Vivekananda Shishumandir, Kanchantar- A Border School, where education wins against all adversity

India with a population of more than 100 crores is moving rapidly towards digitization. Urban cities with state of the art schools and colleges, paints a very positive picture of modern India. Although all these amenities are necessary, so that Indian students can compete with their global counterparts in equal footing, we often tend to overlook the reverse side of the picture, which do not look so privileged.

India is a developing country which has shown marked and rapid improvement in the field of education.Approximately 75% of the population, aged between 7 to 10 years, in the country are literate and as per the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2012, 96.5% of all rural children between the ages of 6-14 were enrolled in school.

All these positive statistics portray the importance of education in people’s lives, but the question remains, what needs to be done to take Indian education to the next level. In a country that is passionate about education, most of rural and border area schools are still struggling to provide even the most basic level infrastructure.

Vidya Bharati school Vivekananda Shishumandir, Kanchantar, is an example of such a battle. The school which is located only 500 meter away from Indo-Bangladesh Border in Malda district of Bengal, was established in the year 1993. Presently 188 students study in this school, where the highest class is till standard 4. According to the principal, Shri Sadhan Ghosh, the school faces several problems.  There are no separate classrooms and the inter classroom divisions are made of curtains. There is no separate room for teachers or prathna. Furthermore this school also lacks the facilities of proper bathroom and drinking water. The students and teachers have to fetch water from tube well which is not well maintained.

In spite of facing all these difficulties, over the years several illustrious alumni has passed from this school including doctors and engineers. The students regularly participate in sporting competitions, such as high jump, low jump, athletics etc. The local community has supported and helped the school a lot . Shri Sadhan Ghosh ji hopes that very soon they can increase the highest class to 12th standard.

Support from local communities, show the importance of Vidya Bharati schools in these areas. With the sentiment of constant improvement, these schools continue to provide all round development to students in the hardest circumstances.

If you want to support Vidya Bharati schools in border areas, kindly email us at : info@vidyabharatialumni.org  or donate online at https://www.vidyabharatialumni.org/donation