Padma Sri, a pedagogue par excellence

Bhadrachalam: When most of the teachers are keeping away from taking up jobs in tribal hamlets in dense forests in the Agency areas, a woman teacher is fast turning cynosure of all eyes with her utmost dedication and undying commitment.   

Though the State and Central governments are making tall claims about providing quality education to every child, especially tribal students, in reality most of the hamlets in remote areas are deprived of proper tutelage, let alone quality education.

It is against this backdrop, that young teacher K Padma Sri is getting all praises for her hard work. Though the government is spending a lot of money for education of tribal children, the funds are not reaching the remote areas. While lack of facilities and a lot of other reasons deprive the tribal children of their rightful education, Padma Sri toiling hard to change the lives of these less privileged children. 

Padma Sri was appointed as teacher in Mandal Parishad Primary School (MPPS) located in the remote Agency village of Chilimivagu in Yatapad Mandal in East Godavari district of neighbouring Andhra Pradesh. The school under Vissapuram Panchayat is approximately 30 Kilometers away from Bhadrachalam.  

Nearly 50 families of migrated tribal people are living in this village. People migrated to this village from various States making a living working in the forest for the past many years. Earlier, the school recorded low strength. Children were not interested to go to school and they were accompanying their parents for works in the forest.

Though the government had allocated a school in the village, there is no permanent building to house the school. The school was started in 2011 for providing education for tribal children. Most of the people living in the hamlet are migrated from Chhattisgarh and Odisha.

After joining the school, Padma Sri motivated the people to send their wards to school. She conducted many programmes to create awareness among the parents. The students were gradually attracted by her and started coming to the school and learning lessons.

There are around 20 students from first class to fifth class and there is only one teacher appointed by the government. Since the tribal children did not understand Telugu, Padma Sri learned their language and motivated them.

As the government was not showing interest in constructing a new building for the school, Padma Sri decided to construct a temporary shed for conducting classes, spending her own money. She also urged various organisations to provide notebooks, pencils and other facilities for the students.

The villagers appreciate the services of the teacher. They support her for the last two years in her endeavor to provide education to their children. According to Laxmaiah, a villager, Padma Sri paid money for construction of the temporary structure. 

Speaking to The Hans India, Padma Sri said she joined the school in 2016. She said she had to motivate the villagers through various programmes to send their wards to the school. Now, the children were coming to school regularly, she said.  She spent Rs 20,000 for the construction of the temporary structure with support of villagers.  She said serving people was her only aim in her life.