When Narasappa Shivaram Kavi got a job as a primary school teacher at Torna wadi in Aurad taluk in 1982, his friends advised him against joining there as there was no transport to the village. But the young Dalit man from Nyamatabad was desperate to start work.
“I thought I would join and the bus service would start soon. However, the first bus took 15 years to come to the hamlet!” Mr. Kavi says with a laugh. Until then, he lived in the nearby Torna village and walked to the hamlet 5 km away.
School sans students
On his first day at Torna wadi, he found only three students at school, Mr. Kavi says. “I went around the hamlet looking for children. Most were working in the fields and some were playing. I met their parents and convinced them to send their children to school.” This, he says, took months.
“When I left the school in 2007, there were 150 students and there had been no dropouts for a few years.” Even his children went to the same school.
Model school
Mr. Kavi was promoted and transferred to the higher primary school at Gudapalli on the Andhra Pradesh border in Aurad taluk. He has succeeded in making it a model school.
The Gudapalli school, with separate toilets for girls and boys, has won the Rajata Nairmalya award under the Total Sanitation Campaign for 2010-11. It has a well-stocked library and a garden for the benefit of its 260 students. A student committee ensures cleanliness of toilets, runs the library and maintains the garden, with the help of teachers.
The school has also implemented rainwater harvesting.
The school has achieved 100 per cent results for the last four years. The students have won the State-level Pratibha Karanji competition in performing arts and the divisional level kho-kho championships.
Thanks to Mr. Kavi, the children have the chance to interact with senior officials from the taluk, writers, professors and other achievers as part of a weekly programme.
Keeping it simple
In recognition of his services, the State Government has honoured Mr. Kavi with a district-level ‘best teacher' award this year.
In his years of teaching, his focus has been on helping students learn the basics of writing, reading and simple arithmetic, he says.
“Once children master these skills, school becomes interesting for them. However, if the basics are neglected, school becomes a burden,” he says.
A particular challenge at schools in border areas is to teach Kannada to students for whom it is not the mother tongue.
For example, he says, students from the Banjara community don't speak any language other than Lambani. It took interactive discussions to help students learn Kannada.
