Odisha: Teachers Have Different Tales, Some Go Extra Mile With Mission, Others Forgotten

Bhubaneswar: As the nation celebrates Teachers’ Day on Monday, it is time for Odisha to take note of the priceless contribution of those who are going an extra mile by adopting teaching as a mission.

For them, a teacher never retires. They are guided by the philosophy that a teacher continues to act as a mentor, an educator, a motivator and a guide. Their main role is to shape the future of students.

Sixty-five-year-old Bauri Gouda of Ganjam district retired long ago after working for 42 years at Khandadeuli Government High School, but he has been maintaining a close association with the school since 2017 as a volunteer teacher.

Having developed a strong bond with his alma mater, Gouda takes around five classes of humanities for students of Class VII to X every day. Stating that a teacher never retires, Gouda says he continued to teach at the school even after his retirement from service.

With a strong belief that one’s responsibility towards the society cannot end, he is thankful to the school authorities for permitting him to teach after retirement. He loved the school since his student days and wanted its overall development.

Also in-charge of a hostel, Gouda keeps himself busy with other activities like plantation, school Headmaster S N Bez told TOI. Gouda’s dedication has proved to be of immense help to the school as it is hit by shortage of staff.

It is a different story for octogenarian Malati Das of Jatiparilo village under Mahanga block of Cuttack district, who had was running a ‘chatashali’ (village school) long ago. The school was once agog with activities from dawn to dusk. Children used to reach the school with bags hanging from shoulders.

However, the chatashali is now in a dilapidated form and has taken the shape of a cow shed after having shaped the lives of many students. Malati, polularly known as Guruma, now stays in another house. Due to age related ailments, she has stopped imparting education.

Recalling the glorious days of the chatashali, a village woman said Malati Guruma has taught hundreds of children. Sometimes, her old students pay her a visit and provide financial assistance. The villagers have urged the government to provide her with assistance so that she can live the rest of her life in a decent way.

A teacher of a different kind can be found in Gobinda Chandra Mallick, Sarpanch of Barandua Panchayat uder Basudevpur block in Bhadrak district. He imparts education at Jagabandhu Government Vidyapith at Barandua.

An alumnus of the school, Mallick during a visit, got complaints from students about problems being faced in understanding mathematical problems in the absence of a mathematics teacher. This woke up the teacher inside him.

Since then, Mallick has been teaching mathematics in the school, making a balance between his routine activities and his honorary job. He takes two mathematics classes every day which gives immense satisfaction, says Mallick.