Govt school in U.P.’s Kannauj turns classroom into pool amid rising temp

It is a brainchild of the principal of model primary school of Mahasaunapur area in Kannauj’s Umarda block

With mercury rising each passing day, a government primary school in Kannauj district has converted one of its classrooms into an artificial swimming pool to help students beat the heat and also to check number of absentees.

Students of model primary school in Kannauj district enjoying themselves in the classroom pool. (Sourced)

With private schools offering pool facilities to their students, the principal of model primary school of Mahasaunapur area of Umarda block thought about replicating the idea with limited resources to attract attention of local students who usually prefer to remain absent during this period of harvesting.

“If you check the attendance sheet of government schools, students’ presence drops drastically. Most of the kids join their family in crop cultivation that takes place after Holi. To check the massive drop in attendance, I thought about this idea and went ahead with it,” said school principal Vaivhav Singh Rajput.

Earlier, teachers had to convince parents to send their children to school. “And now with the addition of this fun element, we are happy to see a surge in attendance. We are witnessing more than 50% attendance as compared to last year when it dropped to 20% only. The school has 143 students from class 1 to 5 presently,” Rajput said.

“The swimming pool is attracting children and they have started coming to school on a regular basis despite it being harvesting period. Children are having fun and feel happy by throwing water on one another and splashing in their classroom,” a teacher said.

Tanya, one of the students, said the pool in their school has added a fun element. “We are more than happy with this artificial pool. It keeps us cool,” she said. School principal Rajput said that he sat with members of the school management committee (SMC) and discussed the idea. It was approved by SMC as it hardly required any money.

“As the school is located in rural area, children were not coming to the school. When the reason behind this was investigated, it was found out that wheat harvesting was going on due to which the children were not coming to the school. To attract them, the teacher of the school made this plan that was well received by one and all,” said his colleague.

The school has five classrooms. “As we developed a temporary swimming pool in a classroom, we’re now holding classes in four rooms and have fine-tuned our timetable accordingly,” he said.