With a string of degrees to his name, Sanjay Mohite could have opted for a high-paying job at the best of educational institutions. Despite his humble beginnings, he chose not to take the easier road, focusing instead on building character.
Awarded the State government’s Adarsh Teacher Award on Wednesday, Mr. Mohite of D.S. High School in Sion, is viewed as an asset to the institution. He has been teaching maths and science to Class IX and Class X students for the last 20 years and thanks to him, the school boasts a 100% pass rate in the SSC board exams.
“I am happy to teach these secondary-level school students because I strongly believe that a student’s foundation has to be strong. My teaching style is based on my knowledge and understanding of student psychology. To generate interest, I create my own content, videos and presentations, and get a very good result. I ask my students what the science behind everything is and together, we observe it in daily life and in nature,” Mr. Mohite said.
His educational background is as varied as it is interesting: it includes an M.Ed., an M.Sc. in maths and physics, a NET/SET (education), a diploma in school management and M.A. degrees in history, economics, sociology, philosophy and Indology. Mr. Mohite has also recently completed his thesis for a Ph.D. in spherical trigonometry.
“The children in our school come from very poor economic background and neighbourhoods like Dharavi and Chunabhatti. Our aim is to give them state-of-the-art education and over the past few years, we have been working towards it,” Rajendra Pradhan, president, D.S. High School, said.
“Mr. Mohite has done exemplary work and has been with us for the last 20 years,” said Mr. Pradhan. “He makes extra efforts for teaching science and preparing the children for competitive and scholarship exams. He plays a very crucial role in coaching Class VIII children for the National Merit Cum Means Scholarship, which gives every student ₹12,000 per year for four years. Of the 100 reserved scholarships in each district, 73 students from our school received it last year.” This year, 24 students from a batch of nearly 250 students from D.S. High School scored more than 90% in the board exams.
Mr. Mohite does not rest on his laurels, though. There is much to be done.
“I also take extra lectures on Saturdays and Sundays and during vacations as per student requirements, take lectures on how to write exams,” he said.“We have a study camp for Class X students for 10 days from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., where they write papers and we correct them. I also conduct master resource lectures for teachers in the school to tackle new syllabus and help them understand ways through which they can increase students’ attention span.”
