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Good Samaritans help turn 40 govt schools in district into smart ones
Banking on the goodwill of non-resident Indians (NRIs), alumni and school staff, as many as 40 government schools in the district have turned into smart schools in the last one year.
Banking on the goodwill of non-resident Indians (NRIs), alumni and school staff, as many as 40 government schools in the district have turned into smart schools in the last one year.
One such school is the Shaheed Colonel Harcharan Singh Sekhon Memorial Government Senior Secondary School, Dakha, established in 1926, which was in dire need of a renovation. School principal Butta Singh motivated the school staff and villagers to contribute funds to get the building painted after which the entire look of the building was changed.
To live up to the ‘smart school’ tag, the authorities painted the walls and pillars of the school with educational visuals under the ‘Building As Learning Aid (BALA)’ scheme of the government. An amount of ₹40,000 was spent under the BALA scheme, which was funded by villagers.
To maintain the school ground, authorities received a donation of ₹9 lakh from Dakha Issewal welfare club following which a 200-m track was constructed for the students. Basketball and handball courts will also be set up at the ground soon.
A year on, impressed with the massive improvements, as many as 119 students have enrolled in the school.
The school authorities are also coming up with a dining hall to serve mid-day meal to students. The hall will accommodate 150 students at a time and will be constructed by next month, school authorities said.
GSSS, Ayali Khurd
At Government Senior Secondary School (GSSS, Ayali Khurd), retired teachers, panchayat members and corporates helped in the renovation of computer and science laboratories, besides installing eight CCTV cameras, vending machines and incinerator at the school.
The school’s gates and walls have also decorated under BALA scheme. The pictures and quotations that now don the school’s walls were selected by the subject teachers.
Quotations used for wall paintings in the school library such as ‘Books are our good friends, a library is not a luxury but one of the necessities of life” conveys the message to students to value books and read books to improve vocabulary, learn new words and have a better understanding of the language.
The class in-charges of GSSS, Ayali Khurd, contributed ₹60,000 to get all the classrooms painted. School principal Kanwaljot Kaur, said, “In the past two years, a lot of efforts had been made to improve the infrastructure of the school. Eight new classrooms had been constructed last year by a tyre manufacturing company. The new classrooms had brought respite for the students as they used to sit under sheds to attend the class earlier.”
