Lone student, 2 teachers; a school in Karnataka

Mysuru: 8-year-old Nayeema Khan is the only student at the Government Lower Primary School since three years in Krishnaraja Nagar taluk, 65km from Mysuru. This Urdu medium school in Yaremanuganahalli village has been educating its lone student with the help of two teachers.

Daughter of an agricultural labourer, Nayeema, a class three student reaches the campus at 9.30am every day and spends the next six hours there. During her time in the school, she is taught Urdu by Sabia Sultan and Kannada by Nagaraju.

The school was established 60 years ago. Earlier, it had many students but the numbers fell as families migrated to urban areas and the remaining few started studying at the Kannada medium school next door, said a villager.

There are 40 Muslim families in the village with a population of around 450 of whom the majority are Dalits. The school, one of the first in Urdu medium, was set up to cater to the local Muslim populace, inform the villagers.