Jaipur: Jamuna Lal Bajaj Government School in a dusty Kashi-Ka-Bas village in Sikar was one among the thousands of government schools in the state plagued by conditions like poor infrastructure, drop-outs, no toilets and drinking water until two years ago. Surrounded by hundreds of hamlets, at present the school is transforming into a modern elite school deserting all private schools in the area.
Thanks to former IAF (warrant) officer,
Dal Singh Shekhawat, who is now an English lecturer in this school and has mobilized people to get an aid of Rs 2.20 crore, since October 2015. Shekhawat is nominated by the education department for a state level award on teachers’ day to be given by chief minister
Vasundhara Raje for his excellence in academics and promoting Bhamashahs for a cause.
The school had 12 classrooms in the dilapidated conditions with rain water seepage during the monsoons and had now undergone repair in the first phase. In the second stage, 12 new classrooms are under construction with six smart classrooms. With an RO water plant, new toilets, computer and a bio lab along with a school bus the enrolment has jumped from 145 in 2015-16 to 401 in 2018-19. The school is expecting to double the enrolment in the next two years by minimizing the drop-outs and transfer of students from the private schools in the area. Interestingly, this school has not received any aid from the government in the last five years.
The man who brought the change attributes his success to his stint in IAF. “Every sane person has an inbuilt ability to work for society. The need is to approach them, explain them the outcome and provide them a platform. The major part of the fund has come from a foundation while the rest by individual donors. Several new donors are in the pipeline,” said Shekhawat, who is serving his second stint in the school.
Another feather in the cap of Shekhawat is that his special drive ‘Beti Padhao’ has yielded magical results with 255 girls enrolled out of 401 enrolments in the school. “No doubt, it’s a team effort. Each and every staff member has put in efforts to make this change possible,” said Shekhawat. The next target for the school is to get their students into the medical line. This school has two streams in senior secondary arts and science-bio. Shekhawat served in the IAF from 1977-97. He was selected as a grade-II teacher in 1999 and will be retiring in January 2019.
The school had 12 classrooms in the dilapidated conditions with rain water seepage during the monsoons and had... Read More
