Faridkot govt primary school is a lesson in self-sustenance

At a time when the Punjab government is struggling to provide mid day meals in schools, 140 students at Government Primary School, Wara Bhai Ka village, are enjoying facilities that match private schools.

Its classrooms have LED screens, more than adequate number of benches and toys for pre-primary students.

The secret, a determined state awardee teacher and willingness to pool in money on the part of staff and villagers. Meet Rajinder Kumar, 41, a Class-5 teacher (all subjects) at the school that is located around 35km from Faridkot city, on the Bathinda-Amritsar highway in the district.

Kumar, who joined the school in 2008, is credited with introducing innovative learning through television and audio lessons. He advised and encouraged staff and villagers to raise funds to improve infrastructure.

Even as most schools in the rest of the state do not find staff to teach regular subjects, here, children from Class 3 upwards are trained in martial arts on school premises.

The school, though, is short of one teacher. Four teachers are posted here against the sanctioned strength of five.

Kumar, conferred the state award for services in education, on August 15 this year by chief minister Amarinder Singh, says, “My endeavour is to create good infrastructure for education, no matter what the cost. The government does give us the funds, but staff, villagers and NRIs contribute to make sure, we are blessed with everything.”

He credits the school’s ownership of a Photostat machine, blazers for students and other infrastructure to funds that he helped raised.

“We had to work hard and show massive improvement in education achievement in children to convince villagers to pool money. Starting from my posting here to date, we have spent ₹10 lakh on the school in nine years. The government, the staff, the villagers and NRIs contributed,” he adds.

On Teachers’ Day this year, education minister Aruna Chaudhary honoured him with a state award.

Residents of the village are happy. Former sarpanch Gurnam Singh has enrolled his five grandchildren in the school. “The staff is good and concentrates on the learning process and so I opted for the school,” he says.

As always, there is always room for improvement with the school now in need of an additional room and computers.

Deputy district education officer (elementary), Dharamvir Singh said, “The school has been providing education in an innovative way. We have always supported the school staff’s financial efforts.”