CUTTACK: A driver in the morning and a passionate teacher by the evening. That has been 50-year-old Narayan Prasad Singh’s life for the last eight years.
A resident of Anasarpur village under Asureswar gram panchayat in Nischintakoili block, he has been providing free coaching to poor students every day. Singh, who drives a school van for a living, had always dreamt of becoming a teacher. Although destiny had different plans from him, he never gave up on his dream.
Born into a poor family, he managed to complete his graduation in 1992. “Ever since I was in school, I wanted to become a teacher. But since the financial condition of my family was not strong enough, I could study only till graduation. There was no money to pursue a bachelor of education(BEd) course which is mandatory for teaching career,” he said.
A good student, he moved from one educational institute to another to apply for a teacher’s job. But without a BEd, every school rejected his application. Forced by the difficult circumstances at home, Singh had to take up driving a car to earn his livelihood. “Driving a commercial vehicle which belonged to a different person was actually not feasible. There were no fixed hours of work and I had a strong desire to spend some hours of my life teaching children of poor families,” he said. A few years later, he quit the job and decided to drive a school van, which would help him interact with students every day.
Today, he drives the school van of Ali Public School at Haldharpur in the morning for a monthly salary of Rs 9,000 and in evening, Singh gives free coaching to poor students of Class 6 to 8 for two hours at Asureswar. This has been his routine for the last eight years. “After my regular job, I get enough free time to teach the children. It gives me immense pleasure because I think there is no bigger cause than empowering children from poor socio-economic backgrounds with knowledge,” said Singh, who is also the president of the Asureswar drivers’ association. He teaches the students in a rented office of the association.
His initiative also gets support from his fellow drivers. Twenty-five drivers of Asureswar give him Rs 50 every month voluntarily to meet the rent expense. At present, 22 students are receiving free coaching and there are times when children from well-to-do families have come to Singh to read. Although more students approach Singh for free coaching, he faces the limitation of space.
Not only the members of Asureswar drivers’ association but also locals have urged the administration to provide a bigger space to Singh which can be used to give free tutions to more students.