Teacher's Experience

Gyan Deepak is an NGO and as the name confirms it receives no grant or aid from any government. It has a noble vision. It endeavours to spread the light of wisdom. Wisdom comes to little children through education and Gyan Deepak has the vision to envisage a scenario where it will successfully deliver this to children who have no hope of receiving it otherwise.

Therefore, Priti Ma’am started this great mission with just one child at what is now the Ballygunge Centre. It sounds unbelievable but it is true that now the Ballygunge Centre has more than a hundred students along with a nursery school at Gyanpeeth (an annexe of the Ballygunge Centre). Gyan Deepak has centres in Pramod Nagar (Dumdum) and Salt Lake in Kolkata. It has centres in Gangdhara and Sonpatahi, which are two remote villages in Bihar. In all these centres children are taught English, Hindi and Mathematics. The levels are as per age group. Those who have other subjects like Science, History, and Geography are also given lessons, again according to the levels required. Even computer classes with hands-on work on the computer are arranged for them.

The students are all from economically weak families where the students get no help from their elders in their studies because the elders do not have that level of education themselves. Gyan Deepak therefore is changing the lives of these students. The teachers are all very sincere even though many are unpaid volunteers. They all try to ensure that no child is left out in the improvement graph of the class, as these children are often enrolled in schools which do not really care to ensure that they are actually learning. Gyan Deepak cares and fills this gap between going to school and learning something.

Gyan Deepak faces problems galore. Firstly, it needs good and capable teachers. The centres in Bihar pose a great problem vis a vis this particular problem. So Gyan Deepak undertakes teachers' training programmes to ensure the required quality of teaching. The second problem is space. Many more students can be catered to if there is more space and lastly and this is the most significant problem - is the lack of funds. Gyan Deepak runs on donations. The Gyan Deepak Team is untiringly addressing the above problems and a host of other problems that crop up regularly and their untiring efforts are evident for all to see in the results of the Board Exams in the last two years and the progress reports of the students’ respective schools.