That year, the free textbooks meant for the students did not arrive in April 2014 when the academic year started. They came only by October–November. ‘Half the academic session is almost lost. We managed by using old textbooks of senior students,’ one of the school’s eleven teachers told me. Children in this school are actually lucky, the teachers said, because many schools in the neighbouring villages have just one or two teachers. ‘In Paharpur, there is a primary school (from classes one to five) operated by just one lady teacher,’ one of them said.
No books and rare teachers
