As schools are enclosed West Bengal thanks to the pandemic for one-year-and-a-half, an educator in West Bengal’s Paschim Bardhaman district has brought the classroom to the doorstep of scholars. The 32-year-old man has painted blackboards on mud walls of several houses on each side of Jaba village in order that children get to understand the three Rs of education – reading, writing and arithmetic.
“Bengali and English alphabets and arithmetic problems and their solutions are written on those blackboards with chalk,” said Dwipnarayan Nayek, who has earned the sobriquet “Rastar Master” (the master on the road).
The walls on which the makeshift blackboards came up are given a fresh coat of paint. Colourful graffiti, nursery rhymes and social messages including the requirement to require vaccines were also painted on them. Classes are taken at regular intervals within the village within the Jamuria area of the district, making both students and their parents happy.
Before Nayek, an instructor of Tilka Majhi grammar school within the area, brought the classroom to the doorstep of scholars, he had started taking classes beside a road under trees in eight spots.
“But attending classes under trees wasn’t feasible for everybody thanks to the presence of insects. Besides, a number of them must help the elders in farming activities. So i made a decision to draw blackboard on the walls of their homes and take classes there,” he said.
Initially, there have been only two students and now their number has crossed 100. Nayek also considered it important to fight superstition among the villagers. a piece of the oldsters thought that those infected by malaria were possessed by ghosts.
I have managed to bring a microscope to the category within the village and showed them the virus of malaria. I showed them how flowers bloom and the way trees grow. Most of those children are in primary stage and that they are first generation learners,” said the teacher.
“I have invented my very own teaching manual for them,” Nayek smiled as he asked his students, many of them girls, to chant a rhyme written by him on the necessity to scrub hands regularly, and clap after every line. Nayek doesn’t charge anything from his pupils for the service and pulled all his resources. He also gets help from family and friends.
“I hope i will be {able to|i’ll} be able to ensure zero dropout among children within the area when the college will reopen. But i’d wish to continue with this initiative,” he said
Rimki Oraon, a student of sophistication six, said they were sad when the college got closed thanks to corona. “But later, sir started taking classes on road so at our doorstep. We are very happy now.” Sital Baski, a villager, said they thank Nayek for coming forward to show the youngsters when the college is closed. “The initiative of the teacher is laudable. We are on his side,” Jamuria MLA Hareram Singh said.
