A Primary Government School In Mathura, Uttar Pradesh
Hey Guys.
Recently I came across the post of the state of government schools in our state and country. And i was taken aback. We always come across such news so often that we forget what it takes to change. Even a small glimmer of hope might help in the little steps we take to build our nation.
My mother is a government teacher. She's been a govt teacher in UP for the past twenty years. In 2014, she was transferred to a school in Naya Nagla, Mathura. Even though the school was located in what is called "Nagar Kshetra" ( city area) , it was in the same situation as any government school in our country.
It was located in the middle of a slum, which was populated by the Valmiki Community. Most of the people were either sanitation workers or daily wage labourers. And unfortunately as fate of many kids in our country, these kids were forced into such works at a young age, not because their parents forced them, but because they had no other option to survive.
When my mother joined at first, she was told by many that these kids have no future. She could just come at her job everyday, sit through the school time and go back. It was that easy. But she herself grew around these communities, she knew what education means for people who are already hit by generational poverty.
She thought of bringing a change. The school was used by people to tie up their livestocks and was ocassinally used as a stay for the "Baraat" for weddings happening in the community. Her first step was firmly telling everyone that no one can use school for anything except sending their kids to receive education.
But saying that wasn't enough, she had to move around the locality, going house to house, and encourage parents to send kids to the school. At first parents were skeptcial, and those who were willing to send their children to school, preferred a local private school rather than the government one. Rightly so. Since the only thing the school had was a board and a broken buliding.
When some parents agreed to send their kids to school, another situation arises. She was the only teacher in her school, and she couldn't teach all the kids together. So she hired some teachers out of her own pocket, to make sure that no kid feels left out and there's a proper student to teacher ratio.
Another and biggest challenge was infrastructure. With a small hall, with a broken floor and a torn carpet, with years old blackboard, it was good for nothing. Suprisingly, government always released fund to help school build and sustain infrastructure, but most of the money would be wiped out before it could even reach the teachers. And any money that did reach the teachers, they used to pocket it all. So she started to use the money she could get from the funds and by adding some of her own from her salary, she fixed the only hall the school had, bought good carpets and a fresh new blackboard.
For next ten years, whatever help she could get from Government Funds, NGOs, Individuals, and her own salary, she transformed the school into one of the best in Mathura. A year back her school was turned into "PM SHRI".
The Private school that was in the locality as i mentioned before, got closed after admission went down as people now preferred the government school over it. The single hall school is now transformmed into 3 separate halls alongside an anganwadi (pre school) and dedicated washrooms for both boys and girls that is maintained daily. Parents from kilometres away who can't afford to put their kids in private school now come to her to ask for admission for their kids.
When i asked her why she doesn't go lengths to promote her school, she always told me that it's sad that we have to consider people like her who do their job properly a "hero". She always said that she hasn't done anything that she wasn't being paid for. She got the job to be a teacher, all she did was made sure the kids that were forced into cleaning sewages and lifting bricks, can get a proper education and be the change we want to see.
I'm attaching some of the photos of the school. I thought of using AI to write this but i thought it won't be a good way to convey this story, so i kindly apologize for any error i made in conveying this.
The point of writing this was to tell that as a country, we're still lacking behind on what is considered basic around the world, and we shouldn't lower our bar just because it's the norm. We should encourage people who are willing to bring a change and aspire to be like them.
Thank you.