Dwijendra Nath Ghosh, a beloved teacher, shares that once he did not even have access to basic education and struggled hard to become an educator.
To ensure that other children don’t face a similar plight, the 76-year-old is working day and night in his Basantapur village in West Bengal’s Purba Bardhman district post-retirement.
“I grew up in a poor home. There was a time when we struggled to find food. Getting an education when you come from an underprivileged and economically disadvantaged background is the biggest challenge,” he says.
Despite these hardships, he secured a BEd degree and a masters in English and political science.
Fresh out of college, young Ghosh had opened a school for the underprivileged with five of his friends.
However, financial responsibilities forced him to take on a role as a teacher in a government school from 1975 to 2008.
Letting go of the chance to help those students left a huge dent on Ghosh’s mind, and so he resolved to work for the society later.
The opportunity came knocking on his door in 2008 when Ghosh retired and decided to return to his village.
He realised that despite the passing of time, the ground realities had not changed here. There was still no school in his village.
“Children were travelling to different villages to study, and the dropout rate was quite high. Most students were economically disadvantaged with no options for a better education,” he says.
He knocked on the state government’s door and after a lot of efforts, secured approvals in 2010 for a junior high school.
It was only in 2014 that the construction of the school was completed. Since there was no funding for a permanent teacher, Ghosh played that role without a salary.
Started with 40 students, the school today boasts of 140, with four temporary teachers.
Ghosh shares with pride that the dropout rate is very low and children from different villages come there to study.
Despite his optimism, he hopes that the government appoints a permanent teacher soon to prevent the school from shutting down.
Ghosh says his only motivation to work without pay in the school is its students. “The glimmer of hope for a better future in the eyes of the children is all the salary I need to keep teaching,” he says.