Vijay Bahadur Singh walks to Parsudih Middle School every morning, unlocks the gate and returns home after the school closes at 4pm.

This has been Singh’s rigorous schedule as headmaster of the school for the past 22 years. The frail frame of the aged Singh notwithstanding, what comes across as a real surprise is the fact that he has been solely instrumental in the running of the school for so many years now.

In spite of being the headmaster, he also teaches the 129-odd children studying at the government-aided school. Singh has approached the district superintendent of education (DSE) office to help him in the running of the educational institute.

“Last time, when they promised help at the government level, the then DSE was transferred to another place, but now we have approached the new officer and told him to intervene,” said Singh. His tenure got over on June 30 last year but since nobody else was recruited Singh took it upon himself to teach the students of the school.

As long as he was the headmaster officially, the children could avail the mid-day meal given in government schools but with his retirement, the mid-day meal scheme at the school has been withdrawn.

“With no fresh recruitment happening, there is precious little that I can do, but in no way can I jeopardise the future of these children coming to the school to receive education,” said Singh.

The sanctioned posts of teachers at the school stands at five, but with no recruitment since the past so many years, the student strength at the school has witnessed a downward slide over the years. Catering mostly to children of the lower strata of the society, the sole hand pump at the school has also run dry.

With walls steadily giving way and the seven rooms in the school building narrating a tale of negligence, the school established in 1939 has never got a coat of paint ever since. Standing pitifully in an open space right opposite Shyam Talkies in Parsudih, it tells a tale of injustice meted out to it by the government and directly puts a question mark on the success of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan being run under the Jharkhand Education Project.

The school has student of nursery classes to VII.

While one government recruited teacher passed away in 1992, the other teacher retired from service in 2001 and ever since the show is being run by the headmaster.

Officials at DSE office aware of the sorry state of the school but said they are helpless to do anything.