when students turn teachers

They attend high school in the morning and become teachers in the evening,educating children up to class 8. With almost no resources,Indias youngest teachers and headmasters are successfully running schools in rural West Bengal....

They were just nine or ten years old when they began teaching. They sat in the backyards of their houses,showing children younger than them how to write alphabets on arum leaves. What started as an afternoon hobby six or seven years ago for these children from the villages in Beldanga block of Murshidabad district,West Bengal,has resulted in a crop of dedicated 15-to-17-year-old teachers and headmasters who have set up schools here. The teenagers,who attend high school in the morning,become teachers and administrators in the evening,educating children up to class 8.

Babar Ali,son of a small-time jute trader,was nine when he started teaching along with a few friends. At 16,Ali,a student of the Beldanga CRGS High School,is also the headmaster of Ananda Shiksha Niketan in Bhabta village in Beldanga block,a school with 728 students on its rolls.

The state government has recognised the school and promised to extend all necessary cooperation. A blackboard was installed in 2005,and a shed added last year to provide shelter from the rains. Sitting in his office at the school,Ali,who has won many awards,says,We have bought 10 cottas of land to set up a proper school here and soon we will have midday meals for the children. This will help run the school smoothly.

Mohd Kamrul Zaman and Imtiaz Sheikh,both class 12 students,have taught at the school for four years. We observed the young teachers at work here and felt inspired to join the school. Now,if we cant turn up even for a day,we feel bad, says Zaman. The school now has 10 teachersmost of them in their mid-teenswho teach voluntarily,without pay.

With just one government primary school for every four-five villageseach with a population of 3,000-5,000classrooms get overcrowded and children tend to drop out. Now,with these alternative schools catering to children who did not get a chance to study in a regular school,there is hope for improving rural literacy in the Beldanga block.

Babar might have got recognition,but other youngsters like Ashutosh Ghoshwho runs the Suryoday Vidyapith a few km awayare doing equally good work. They are all heroes. Even with almost no resources,these kids have the dedication to teach, says Sachidananda Banerjee,Block Development Officer at Beldanga 1. He is talking of the likes of Gulbadan Nesa,a class 12 student,who walks three-four km every day to Suryoday Vidyapith,where she is a teacher. Banerjee says he can get little assistance for these young teachersother than a few books from the ICDS centre.

Two km from Ananda Shiksha Niketan,Suryoday Vidyapith is located in Gopinathpur village and operates out of two cottas of unclaimed land surrounded by paddy fields on three sides. A narrow,meandering path leads to a simple banner announcing the name of the school. Started in February 2008 by Ghosh and Iqbal Rehmanboth taught at Alis school earlier and later decided to set up a similar school in their villagethe school does not have a blackboard or a roof yet,but that doesnt stop classes from being held here every day in the afternoon. The locals have faith in the young teachersBabynara Khatun,a panchayat member from Gopinathpur,sends her daughter Tamanna to the school.

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Headmaster Ghosh dreams of blackboards in his school. We have not received anything from the government. We need four blackboards for the eight classes. Four classes will do maths and science and the others will be taught literature, he says.