The High School was on the verge of closure after three teachers posted at the school opted for transfers. The school is located on the Kerala-Kodagu border.

Madikeri:

The Kannada High School of Karike, the border government school, is in a revival mode following the efforts of an NGO. It has now been turned into a smart class even as teachers have volunteered to take online classes for the rural kids.

The High School was on the verge of closure after three teachers posted at the school opted for transfers. The school is located on the Kerala-Kodagu border. It had just one permanent teacher this academic year who is also the acting Head Master. The residents of the village were fearful of the future of their kids. Nevertheless, the NGO Swami Vivekananda Youth Movement (SVYM) has come to the aid of the students in this government school.

“SVYM was active in the district from 2017 as we introduced mobile science labs to the students of government schools after tying up with Rotary institutions. We were approached by the district education department to depute teachers to the border school at Karike,” explained Praveen Kumar S, the education head and CEO of SVYM.

As a first approach, SVYM requested the network of teachers volunteering with the NGO to take classes at the Karike School. Three teachers volunteered for the initiative.

“During the break or vacation period, the three teachers visited the school at Karike and conducted classes. Over 100 students of the school visited the institution during the Dasara holiday to be part of the classes,” he added.

As a second approach, SVYM called for more teachers to volunteer to teach in the institution.

“Under the initiative of Vignyana Vedike, SVYM has a big network of Science and Math teachers. These teachers are state awardees who volunteer with us to help support the education of government school kids. They visited Karike and taught the students,” he said.

Further, as the third approach, SVYM introduced smart classes at the school. Audio-visual study content developed by the NGO was used to teach the students Math and Science lessons and this arrangement will continue at the institution till the end of the academic year.

“The problem at the Karike school will find a permanent solution only with the appointment of teachers. Nevertheless, we have started online classes through smart class setup and this will continue regularly till the end of this academic year,” he confirmed.

SVYM has supported over 300 government schools and reached over 45000 students through its School Education Programme.

“We have been working across government schools in the state for the past 15 to 16 years. From providing learning resources, capacity building of staff and infrastructure building, we focus on empowering government schools to provide quality education to the students,” he concluded.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Karnataka / by Prajna GR, Express News Service / December 22nd, 2023