Teacher's Diary: 'The child who used to run away from school, is the best in his class today'

In my  school, there is a child named Suraj who never wanted to come to attend classes and would run away at the mere mention of school's name. Suraj's mother thought that maybe he would be interested in a private school, but due to unknown reasons, the school authorities refused to admit him. Suraj's mother was utterly disappointed, and that's when I started encouraging Suraj to come to school without any pressure. He started coming to school occasionally.

Then I started asking him to play in the school ground, and after that, Suraj started coming to school regularly. Sports were a major attraction for him and he also developed an interest in his studies, and now he is the best student in the class. It brings me immense joy as a teacher. Now, even on holidays, children want to come to school, and I have been honoured for this work. 

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Everything was going well, but suddenly, everything came to a halt with the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic. The parents of the children did not want to send them to school. It was very difficult to convince their families because they didn't even have smartphones for the children to study online from their homes. I tried my best to maintain the connect with my students in the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Under the National Income and Merit-Based Scholarship Scheme, children receive a monthly scholarship of one thousand rupees from 9th to 12th grade. We have also arranged for their admission in the Government Inter College and Government Girls Inter College.

As recorded by Ambika Tripathi who interns for Gaon Connection