BARGARH : Headmaster of Lebdi Government High School, Sohela Tankadhar Padhan has been going the extra mile to get his students the best possible guidance during these unprecedented times. Padhan has been visiting his students at their houses to guide them for the last three months.
"While almost 30 per cent of the students could not attend online classes due to unavailability of smartphones, many others were just not keen to study from home," he said.
Concerned about their academics, Padhan called up his students’ parents and was told that many of them were not studying at home and were whiling away their time.
He decided to visit the students individually but could not do so due to rise in positive cases in the area. After discussing with the parents, Padhan started off by giving home tasks to the students.
Around three months back, when the number of cases started coming down, he started visiting the houses of Class IX and X students of his school in the evenings after taking permission from their parents. Subsequently, he started visiting his students in villages within a radius of 10 km to teach them Science and Mathematics.
On an average, Padhan visits houses of at least five students daily. The headmaster’s day starts with taking online classes on Google Meet. In the evening, he visits his students between 5 pm and 9:30 pm. His day usually ends at 11 pm. In between, he keeps getting calls from students regarding their doubts.
Padhan’s dedication is setting examples for many others. Lately, taking inspiration from him, other teachers of the school have also started visiting the students at home.
“I never knew this could influence so many people. Now that the other teachers have joined me, we can teach the students more effectively without having to wait for the schools to reopen,” he said. Padhan has instructed the teachers of his school to call 20 students each everyday and ask them about their studies and also take feedback from their guardians.
One of the parents, Jogeswar Sahu said, “Padhan Sir’s efforts are encouraging both the students as well as the parents. Attending online classes is not possible for many children in this area. We even do not have tuition facilities here.”