ನಾಲ್ಕನೇ ಆವೃತ್ತಿ, ಸಂಚಿಕೆ ೬ - : ಮಕ್ಕಳ ಅಚ್ಚುಮೆಚ್ಚಿನ ಶಾಲೆ (Season 4, Episode 6 : A School That Every Child Wants To Go To)

Please welcome Ms. Chandrika in this episode of ‘Pratibimba’ – By Teachers, For Teachers!

Chandrika has been working as a teacher at the Government Lower Primary School, Hirehatkuni for 11 years now. She has a total of 15 years of teaching experience. She is a graduate. When she came to the present school, there were only 63 students and only 2 teachers. The school had many problems regarding infrastructure. 

The school is located in a labour class area and the attractiveness of the campus plays a major role. The better it looks, more students come to our school. But they hardly had any place to sit. With the cooperation of her husband, she bought sheets for the children to sit on. With the help of the School Development and Monitoring Committee (SDMC), she got plates and cups for the children for a hot lunch. 

She started organising annual programmes where she could meet the parents and involve the children in various activities. Slowly, donations started pouring in. One association gave a few chairs. Most schools have a set of drums for the National Day Parade. Chandrika’s husband donated a set of drums for her school. Since LP schools have no PE teachers, students lose out on many activities. 

She was given the charge of head teacher and she refurbished the office room. And a pantry was also built to help the hot lunch team. She lays a lot of importance on cleanliness. Slowly the admissions grew in number. When she had an excess amount of Rs.15,000/-, she arranged for sketches to be drawn on the classroom walls. The student strength has gone up to 115 now. 

She got new rooms built by the help of the Block Education Officer (BEO) and other officials. The school is generally affected by rains. To counter this, they first planted saplings in the school campus. Chandrika then convinced the ZP member to make necessary arrangements to stop the rain water from creating a mess within the campus. 

She is grateful to the co-operation of all the BRP’s, CRP’s and DEO’s who have helped the school. She is proud of the students who secured admission into Morarji schools and are doing well at the State level. 

Hope you enjoyed listening to this recording by Akshara Foundation. If you have an interesting story, please share your story with 98450 79590.