A few government officers started an educational initiative in Bihar to help students from economically weaker sections of society get proper education. Often such students have to forego their fundamental right to education because of the lack of resources. To end this disparity, IAS officer Santosh Kumar, IRTS officer Vijay Kumar and Deputy Commander, CRPF, Ranjan Kumar, along with few others, started an initiative to provide free education to students who cannot afford quality education in private or state-run institutions. In an exclusive interview to Indian Masterminds, IAS officer Santosh Kumar shares the vision and objective of this initiative named AIM Pathshala.
IDEA BEHIND THE INITIATIVE
While informing that AIM stands for Ambedkar Initiative for Marginalised, Mr Santosh Kumar explained: “Baba Sahab Ambedkar always talked about underprivileged society, education and women empowerment and that is why we kept the name AIM Pathshala.”
The aim of this Pathshala is to provide supplementary education to those children who cannot afford private coaching or tuitions but need guidance after school hours to do well in their studies.
“We were surprised to find out that even though the coaching rates were so low in the villages, still families were unable to afford it. That’s where the role of AIM Pathshala comes in. There are kids in villages who do not have accessibility to proper education. Our motto is to give them ample amount of support to get good quality education,” the officer said.
AIM Pathshala started in 2019. It is not a full-fledged school but a complimentary educational institution for class 1-10 kids. The pathshalas runs at designated place from 7 to 10 in the morning every day, where mentors teach them and answer their queries. Two or three qualified teachers who reside in the locality are also appointed to take lessons.
FOCUS ON COMPETITIVE EXAMS
Along with school education, AIM Pathshala also focuses on the school-level competitive exams. “We also give thrust on competitive exams and special attention is given to those who are studying in Class 5 and are willing to appear for Navodyay Vidhyalay exam. Similarly, there is a special focus on Class 10 students who are appearing for board exam,” revealed Mr Santosh Kumar.
During holidays, the officers visit the pathshalas that are situated in their hometowns and give motivational classes and career guidance to the children. “We want to make them believe that we are also from the same background and if we can reach this height, then they too can fly,” Mr. Kumar said.
CLASSES DURING COVID OUTBREAK
Talking about how they managed during the Covid 19 outbreak, the IAS officer said that “in the villages, the effect of Covid was not that bad as compared to the urban areas because people in the villages were practising social distancing norms after being sensitised about the need to do so.”
When school and colleges were closed, AIM Pathshala was still running with proper social distancing and other Covid norms. The main mentors interacted online with the students once a week.
EXPANSION PLANS
Presently the Pathshala project is being run only in three districts of Bihar – Samastipur, Gopalganj and Aurangabad – where kids from nearby villages come to receive education. “Because of resource crunch, we are not able to do a lot, but our long-term goal is to convert this type of pathshalas into full-fledged schools in at least 38 districts of Bihar. And, in accordance with out objective, education will be imparted free of cost to the children coming from economically weaker sections of society,” Mr Santosh Kumar said.
