The 1,600-odd students at the Government Lower Primary School, Manacaud, here have a new classroom to step into this academic year.
A low-floor bus from the Eenchakkal depot of the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) has been converted into a school classroom, complete with a TV and air-conditioner.
On a request from the school, the bus that was intended for scrapping was handed over by the Transport department for being repurposed as a classroom.
Fun learning
Painted interiors and exteriors, colourful furniture, including that for sitting, reading and sleeping, are all modelled on the concept of ‘learning through play’. A garden right outside the bus provide students the complete school experience.
This is the first KSRTC low-floor bus classroom in the State. The ‘classroom on wheels’ (Padhana Vandi) has a top deck, similar to a double-decker bus.
Work on converting another KSRTC low-floor bus into a classroom too will get under way at the school soon. Hoping to make the most of students’ curiosity, the school intends to set up a library on the top deck of the second bus. Yet another bus to set up a theatre is also on the cards.
The initiative
The KSRTC that gets a paltry ₹2.5 lakh if a bus is scrapped sees the classroom on wheels as an investment in society with unlimited returns. At the same time, its buses get a new lease of life.
As far as the school is concerned, it is a good investment in primary education which, it is confident, will engage students’ interest and make early learning fun. The money for setting up the ‘Padhana Vandi’ is being raised through sponsorships.
Minister for General Education V. Sivankutty who inaugurated the ‘classroom on wheels’ said the well-equipped facility was an answer to those who had made fun of the proposal. “No one had thought a classroom would be possible in a KSRTC bus. The school is the pride of the General Education department,” he said.
Minister for Transport Antony Raju presided over the function.
