Principal Converts Textbook Lessons Into Songs
On 5th September 2021, Teacher’s day, 44 teachers from across the country were awarded with the National Teachers Award by President Ram Nath Kovind. Watch our latest video to learn more.
Four years ago, a government-run Kanamana upper primary school in Odisha's Ganjam district did not have proper classrooms, electricity, teaching material etc. Many students skipped their classes often. Many students stopped going to school. However, in 2021, the number of students from Classes 1-4 has increased from 50 to 107 . Now no student quits school. This is because of the Principal Ajit Kumar Sethy. Ajit Kumar Sethy joined the school in 2017. He used innovative and unique teaching methods to teach the students. He said, "At the time of joining, I saw that the school lacked infrastructure. I worked on a plan to bring the students, most of them from Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, (SC/ ST) back to the school.” With the involvement of villagers, the panchayat head, and others, the school was electrified, a separate toilet for boys and girls was built, a water purifier was installed, and a nutritional garden on the school premises was developed. To keep the students interested in studies, Ajit Kumar composed songs on chapters of the various subjects. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, he made videos on different subjects and made them available to the students over WhatsApp, YouTube. The videos were available on the Madhu App. The Madhu app has been developed by the Ganjam district administration. Ajit Kumar said, "Children showed keen interest in learning new topics when we taught them through songs.”
He also created awareness among students against child marriage and child labor through music and songs. On 5th September 2021, Teacher’s day, 44 teachers from across the country were awarded with the National Teachers Award by President Ram Nath Kovind. Ajit Kumar Sethy was one among them.
In a tweet the education ministry described Sethy as an art and music teacher who came up with innovative learning styles by "using his musical instruments" to help children understand science, mathematics, geography, etc. Sethy said he was happy to have got this award after only 13 years of service and added that the award would inspire him to strive harder to improve the lives of students.
