in this area has been neglected and children were at a disadvantage to enhance their academic status. Recognising the need for quality education, and feeling left behind in the modern world, many parents approached the Goa Jesuits and requested us, to start an English medium school.
Taking up the challenge we have started this English medium primary school at Sangargalli. 13 villages around Sangargalli at a distance of 3 to 6 kilometres, are benefiting from this endeavour. At present, ie 2019-2020, the school has students up to IV Standard. The school in the future intends to go up to VII standard and then to X Std.
P Fernandes Benito
Parish Priest since 2021; Manager, St Paul’s English Med. Primary School, Sangargalli
Phone: +91 8087804805
E-mail: benitogreat@rediffmail.com
P Bardeskar Motiram
Asst Parish Priest, Headmaster of St. Paul’s English Med. Primary School, Sangargalli
Phone: +91 9482404368; +91 7038017687
E-mail: motiramsj@gmail.com