In the Paschim Bardhaman district in West Bengal, an enterprising teacher has turned walls into blackboards and roads into classrooms, and at times schools across India are closed, Deep Narayan Nayak is has ensured children have access to education, reports Reuters.
Nayak is a 34-year-old teacher in the tribal village of Joba Attpara in Paschim Bardhaman district of West Bengal, has painted and he has converted the walls of the houses in the villages into blackboards and taught children on the streets for the past year after the local school shut down after strict COVID-19 restrictions in March 2020.
In a small tribal village on the eastern tip of India, an enterprising teacher has turned walls into blackboards and roads into classrooms https://t.co/e3gHHqpSr4 pic.twitter.com/MRIvpj1JUk
— Reuters India (@ReutersIndia) September 17, 2021
Kiran Turi, who is the mother of one of the students of Nayak, told Reuters”The education of our children stopped ever since the lockdown was imposed. The children used to just loiter around. The teacher came and started teaching them,”.
Nayak is now known as the “Teacher of the Street” to the grateful villagers.
However, schools across the country have gradually begun reopening starting last month. Some epidemiologists and social scientists are calling for them to open fully prevent further loss of learning in children.
Nayak said, “I would see children loitering about the village, taking cattle for grazing, and I wanted to make sure their learning doesn’t stop,”.
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