Ahmedabad: City gurus who made a difference

This teacher's day, the government will be honouring several teachers for their contribution. DNA talked to two such 'gurus' from the city whose initiative and innovation helped make a difference to the lives of their students.

Name: Ramesh Goswami, 48

Designation: Principal

School: GIDC, Odhav School no 1

Unlike others, Goswami, the principal of GID Odhav, does not believe in lazying around on holidays. Instead, he gets school work (including repairs) done. But what is more interesting is that most of the time he gets it done for gratis. In fact, one of the reasons why he was chosen for the award was the fact that he 'donated' his off days. "There are many things to be done in a school. Something or the other always needs to be repaired and it is not possible to get those done during school hours," said Goswami.

Therefore, he said, he uses his Sundays to get these things done. "There is always a light that needs repair, some damages to the building that we need to look into, etc. If I call people to repair it on weekdays, it will disturb the students; so I accompany them on Sundays," said Goswami.

He has found another benefit of working on an off day. "Most of the people I call to get these repairs done are my friends or acquaintances. I request them to do the work for free and most agree. But if I call them on a working day, it would interfere with their daily work and they may be reluctant to come over," the principal said.

In his spare time, Goswami goes looking for children who might have dropped out of school. Starting 2014, he has helped 220 children who had dropped out of school. "We identify them, teach them for 10 months and help them clear an exam," said Goswami. He admits that it takes too much time to convince the parents and the students to return to school.

Also, thanks to his initiative, his school is perhaps the only government school to have 30 computers. "Initially, we just had 11 computers; we got another 11 later. One day we learnt that a school had shut down somewhere and they had extra computers. We wrote to the authorities to let us acquire those," said Goswami.

Name: Sanjay Shukla, 53

School: Ellisbridge Shala no 6

Designation: Drawing teacher

Shukla, a drawing teacher, an origami expert, a musician and a scout guide, has an interesting observation to make about children. "If you tell them you are 'teaching' them something, they are likely to lose focus. However, if you tell them 'we are going to draw, cut, paste, and play together', they will abide by every word you say," said Shukla. He is known for resorting to artwork as a means to tackle children who are either too restless or are slow learners. "Sometimes when you write a letter on a board a child does not grasp it, but if you write it on his book and ask him to colour it, you'll see the difference," said Shukla.

In fact, Shukla who also trains teachers uses his origami skills to help students better understand geometry. "I have taught BSc and MSc professors how to use origami to explain geometry. I have used drawings to help students better understand concepts of area, perimeter, etc," said Shukla. He also organises scouts and guide bands for children and is a band instructor too.

He is also an avid ornithologist and a contributor to various magazines all of which he does gratis.