Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Not treating their work just as a job, some teachers at government schools in the Madhya Pradesh played the role of guardians to their students.
One learned a tribal language, another shifted from her home to the hostel and yet another carried books to children on her two-wheeler.
On the eve of Teachers’ Day, Free Press spoke to some teachers who are popular and admired by their students and the community for their innovations and their dedication.
‘Ladkiyan ye karengi’
Harnam Singh Gurjar has been teaching science at the Govt Higher Secondary Padaria Kachhi in Bhopal district for the past 25 years. When he was initially posted at the school, most of the parents preferred to send their children to the six private schools in the village.
He himself cleaned and painted the school building, freed the school grounds from encroachers and got shifted an informal drinking hole beside the school.
Soon, all the six private schools shut shop. He went from door-to-door urging parents to send their daughters to school. ‘Ladkiyan padh kar kya karengi,” he was told. In reply, he invited women IAS and IPS officers, lawyers and bank managers to the village. “Ladkiyan ye karengi was the message I gave and it bore results,” he says.
Chalta-Phirta Pustakalaya
Usha Dubey, posted at Government Girls HSS, Waidhan, Singrauli runs a ‘chalta-phirta pustakalaya’. She has got a frame fitted on her personal scooty to display and carry books.
She takes her mobile library to different villages in the area, where children are free to borrow and read them. When she was posted at a middle school in Harrai Purv in Singrauli, she had put up a ‘Sabun Bag’ in the school.
Parents were encouraged to donate liquid handwash or soap on birthdays of their wards, which were used to wash their hands by the students after having midday meals or after visiting the toilet. “Health and hygiene go together,” she says.
Learned tribal language
When Santosh Dhanware, a teacher for 25 years, now posted in Middle School, Dhawa, Nasrullaganj (Sehore), was posted to a school in a tribal village, he found that most of the parents didn’t send their children to school.
To facilitate dialogue with them, he learned Warli, a tribal language spoken by 90 % of the villagers. The enrollment in the school increased from less than one hundred to 256.
He uses TLM (Teacher Learning Materials) for teaching and during the Covid period, went from village to village, using loudspeakers to teach the children. “I asked questions on the microphone and they WhatsApped their answers to me,” he says.
Guardian, not warden
Arpana Naroliya has been teaching as commerce lecturer at Government Subhash Excellence School in Bhopal for 27 years. When she was given the additional charge of the warden of the Super-100 hostel on the school premises, she discovered that the students, preparing for NEET and JEE, were quite stressed.
“They needed a guardian, who would take care of them, and not a warden, who would just enforce discipline,” she says. So, in December last year, she decided to start living in the hostel. “Now, I am available to them 24X7. I keep on visiting my home every 15-20 days to meet my parents” she says.
Paid EMIs of auto for kids
The building of the Government Primary School, Semri Khurd in Phanda Block of Bhopal district does not look like a typical government school building. But Rakesh Patel, a primary teacher in-charge of the school has done more than that.
Around 27 children of village Ratania Kheda Pahad were not attending the school due to transportation problems. Patel collected Rs 1.30 lakh from the villagers and paid Rs one lakh in EMIs from his own account to buy an auto-rickshaw to ferry the children.
