“And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it,” wrote Paulo Coelho. The author of The Alchemist, one of the most widely translated books in the world, probably has the largest number of fans in Kerala after Brazil, where he was born. The famed writer often shares on social media photographs of a library in Choondy, Aluva built in the style of The Alchemist’s cover, an autorickshaw in Paravur named “The Alchemist,” and various translations of his books, thanking Kerala and Malayalis for their love. But that celebrated author may never have heard of a village called Elambra in Malappuram district. If he had somehow come to know about the conspiracy by the authorities to crush a village’s dream of having a school, he might never have written those punch lines from The Alchemist mentioned above. The people of Elambra began their efforts to get a government LP school in the village in 1982, a full quarter century before The Alchemist was first published. There were no schools in the nearby areas and small children had to walk several kilometres to study. Ishaq Kurikkal, who was then the first chairman of the Manjeri municipality and later became an MLA, assured that he would help to seek permission for the school once land was found. Following this, the villagers collected money and bought one acre of land on their own. The Gulf migration had only just begun to take root at that time. Even after pooling the money from locals, vendors, and daily wage earners, and adding up the money that expatriates had sent, the amount was still not enough. It was only after adding the money obtained by pawning a mother’s mahar necklace from the Alakkathodi household, and the amount set aside for his Haj pilgrimage by a philanthropist named Mammootty Haji, that they managed to raise Rs 20,000, a huge sum of money in those days, to buy the land. The municipality also promised that it would construct the school building there.
Officials from the Education Department submitted reports to the government several times highlighting the need to sanction a school in the area, and even the Child Rights Commission and the Human Rights Commission were convinced of the issue. During this period, across six successive governments, there were five Education Ministers from Malappuram district and one Higher Education Minister. Even so, citing the lack of a policy decision and financial reasons, successive governments shattered Elambra’s dream of education. After knocking on every door without result, an Action Council led by Thenath Mohammed Faizy approached the Kerala High Court in 2015. The court, convinced that the demand was fully justified, ordered in 2020 that the school be sanctioned. However, socking everyone, the state government, which constantly proclaims its commitment to protecting public education, approached the Supreme Court to obtain a stay. Elambra continued its legal battle with determination, and finally, the highest court has now delivered a verdict in their favour — not just for Elambra, but for all the villages in the country that still remain untouched by the light of schooling.
The Supreme Court, which severely pulled up the state government for openly violating the Right to Education Act, has ordered that steps be taken within six months to establish a government school in Elambra. The same government that cites financial constraints as the reason for not granting a school is yet to reveal how many lakhs of rupees from taxpayers’ money it has already spent on legal proceedings solely to deny Elambra its rightful claim. At a time when hate-mongering quarters are spreading the false claim that schools are being sanctioned at every nook and corner in Malappuram district, the real situation has been clearly laid out before the Supreme Court itself. However, It now seems that the students will have to approach the court again to secure Plus Two seats. A five-year-old girl who was ready to go to school when the need for a school first arose in Elambra should now be 48 years old. If the government does not dare defy the Supreme Court verdict and show the will to start the school on the land bought by the people, at least by the coming academic year, the grandchildren of that little girl will have access to primary education close to home. How many children’s education must have suffered over all these years because of the stubbornness of the government!