Establishing Free Residential School In Remote West Sikkim Village

Story

I, Arnab Thokder, currently working in an Education Quality Improvement Project named EQUIP-Sikkim in Gangtok, have been a Teach for India Fellow in 2012-13. I have had this dream of building a new primary school which will provide an excellent educational institute for the children coming from financially challenged families of remote Sikkim. The objective of the proposed school is to build an alternative learning centre which will provide more holistic, application-based and fun learning experience to the children having no access to quality education and create passion oriented critical thinkers, with high academic achievement and strong values and mind-sets.

As part of my teaching experience in a remote residential school in Sikkim for underprivileged children between the time period of April 2013 and August 2016, I have seen measurable success in terms of academic achievement among students, helping primary children explore the joy of learning with the help of activity based and life-skill oriented teaching, integrating their basic needs with their natural curiosity and creating a curriculum of application based and creative teaching-learning environment. The proposed venture is meant to be a way forward by going deep into the issue of children lacking excellent education opportunities and also is my way of giving it back to the society which has helped me become the person I am today.