Teachers with a difference: Manipur govt school teachers paint classrooms for joyful learning

By Donald Sairem

The minute you think of government schools, the first thing that comes to your mind are dilapidated buildings, broken chairs and tables, dirty classrooms and walls.

But you would be pleasantly surprised if you stepped into government schools in Manipur. Classrooms in over 200 government schools are not just clean but the walls are beautifully painted with paintings of animals, fruits, birds, and different maths symbols making learning much more fun and joyful for the children in these government schools.

All thanks to a group of teachers for their efforts and they can take all the credit for the colourful beautiful classrooms that over 200 government schools of Imphal are now proudly showing off.

This group of government school teachers has emerged as a fine example of how teachers will always try to do a little bit more for the good of their students.

These around 20 government school teachers have taken it upon themselves to revitalise government schools and attract more students. They are voluntarily painting the classrooms on Sundays and holidays to enhance the visual experience of the children and ensure joyful learning. Whether it’s a Sunday or a holiday, the group of teachers, who call themselves “Teachers Volunteer Team” goes to the schools not to teach but to paint the classrooms.

The once dull classrooms of government schools now look much more colourful, happy and fun. The Teachers Volunteer Team (TVT) has so far painted classrooms of more than 200 schools.

Speaking to Northeast Live, Nongmaithem Gautam, a teacher at Eastern Ideal High School in Manipur’s Imphal East district and also an awardee of the prestigious National Teachers Award, said that the idea was to encourage primary and pre-primary level education with more children friendly approach and to attract parents by beautifying the schools and classrooms.

“We called the approach as ‘BALA’, Building as Learning Aid and we are using the building itself, classroom walls for the students to learn. The paintings will arouse the curiosity of the young minds and also help in understanding a concept better,” Gautam said.

Laishram Robindro, Headmaster-in-Charge of Haoreibi Junior High School, said that most of the newly recruited teachers were disappointed after seeing the poor infrastructure and buildings of the government schools.

Consequently, the like-minded teachers after participating in a training programme for green school campaigns in 2016 conceived the idea of TVT to bring about a positive change in government schools, especially in primary and pre-primary education, he said.

A female teacher, Pushparani Laishram, said that despite the busy chores of a woman in society, they chose to volunteer for the benefit of the students.

Through the initiative of the teachers, students become more attentive in the teaching-learning process while parents have also become more interested, besides, enrolment of students have been improved in at least 50 schools.

Other teachers have also voiced similar opinions and said that they want their students to have every possible access to learning.

While the service of the teachers are voluntary and unpaid, they get rewarded in the form of improvement in students’ enrolment and contentment of one’s contributions.