From dire state of affairs to ‘School of happiness’
Having more than 350 students, all from the slum areas, Government Elementary School, Preet Nagar, Ajjowal, here has set an example. It has shown that if community comes forward to supplement the system, miraculous results can be achieved.
A few years ago, the school was in dire strait, with a dilapidated building and having a small number of students. Then came a social service organisation ‘Guru Nanak International Education Trust’ led by its chairman, an NRI Ranjit Singh from Chandidass village of the district, to its rescue which turned the tables.
The Trust provided infrastructure to the school, encouraging student enrolment by making the slum dwellers aware and facilitating their children to join the school. It not only doubled the student strength, but also rejuvenated the school. It brought the results, and now the school is being developed by the government as “The School of Happiness”. Interestingly, the slums near the school and in Ajjowal, have 100 per cent eligible children enrolled and the dropout rate of the school is zero.
Guru Nanak International Education Trust is dedicated to educating the poor children living in the slums so that they break their poverty cycle and create better life for themselves. The trust president state awardee Prof Bahadur Singh told this correspondent, “The trust has spent around Rs 60 lakh on the school by now and Rs 5-6 lakh are spent annually for the betterment of the school and providing facilitation of the students”.
The trust started its improvement plan in 2017-18, starting with infrastructure development. Initially, there was the construction of three smart classrooms and provision of all required amenities of smart classrooms for nursery, LKG and UKG classes of pre-primary section. Then, the kitchen was repaired by laying tile floor, providing shed and other material. Improving the availability of drinking water in the school, a new pipeline to connect the school with water scheme, replacing the old one, was laid. When students from slum area around joined the school, the trust came out with a plan to provide two uniforms, shoes and woollen sweaters to school children. This was in addition to the uniform provided by the government. The trust also conducts special coaching classes for students of class V to prepare them for the entrance examination for admission in Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya and last year, a student from this school had cracked this prestigious exam. Only 80 students out of the 1,200 schools in the district were selected in JNV and out of theSE, one was from this school. Planning is there to provide financial assistance to students so that the school dropout rate comes down and they get motivation to get higher education.
Head teacher Parveen Kumar said with the collaboration of the trust, the school had improved a lot and due to the joint efforts of the staff and trust members, the students were doing well. Now the government has selected the school under “The School of Happiness” programme. “A development plan worth Rs 40.40 lakh is on in the school. With this amount, a huge stage of 800 sq ft has been raised. A dining hall, a computer lab, the office of the headmaster and a classroom are being added. Also, the repair and painting work of the whole of building is being done.”
