Quarantined in village school, migrant workers get akshar gyan'

Teachers of a government school in a non-descript village of Rajasthan's Nagaur district have set a precedent amid the coronavirus-triggered lockdown by educating the stranded and quarantined migrant workers.

About 19 migrants from Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan's Baran district, quarantined in the Government Senior Higher Secondary School, Dodiyana in Nagaur have benefitted from daily classes during the quarantine and they can now read and write their names and understand counting from 0 to 10.

Following imposition of the country-wide lockdown, the workers had undertaken long march to their homes, but they were stopped by the authorities and quarantined in the school, school teacher Sushil Kumar told PTI.

We thought of giving akshar gyan' to them during their quarantine. Except a few, all workers learnt to read and write their names and counting from zero to ten and have now become able to at least search, dial and save numbers in their mobile phones, added Kumar.

The quarantined workers had become a trifle anxious and agitated to go back to their homes at the earliest, so we decided to encourage them to put their idle time to constructive use and learn a life-time skill, he said.

It was not the sole case of migrant workers putting their quarantine period to constructive use.

Earlier a group of 74 migrant workers, stopped midway their long march to their villages in Madhya Pradesh and quarantined in a school building in Kotputli near Japipur mended, plastered and painted the building walls to express their gratitude for being taken good care of during quarantine.

Dodiyana school teacher Kumar, who played an active role in imparting akshar gyan' to workers in his school, said those having their homes in Madhya Pradesh have been sent after the government allowed their transportation.

Those hailing from Rajasthan too will soon be sent to their homes, he added.

Manoj, 18, one of the stranded workers and a class 8 pass-out, said, I did not know how to write names of my relatives in English. But the school teachers taught it to me. They used to take classes everyday. They also helped us learn a bit of mathematics, besides making others at least learn read and write their names.

Manoj returned to his home in Guna district of Madhya Pradesh on April 29 along with his family members.

Entire Rajasthan is under lockdown since March 22. About 61 people have died of COVID-19 in the state, while a total of 2,642 people have been taken ill due to the pandemic disease.