Teacher's day special: Teacher gifts smartphone to under-privileged student

On the occasion of Teacher's day, Satyendra Pal, a teacher who conducts classes under a Delhi Metro flyover has gifted smartphones to his student Gautam who lives in slums with her mother. Satyendra helped Gautam so that he can attend his online class.

Yamuna Khadar: Teachers are the greatest assets for society as they touch a thousand tender lives and shape the minds of future citizens. They dedicate their heart and soul to imparting education and value to their students. Anything said or done in their praise is dwarfed in front of what they have done for us. In the time of COVID induced pandemic, everyone has realised the value of a teacher mainly the students who are poor and underprivileged.

The pandemic has forced children and schools to go online but there are many students without smartphones or laptops to attend classes. To help such students, Satyendra Pal, a mathematics graduate from Uttar Pradesh has gifted a smartphone to one of his coaching students who could not afford the online classes.

Pal who has been conducting classes under a Delhi Metro flyover, has helped Gautam who lives in slums with her mother. His father is no more and her mother is labour who can't afford a smartphone for Gautam's online classes.

He has been teaching children at the Y.K. Jhuggi Camp in Delhi’s Yamuna Khadar with strict social distancing norms in place.

Nearly half a dozen students wearing face masks, Pal’s open-air classroom is the only alternative for those who don’t have access to either smartphones, laptops, or the internet. Students do not have to pay for classes.

Pal began a small school near the slum in 2015, called the Panchsheel Shikshan Sansthan, with only a few students. He went on to build a small thatched structure too under the metro flyover which runs adjacent to it.

The number of students in his school has increased since the lockdown was imposed in March, with children coming in from other nearby settlements too.

Armed with a whiteboard and markers, the maths graduate has been conducting classes over the past months for students who are missing out due to online learning.

With strict social distancing norms in place and nearly half a dozen students wearing face masks, Pal’s open-air classroom is the only alternative for those who don’t have access to either smartphones, laptops, or the internet. Students do not have to pay for classes.