RANCHI: Jharkhand teacher Sapan Kumar, who had hit headlines recently for transforming the entire village into a classroom and mud walls into blackboards, has been invited by Deputy Chairman of Rajya Sabha Harivansh Narayan Singh to display his model of teaching in New Delhi.
Sapan Kumar, the principal of ‘Utkramit Madhya Vidyalalya’ at Dumarthar village in Dumka.
Recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his ‘Mann ki Baat,’ had also lauded the initiative taken by Dumarthar village wherein walls double up as blackboards for school children.
With most of the children having no access to smartphones to take online classes, teachers of this tribal-dominated village in Dumka have transformed the entire village into a classroom where walls serve as a blackboard on which students solve assignments given by teachers through loudspeakers.
According to Harivansh Narayan Singh, the model adopted by Sapan Kumar is the natural way of teaching. While talking over the phone with Sapan Kumar, Harivansh also expressed his willingness to visit Dumarthar to see his model of teaching, whenever he comes to Jharkhand.
“This is the real education which makes our country and the world move forward. This is the natural method of teaching the children,” said the Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman over the phone. Congratulating Kumar, Singh invited him to Delhi so that others can get to know about his innovation in the field of education.
Harivansh also said that he would discuss this innovative approach towards teaching students who do not have access to smartphones with his colleagues in Rajya Sabha.
An overwhelmed Sapan Kumar said that the Deputy Chairman was quite happy with him and praised his model of teaching very much. “The Deputy Chairman was so impressed with this model that he told me that he will be discussing it with his colleagues in Rajya Sabha and others at different platforms. Then, I told him that this model is actually meant for the poor and underprivileged children which could be adopted by state or County,” said the teacher.
For this innovation, Sapan Kumar was also nominated for the National Teachers’ Award. Not only in India, but his model is earning praises from intellectuals and teachers all over the world.
Interestingly, the government-controlled Chinese television network CCTV also telecast a documentary on the innovative approach of Sapan Kumar. Kumar, as reported earlier, is also making children self-sufficient who are producing chalks, mats on which they sit while taking the classes. They are making brooms for keeping the place clean on their own with whatever resources are available naturally in the area.