The Marwari High School in Cuttack. Telegraph picture

Cuttack, Dec. 26: The Marwari community in the city now wants to get back the management of the Marwari High School to save the government-run Hindi and Oriya medium school from further decay.

Repeated demands by the Marwari community in the city, which has a population of nearly 56,000 people, allegedly evoked no response from the state school and mass education department. Subsequently, a PIL seeking judicial intervention for it has been filed in Orissa High Court.

The city-based Utkal Pradeshik Marwari Sammelan (UPMS), represented by its president, S.N.Sangneria has filed the PIL.

“The school is in a very bad condition. Lack of maintenance has virtually rendered most parts of the school building unsafe. There has also been a marked decline in student enrolment. The number of students has gone down by almost 70 per cent since it was converted into a government school,” the PIL contends.

The petition stated that the Marwari High School near Balu Bazar was established by the Marwari community of the city in 1944.

It functioned both as a Hindi and Oriya-medium school. The Marwari community was in charge of the management. It was declared a fully aided school in 1974. It had around 1,000 students then. The inspector of schools (Cuttack Circle) took over the management in 1978. It was converted into a government high school in 1992.

The petition, on the basis of information collected under the Right to Information Act (RTI), said the student enrolment in the school had declined from 741 in 1992 to 356 in 2000. The enrolment this year was just 229.

The government apathy is also evident from the lack of adequate number of teachers.

The school has just 17 teachers now. In fact, there had been less than 20 teachers in the school during the past decade, the petition said while claiming that the revival of the school was only possible if management of the institution was handed back to the Marwari community.

The PIL has sought to arraign as parties in the case the secretary (school and mass education), director (secondary education), inspector of schools (Cuttack Circle) and the headmaster of Marwari High School.

While furnishing information under RTI to the petitioner the headmaster of the school had attributed the reduction in strength in the school to “establishment of large number of English medium schools”.

“Rise in the number of English medium school attracted students as Hindi-speaking students were advised by their parents to go to the English-medium schools. Also, within 300 metres radius of the school, there are two more schools: the Municipal Model High School and Saraswati Vidya Mandir,” the headmaster said.