‘To lead by example,’ a phrase that people seldom work upon, but then, there are some amongst us, who live up to this phrase. Setting an example as an acting principal of a Government Primary School, posted in block Augustmuni is Sarita Panwar who choose to take her school children out of Kendra Vidyalaya and had them admitted in the Government School that she recently took charge of.
In 2014 October, a resident of Roorkee Sarita Panwar, joined as an Assistant Teacher at the Government Primary School in village Beeron-Deval, Augustmuni, Rudraprayag, and then went on to become an acting principal of the school in December last year.
In April this year, Sarita withdrew her two children Trisha and Abhinandan who were studying in Kendra Vidyalaya Augustmuni and admitted then in class 3 and 4 in her school, a step which is being praised by all those around her.
Sarita shares with us, “My kids are different, they accept things easily and are happy in every situation, there are teething problems, but there are no complaints. My family wasn’t too happy initially but then they have supported me wholeheartedly.“
Why this change of school? We ask her, she replied, “I work in this school and give it my 100% so why cant my children study here and get a good education as well? I took this step keeping in mind my children’s intellectual welfare, I want them to learn and be equal with their classmates.”
In times when lack of teachers or students and in some cases both, Government Schools in Uttarakhand are struggling with depleting standards of education, where parents prefer private education to government schools, the likes of Sarita Panwar and her children give that much required hope, that all is not yet lost and there is light at the end of the tunnel.