CONRAD DIAS
Ranchi, March 29: Children from 80 different villages across three districts of Jharkhand spend their evenings in ‘Ratri Pathshalas’ where they learn about fluent speaking methods, how to debate, dance, music, sports and computers. The classes take place every evening for around two and a half hours. These pathshalas mostly consist of jute rugs laid in public places of villages and are illuminated by one or two emergency lights.
Dr. Arun Oraon, former IG in Punjab Police, started this initiative six years back to conduct night schools in villages across Jharkhand. There is no fee for the students in the school, nor is there any salary for the teachers. As of now, 80 such schools have come up in three districts of the state namely Ranchi, Lohardaga and Gumla.
Dr. Oraon took his voluntary retirement in 2014 and came back to Jharkhand and since then he has been involved in politics after joining the BJP as well as continuing this initiative.
“When I took voluntary retirement from my job, I started teaching some children at my home. That’s when I realised that something should be done for the rural children so that they get a good education. That’s how a plan was made for the operation of ‘Baba Karthik Oraon Ratri pathshala’. It started from Uchri village under the Mandar block of Ranchi,” Dr. Oraon said.
Karthik Oraon, his father-in-law, was a veteran politician from Jharkhand. So far, no government or corporate funding has been done for Ratri Pathshalas. The monitoring of these schools is done through the All India Tribal Development Council.
Dr. Oraon added that on the first day of starting the school, there were just three children. Later, 40 children gathered in a week and now about 50 to 150 students come to every school every day.
“The 96th and 97th Ratri Pathshalas were started recently in village Hulsi and Jaria of Ranchi district, Bero block respectively. On March 16, the villagers built their 100th school in Masmano village of Chanho block,” he said.
Workshops are also organised from time to time by the council for the teachers of Ratri Pathshalas, where they are taught how to make reading easy and interesting. Computers have been provided to four schools, where digital classes have been started through projectors.
Efforts are being made to improve the children’s studies in Mathematics, English and Science. Classes are held for children from classes 1 to 10. Libraries have also been set up in many schools.
