Hi-tech village govt school in Jalandhar gives pvt ones a run for their money

Tribune News Service

Aparna Banerji

Jalandhar, September 4

It was a hot July, when 44-year-old Ashok Basra, took charge as a Principal of Government Senior Secondary School (Boys), Jamsher. A total of 417 students used to drink water from a single tap and the campus remained inundated during monsoon.

Today, the school, which has a strength of 800 students, has been giving private institutes a run for their money.

Basra, who will be honoured on the Teacher’s Day, has turned around the fortunes of the school. In the past 10 years, more than Rs 1 crore (donations from NRIs) has been spent to give a fillip to the school. Every year, 70 to 80 students leave private schools to shift to this institute.

Spread on eight acres of land, the school boasts of volleyball, basketball and badminton courts, 19 classrooms, seven labs, six AC rooms, 11 projectors, desks, public address system and interlocking tiles. In the Class XII board results, 11 students scored above 90%.

Basra said, “As kids used to surround a single tap, it hurt me. With the help of an NRI, we got new taps and a water tank installed. Today, there are many taps with attached ROs.”

He said, “After this, there was no looking back. We started improving in every sphere. There was a private school in the area, which had 250 students. Within a few years, the institute closed as all the students shifted to here.”

The school has won the Swachh Vidyalaya Puraskar and bagged Rs 10 lakh twice in the grading survey. “We started by training our teachers. We extended duration of periods (difficult subjects) from 45 minutes to an hour and took extra classes for four to five months,” Basra added.

The facilities

Spread on eight acres of land, Government Senior Secondary School (Boys), Jamsher, boasts of volleyball, basketball and badminton courts, 19 classrooms, seven labs, six AC rooms, 11 projectors, desks, public address system and interlocking tiles.

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