Hyderabad: Bunking class? When Gurija Mahesh is taking class, think again. An ardent teacher of mandal parishad upper primary school at Damera village in Nalgonda’s Nampally mandal, Mahesh makes it a point to take his two-wheeler out and gets the student to the school from home if he sees any student is missing from the class.
The 37-year-old teacher has been doing this rigorously for the last 13 years.After the school prayer at 9.05 am, if he notices a student is absent, he goes to their home and fetches him or her to the school after enquiring from parents as to why the student was not sent to the school.
“Most of the time, I get a casual answer from the parents who think it is okay not to send the child to school. Sometimes, the student may be unwilling to go to school for a variety of reasons,” Mahesh says. He convinces them that if the child misses the class, it would be difficult to catch up with rest of the lessons.
Since schools reopened for the new academic year in June, Mahesh has been busy. He went to fetch at least four students last week.
Mahesh joined as a teacher in the govt school at Regatta village in Kanagal mandal in Nalgonda in 2010.
In 2011, when he was working at another school, he felt he should take the responsibility of ensuring better attendance in school instead of just marking a student as absent if she or he is absent.
Looking at the keen interest Mahesh takes, parents invariably send the children to school — sometimes even accompanying an adamant child on the teacher’s two-wheeler. “First, I send the class leader. Most often, the absentee child comes to school accompanied by the class leader. Some children need extra prodding and that is when I myself choose to go to bring the child to school,” Mahesh recalls.
Mahesh teaches English, Telugu and environment science for the students.
“Bringing absentee students to school is what he has done so far in Regatta, Cherukupally, Chamalapally, Nevillagudem and Damera govt schools in Nalgonda district,” a teacher said, applauding Mahesh’s drive to get students back to schools.
There are 150 students in the Damera school which has classes 1 to 8.
We also published the following articles recently
Teachers in Pilibhit protest against online attendance system due to challenges like student absence. Basic Education Department faces resistance as only a few teachers comply with directives. Efforts underway to resolve issues.
