Written by Rahul Rai

Since he joined as a headmaster in the government primary school (GPS) Barki Kheri, in the impoverished Shravasti district of Uttar Pradesh 6 years ago, Aftab Ahmed has always been striving to innovate new methods in his classrooms to improve the learning levels of his students. And the examples of his efforts are aplenty.

In July 2019, a road was built near the school. However, as is often the case, come the rainy season and the newly built road would get completely inundated and make access to the school impossible. Waiting for the fault to be corrected would have taken time and cause the loss of children’s education and possibly also cause some of the students to drop out. Therefore, as a temporary solution, Aftab immediately decided to use some bricks to make a makeshift path for the children to access the school building.

These efforts were highly well-received by the local community and the parents, who could see that the school staff are working beyond their call of duty to ensure that their children don’t miss out on education. Soon, some of the community members joined in the efforts of laying the path and secured access to school for the local children.

In the village where the school is located, most of the parents are illiterate and the children attending the school are first-generation learners. Knowing well that quality education is the only opportunity for these children to emerge from the intergenerational cycle of poverty, Aftab has started to provide extra support to some selected children to have the option to enrol in the residential Navodaya schools. He has also created a google sheet with the contact details of all the children to track how far have they achieved their age-appropriate learning. With this, he aims to support those who lag behind and encourage them to progress ahead.

In March 2020, after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the declaration of the national lockdown, the situation for the children worsened. Earlier, under the government’s midday meal scheme, one meal was always ensured at the school, but with the schools closed and no work for their parents, even the next meal became uncertain. Anticipating these hardships, Aftab started an initiative to mobilize the community members to support each other. He involved the local leader (the village pradhan) and supported the families in receiving benefits from the government schemes.

Further, he re-formed the School Management Committee and started conducting basic literacy classes for the parents, with the idea to conduct mohalla classes and reach the children through the WhatsApp groups.

Having conducted Humana People to People India’s Kadam accelerated learning programme in his school the previous year, and still receiving their support, helped Aftab immensely in his endeavour. With support from the HPPI team, he was also able to distribute essentials such as masks and sanitiser to the local community members. Further, the HPPI team also helped him implement pedagogical ideas like ‘My home, my school’, which promotes children getting educated at their homes with the support of education volunteers.

The true hallmark of a quality teacher is their ability to go that extra mile beyond surmounting the challenge they face. And teachers such as Aftab Ahmed are leading by example for the next generation of teachers as we enter the era of the new normal with its own unique challenges.