One school one TV campaign .....begins TODAY!

 

“Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.” - Napolian Hill

 Teri campaign  in India help lighting million lives through distributing solar-chargeable lantern. The Bollywood stars especially Shah Rukh Khan and others came forward to endorse by adopting far flung villages.  I had witness its initial stage on NDTV a few years back.  I was only impressed then. But my recent reading of the campaign on net inspired a dream in me.  My dream is to see a Television set bringing smiles to the children of all the remote schools in Bhutan.

Another reason to inspire me the dream is my current place of posting and the occupation.

   My laptop in full use...can you see the smile? 

I teach in a small community school in eastern Bhutan. The strength of the school is 67 but only 28 of these ‘future of the nation’ have access to television and remaining 39 which constitute more than half have to walk a long distance to a friend’s house just to watch TV.  Many of them even cannot afford to as they are caught in the daily tasks related to cattle and farming.

The following observation is based on my school/place but the scenario is alike in every far flung villages of our country. .  

Part I:    What I have observed here with the regular and irregular viewer among the students is the level of exposure and confident.

The irregular viewers are limited to their thinking and are less confident compared with the regular viewers. The regular viewers have different topics to discuss. The irregular viewers don’t talk much. The irregular viewers have to be pushed in to participate in competitions conducted in school. In the other hand, the regular viewers are active. They want to be always in front, participate in every competition and events held in the school. They also have built a good rapport with teachers. However other factors like living standard and alike might be also the factors contributing to the status of the students.

Part II:  Teachers, parents (if they are exemplary) and books (both academic and leisure books) are the only available source of knowledge and inspiration. In addition to it, the environment is too poor in terms of examples. There are parents who studied till fifth standard and are somehow managing to run their family, brothers are mostly school dropouts who earn by cutting woodchips and there are elders who waste their life being drunk. It is apparent from the ambition that they have. All most everyone wants to be a teacher and the most obvious second option is to be a farmer or a woodchip cutter if they fail academically. It’s good news that more than half of the school wants to be a teacher because they see us as a successful person among the rest but the level of motivation is the least.

We (teachers) try to motivate them to study hard and fulfill their dreams. Responsible as they may be but the parents are more than happy just to see their children go to school. And the duty to motivate their children at home to do better in school is out of question. They believe we and the school can alone make a child’s life.

A program to have a doctor giving lecture in a class room on how noble is his profession; a police officer on his responsibility to maintain order in a city and a fresh college graduate student sharing his strategies of academic success will definitely inspire students to follow their footsteps. But it is beyond our scope to call these people.

In the light of the above, a television set, a DVD player and educational CDs shall be of great source of education, information and inspiration to the students. A virtual world of Doctors, Engineers, Perfect students and of success stories, triumph and good moral conducts shall guide our students to build/polish their characters and pave a way for themselves to a successful life.

How can we HELP them own a TV set?

1: Students: if you are a student of any urban school/college or an institute you could organize a cultural show or any other activity to raise a fund to purchase a TV set and a DVD player for any remote school of your choice.

2: Students studying abroad:  if you are studying abroad you could initiate a fund raising campaign in your respective universities/colleges and purchase for your choice of community school in rural Bhutan. [e.g.:  The students at Skagit Valley College, USA, sent $650 to cover Legson Kayira’s airfare to America. He was a poor boy but determined to earn a college degree. Cynthia Kersey’s book ‘Unstoppable’]

3: CCR: if you are an employee/CEO of a firm, under the corporate civic responsibility you could endorse by adopting all the community schools in the Dzongkhag of your operation.

4: Philanthropy:  if you are a person in power, a social figure etc you could also buy and gift a TV set and a DVD player to a school of your choice.

5: NGOs:  if you are an employee/Director of any NGOs within our country; SAVE the Children Bhutan, UNICEF Bhutan, NCWC, Tarayana Foundation… you could arrange a fund to give this cause a live of its own.

6: Ministry of Education: if you belong to the Ministry of Education you could talk about it and help squeeze an amount of fund to initiate this campaign.

7: Blogger/individual:  if you are a Blogger or an individual reading this piece you could just help spread this Campaign by making a buzz out of it on internet.

And there is one more thing to say, if you were ever touched or have said ‘ooo….so cute’ looking at a newspaper picture of a remote school girl with her torn bag and a smile on her face YOU got to do something TODAY! Make your mind to do it either out of your sense of being responsible citizen or just as a human being but, do it anyway.

what else could move a man's heart than a sweet smile of a child

LET’S BRING MORE SMILES ON THOSE CHARMING FACES………………

Thank You for visiting my blog.