Mangalore: Two rooms with a view to the world

DHNS

• Class apart

 

Mangalore, 30 January 2011: For 319 students, the Government High School in Pavur in Dakshina Kannada district, has only two classrooms and five teachers.

 

But, inadequate infrastructure has not hindered teachers from exploring the talent of their students. Their efforts have won them Intel Technology in Education Award for the year 2009-10 under school category recently.

 

 

 

Situated in a hamlet 23 km away from the destined IT hub of Mangalore, the teachers and the students have made  optimum utilisation of a well-equipped computer lab provided by the government three years ago.

 

The inquisitive teachers utilised the facility to open a window to the world for the rural students, downloaded additional information on their syllabi from websites, and with the LCD presentations, they made the classes interesting and fun. Bent on equipping the rural students with technical skills, they made using computer compulsory for two classes every week.

 

Headmaster Prashant Kumar K S told Deccan Herald that the school’s motto is ‘life-centred education to achieve academic excellence’.

 

“Our teachers encourage students to think out of the box,” says the Headmaster. The school, established in 2003, has a maximum number of students from the financially weaker families. But it has not deterred the staff from preparing the children on par with the urban students.

 

“We have been integrating technology in classroom teaching up to 50 per cent and our aim is to make it 75 per cent,” he says.

 

Beyond classrooms

 

Their efforts to make use of the information gathered from the online sources beyond classrooms led to schoolchildren taking up projects relevant for their agri-based community.

 

A group of Class 10 students carried out a project on ‘impact of untimely rainfall on the rural community’. The headmaster said that guided by the teachers, the children conducted a field work and studied the impact of untimely rainfall on the social, financial and health conditions of the farming community.  

 

“We should admit that the entire project was possible due to computer and internet facility. We might be having not more than 10 computers in our lab, but the students have been utilising the resources to their best,” said Karuna S, the science teacher.

 

Self-evaluation

 

Self-evaluation by the teachers every day is another key to the school’s excellence.

 

“To improve the quality, the teachers here follow self-evaluation technique everyday. It helps us to spot our strengths and weaknesses,” Karuna added.

 

The students, undoubtedly, are proud of their school. A 10th standard student Meharunnisa said: “The project works and community-oriented programmes initiated by the school helps us to understand the problems in the grassroots level. In fact, following the project result, we approached the Gram Panchayat and submitted a plea urging them to assist the farmers.”

 

Struggle for amenities

 

However, the road to success has remained thorny for these enthusiastic teachers and students. They are conducting classes in the nearby Ambedkar Bhavan too, which they may have to vacate any day. Shortage of staff and infrastructure have clipped the wings of these teachers and students dreaming big.