“ Free school under the bridge ”
Education seems so common today that we don't realize that it's still a need unfulfilled for many. There are people in every society who act as a source of inspiration. This is one such story about Rajesh Kumar Sharma, a shopkeeper by profession, who has to take an immense responsibility to educate the poor children whose parents couldn't afford their education. He teaches them every day without fail and his hours of toil is finally showing up.
In the national capital, Delhi under the Yamuna Flyover bridge is the dream school for around 270+ children. The school runs in 2 shifts 9-11am for boys and 2-4pm for girls. Initially, it was an abandoned place which got transformed. The bridge authorities gave him the permission for the blackboards on the bridge walls. This school has got no affiliation, no support from any NGO nor has any trained teacher but just the product of a courageous man’s attempt to work for the society.There are a lot of obvious struggles that the students and the teachers have to face such as every 7-8 minutes a train passes by and the intensity of sound is very high to distract the flow but still, the will to study has overpowered the loud distraction.
Initially, he was teaching alone but later on, he got joined by many others who wanted to work for the society and finally saw a way out in Mr.sharma’s attempt.The teachers here don't have any special training to come out an teach, they are all welcome. The basic needs are also met by the ordinary people such as books, pens and other stationery.
As Mr.Sharma says that having a degree will only be restricted to a piece of paper if that is not put into daily practice. We all need to learn a lot from this living example and make him a youth icon and try to replicate and put our education practices into the real world so that our knowledge is given real justice and people get benefited out of it.