11-year-old Indian Girl Offers Free Classes For Children

An 11-year-old schoolgirl is drawing huge praise from local villagers for holding free classes for children loitering on the streets after closure of their schools for long due to COVID-19 restrictions. Currently, around 80 children are benefitting from the free classes being run on an elevated open village platform.

Deepika Minj, a Grade seven schoolgirl, has been holding classes in Chandapara village in Khunti district of Jharkhand for the past two months. She began to teach after watching little children loitering on the streets most of the time while their parents remained away engaged in farming or doing other works to run their families.

Initially, just a few children joined her classes which she would hold inside her home but now the number of children has increased to around 80. With her home not enough to accommodate all the children, she now holds her classes under the open sky.

Keeping in view her dedication, the local Gram Sabha, an integral part of the Panchayati Raj system for village development, has even arranged a blackboard and mat so that the children could sit and study.

“I was worried to see the children idling around most of the time with their schools remaining closed due to COVID-19 restrictions. So I decided to use my spare time to guide and teach them,” Deepika said. “I am very happy that the Gram Sabha took cognizance of my efforts and is lending all help,” she added.

A non-profit organisation working on an education project, on the other hand, has allowed its library rooms to be used for study during the rainy season. It has also arranged an inverter so that the children could study when the power goes out.

“We are proud of this girl who has taken upon the task to teach the little children,” said the organisation’s secretary Ajay Kumar. He said he was happy to see the little children rushing to attend her classes every day.

A local villager Amit Kispotta said Deepika had shown a new path to the society. “Although she herself is a student she has been sparing time every day to teach the children. And, she charges no money for this,” Kispotta said.

Although COVID-19 badly affected schooling in India, it has left a disastrous impact on school education in Jharkhand which has a significant percentage of tribal population. According to a census report of 2011, the tribal population in the state is 26.3 per cent. The children of the majority of the tribal population are dependent on government schools for education.

To check the spread of COVID-19 infections and break the chain of coronavirus, however, the state government had to shut all educational institutions, coaching institutes which affected teaching of children across the state. According to an official report, the state has a total of 44,378 schools out of which 26,731 are primary schools and 14,863 are upper primary schools.

 

 

SOURCE  GULFNEWS

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