ODISHABHUBANESWAR: In the Government UP School at Kondel village in Malkangiri district, learning goes beyond the regular blackboards and books. Here, children get lessons on numeracy from tree trunks and learn Odia alphabets from stones.
This may sound intriguing but Basanta Kumar Rana, who is the headmaster in-charge of the school, has turned the entire campus into a classroom. Because, he believes in retaining students by engaging them in joyful learning.
“My focus area is the pre-primary and primary grades because these lay the educational foundation of children. Be it children in Balvatikas or classes I, II and III, I believe if learning is made fun for them and their foundation in primary education is strong, they will never drop out of school at least due to fear of education. They will be motivated to come to school every day,” said 54-year-old Rana, who will receive the prestigious National Teachers’ Award-2025 on September 5. Rana has been chosen for his work in foundational literacy and numeracy (FLN).
Having worked as a teacher in seven government schools in Malkangiri for the last three decades before joining the Kondel UP School three years back, Rana has converted the entire school into a learning aid. Be it the school building, dead tree stumps and even the stones and planters on the campus, the 54-year-old has turned them into teaching-learning materials for the children to make the learning process fun.
Numbers and word games, both in English and Odia, have been painted on every free space available on the campus to foster a joyful learning environment for the children. “Sometimes, children come early to the school to play and learn. There are periods dedicated to joyful learning on the campus,” he said.
Inside, rows of toys decorate every classroom. Puppetry is one of the various mediums he uses to teach the primary-graders. Rana prepares shadow, glove and stick puppets, and masks on his own for his students. “Toy-based pedagogy and teacher-learning materials are used to make maths easy for students. They understand the concept through toys and then practice it in copies,” he said.
These practices have borne fruit too. With these fun teaching strategies, Rana has been able to bring dropout children back to school and improve enrolment. When he joined the school, the student strength was 86 which has now increased to 148.