Teachers in Karnataka go beyond the call of duty

Teachers

Teachers

Every day, K N Jayashree, a government school teacher in Sirsi taluk, prepares for two things: the subjects she has to teach and the journey to reach her remote makeshift school.

For the last one-and-a-half months, Jayashree and another senior teacher Mahesh Ager of the Government Higher Primary School at Muski have been braving heavy rains and negotiating non-motorable jungle roads just to make sure that their 26 students do not fall behind in studies.

Though it seems like these teachers are just performing their duties as per the instructions of the State government under the Vidyagama project implemented recently, few realise the extraordinary efforts these teachers put in to take the schools to the doorsteps of students.

Online learning is not an option for students in remote villages like Dhoranagiri, Shirogani and Muski. Let aside computers, there is neither adequate public transport nor proper roads to reach these villages. Therefore, these teachers have converted milk booths, private houses and other buildings into temporary schools and ensure that their students gather there.

Armed with some printed study material, maps and charts as well as videos provided by the State government, these teachers impart basic reading and writing skills to students from Classes 1 to 4. They also conduct learning activities for students from Classes 5 to 7.

“Though we find it tough to walk nearly four kilometres to reach these makeshift schools every day, we forget it when we see the happy faces of kids,” both Mahesh and Jayashree say.

While reaching homes of students is a major task for most of the teachers in Uttara Kannada district because of the terrain and weather conditions, the challenge teachers of rural areas is Dharwad district face is of a different kind.

The teachers of Chikkamalligawad Government Higher Primary School were worried when they received the orders of Vidyagama project, as getting these children to temporary schools was tough.

The school, which caters to children of three villages including Hiremalligawada and the Janatha plot, had 412 students studying in the previous year. But now, they were able to gather only 180 students, as others have either moved to a different place or are sent for cattle-rearing to supplement their parents’ income, which has been hit by the pandemic.

“We have 15 teachers. Each of these teachers visit various streets every day, gather a group of students at a common place like a bus shelter and teach lessons from 11 am and 1 pm. The classes are held six days a week with subject teachers visiting each area on a rotation basis. As of now, they are mainly taught Kannada, English and Mathematics,” said school headmistress Mahadevi Doddamani, adding that all the teachers strictly follow the physical distancing norms.

The teachers also ensure that the students wear masks and sanitise their hands regularly while studying. As per Ravi Hosmanai, the president of the School Development Monitoring Committee, the committee has also collected mobile numbers of all the high school students and the teachers are imparting classes through online mode.