Rajasthan: For kids in remote Barmer villages, school now comes riding a camel

JAISALMER/JAIPUR: Their school is in the middle of the Thar desert and there are no roads leading to it or the villages they live in. Mobile network there is extremely poor. Then, even this solitary school shut due to lockdown. So, when about 700 children of a government senior secondary school in Bhimtal in Barmer were on the verge of dropping out, their teachers hit upon an innovative way to reach out to them – travel on camelback to hold classes right in their villages.
Four teachers have travelled on two camels, gifted by the villagers, every alternate day, braving the hot desert winds and scaling sand dunes. They have taught the students – who live in eight villages spread across a 10 square km area – at their doorsteps, literally. The teachers, who mostly live in Bhimtal, have been travelling from eight to 12km to reach these villages, which takes about an hour.
The classes were held under the programme “Ghar Se Seekhen”. “These revenue villages are not connected with roads, making it near impossible for people to reach them. Even online classes were impossible as mobile network so close to the border was very poor. Villagers then decided to gift camels to teachers so that they could be persuaded to come and teach the children in the villages. Initially, the teachers were hesitant about travelling in the scorching heat. But we managed to convince them,” said Roop Singh Jakhar, principal of the school.
It began with classes at one village, about eight km from Bhimtal. Gradually, more parents wanted their children to be taught and seven villages including Chimni Godaro Ke Dhani, Mahagini Meghwalo ke Dhani, Dheer, Sighlan and Daluwania were added under the programme.
Mukna Ram Dhaka, a teacher at the school, said they inform the village they are visiting two days in advance. “We have started carrying books and stationery items after we realised that many of these students don’t have them. They have not attended a single online class either,” said Dhaka.
The parents are happy. Bhawar Lal Godara, a father of two school-going children, said that the initiative taken by the school has come as a boon. “Since schools are closed, our children were wasting their time. Even if these teachers come once in two weeks and hold classes for 3-4 hours, it would be of big help to our children,” said Godara.