Gaon Connection brings you a story of a teacher from Barabanki, Uttar Pradesh who is constantly trying to reform the village by educating and pushing his students to uncover their full potential in sports.

Aul — a small town in Odisha’s Kendrapara district has got the attention of the state government that has announced the setting up of a football academy with all facilities there to encourage more young players to step up.

Sunil Kumar is a teacher at Shahjahanpur East Secondary School, Kajrinoorpur, Uttar Pradesh. It is one of the oldest schools in the neighbourhood which lost its relevance with time. Read how this school’s reputation was revived by this teacher’s hard work.

Girls of Bijauli village in Dholpur, Rajasthan had to drop out of school after class 8 as there was no high school nearby. Upgrading of the local school has brought girls back to school, with more than half the school students now girls.

A teacher in Anta village of Kanpur Dehat, UP, rallies around support from the entire community of village administration, students and their parents into making the school a space where his students will feel uplifted.

Supriti Kachhap, who belongs to the Oraon tribe in Jharkhand, lost her father when she was eight-month-old and her mother worked as a daily wager to feed her five children. At the Khelo India Youth Games in Panchkula, Supriti won a gold medal in the 3,000 metre race in the under-21 category.

Far away from the spotlight of roaring stadia and sports channels, a silent sports revolution is underway in the villages of India where coaches nurture young athletes. Many of these players are bringing glory to their district, their state, and the country.

For four decades, a volleyball coach has trained hundreds of players in Hanumangarh district in Rajasthan, who have won medals both nationally and internationally. Coach Basant Singh Mann’s ancestral village Silwala Khurd is known as Khel Gaon.

Rakesh Vishwakarma is an assistant teacher at Composite Model School Saneeya, Ramapur district, Uttar Pradesh since 2018. Along with education, children in this school have also made a name for themselves in sports. Rakesh is sharing his experience of teaching in this school in this teacher's diary.

Neetu Thakur, a teacher from the Government Primary School in Jhumarkhali, Khargone district, Madhya Pradesh, is sharing her experiences in her teacher's diary. She writes about how a children with an intense disliking for school gradually outshined all his classmates.