E-Paper
National Teacher Award: HP teacher got land issue settled, home-schooled students
Sharma played a key role in getting the land, on which the school stands, transferred in the name of the education department
Kamal Kishor Sharma, the principal of Government Senior Secondary School, Kalhog, in Solan district, will be awarded the National Teacher Award on September 5.
Sharma played a key role in getting the land, on which the school stands, transferred in the name of the education department. When Sharma joined the Kalhog School in 2019, its building was in a shambles. When he went through the revenue records, he learnt that the land was still registered in the name of 15 villagers and a budget for the new building could not be sanctioned till the land was transferred to the education department.
Initially, he secured ₹12 lakh from the deputy commissioner for repair work. After the Covid outbreak, he was deputed at a quarantine centre at Sadhupul, but he took out time from his schedule and held door-to-door meetings with the villagers who owned the land and convinced them to get it registered in the name of the education department.
He brought all the landowners to the SDM office in Kandaghat and the three bighas of land was finally registered in the name of education department, paving way for a new school building, work on which would start soon.
Upon realising that equipment worth ₹12 lakh for the Atal Tinkering Lab was gathering dust at the Kalhog School due to lack of space, Sharma collected ₹60,000 from the staff and villagers and made room for the lab. During the lockdown, Sharma and his team taught the children by going from door-to-door.
A resident of Barthin village in Bilaspur district, Kishor joined the education department in 1988 as a trained graduate teacher (TGT). The mathematics teacher was awarded a state award in 2015.
Kishor said whatever he has done would not have been possible without the cooperation of staff and the villagers and the support of his family. “I am grateful to the government for acknowledging our efforts,” he said, adding that the award would definitely motivate him and other teachers to do better.
“My effort is to facilitate students in best possible way not only in terms of providing infrastructure but also improving the education standard,” said Kishor.
