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PROFILE
Ms Sandhya Sharma teaches in Government Girls’
Senior Secondary School, Samaipur, Delhi.
She did her MSc in Botany from Government
College, Ajmer. She later did her MA in History
from DAV College, Ajmer and BEd from Regional
College, Ajmer.
She began as a coordinator with the Adult
Literacy Programme in 1982 in Ajmer and the
very next year joined Government Girls’
Secondary School in the city. She also worked
as an Assistant Teacher in several schools
run by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi,
for nine years before she was appointed as
TGT (Science) at Samaipur by the Delhi administration
in 1996.
A large population of the students comes
from economically weaker sections in government-run
schools mirroring stark social realities.
So, a teacher’s job becomes extremely
challenging. “Apart from teaching, we
have to assume the role of counsellors, guides
and friends as the situation demands,”
says Ms Sharma who has been with this girls-only
school for 12 years now.
She says that although students get grants
from school to facilitate education-related
expenses, there are situations where parents
tend to force their daughters to drop out
despite such incentives.
“Today, things are very different,”
says Ms Sharma who has more than 25 years
of teaching behind her. “Earlier students
were more respectful. Today, we have to tread
very carefully. We have to continually grapple
with keeping the girls in school, fight their
many distractions and even convince their
parents,” she says.
Ms Sharma says since most of the girls are
conditioned to opt for the arts and the humanities,
she has tried to broaden their horizon by
encouraging them to participate in science
fairs, seminars and exhibitions.
She feels that many girls show promise and
can really excel in academics only if they
have an uninterrupted school education and
says a little prayer hoping that the families
truly understand its many blessings.
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