This government lower primary school (GLPS) teacher, recipient of this year’s national award from the Union Ministry of Education, did not wait for the government to help him improve the school, but went the extra mile to do it with the help of locals and donor NGOs.
Over the last 12 years, Umesh T.P., teacher at GLPS at Amruthapura, Chitradurga, has built the school infrastructure slowly and steadily.
Mr. Umesh got transferred to Amruthapura, a village 35 km away from the district headquarters, in 2010. Most residents here belong to the backward Golla community. To this day, the village has no bus service and though there is a railway station here, hardly any trains stop here.
Mr. Umesh says the school was in a poor state when he arrived here, but it has slowly developed infrastructure, including a building, toilets, drinking water, school compound, and others, with the supports of various NGOs and other organisations.
Amidst pandemic
During the pandemic, he stayed back in school and taught classes in shifts whenever he could. He executed initiatives like Vidyagama, Jagali school and Gudi school, besides online classes for the students. He has also written six books and got the State’s Uttam Teacher Award in 2021.
“There is no point in just cribbing about a lack of infrastructure in the school. Twelve years ago, I was teaching students in tin sheds. Then, with the help of various NGOs, we constructed the building and then provided all the basic infrastructure. Today not only is our infrastructure good, our students are confident. They are giving programmes on All-India Radio.”
Social reform
Apart from teaching, Mr. Umesh has put in efforts to eradicate the system of segregation of women outside the village during menstruation in Golla community. “I created awareness in the community and finally the system is eradicated,” he claims.
Mr. Umesh will be presented the national award by the President on September 5 at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi.
