One Day in the Life of a Burgula School Kid

It was morning in Burgula, a sleepy little village in Mahaboobnagar District, Telangana State. Raju was up early at 6 am. Earlier he loathed getting up early and dreaded walking barefoot to school. Now, things had changed because of several improvements in education system by Pragathi Welfare Society (PWS), a nonprofit organization (NPO). Thanks to them, he was excited that he could wear sandals and bicycle his way to school.

Raju arrived at school an hour early, less tired to attend the special class conducted by PWS volunteers and school teachers. In the school assembly on the outdoor stage, he spoke for a few minutes in English, encouraging all to brush their teeth regularly, wash hands periodically and use toilets. Thanks to Pragathi, he sat comfortably at his desk and chair inside a room with ceiling fan, whereas earlier he had to sit outside on the ground, possibly in the shade of a tree. The teacher walked in and taught with great deal of interest, motivated to do so by the NPO, while Raju listened keenly.

During the recess, he walked across to the toilet to relieve himself. Yes, there were toilets now, whereas earlier he had to relieve himself out in the open. While that was difficult for Raju, imagine how much more difficult and embarrassing it must have been for the girls. All that had changed with the construction and maintenance of the toilets by Pragathi. The Reverse Osmosis plant set up just outside the school campus provided clean water for drinking.

He felt refreshed eating lunch, which was better now with the improved quality of the mid-day meals. During the recess, he played some games with the kits provided by the NPO. After lunch, he sauntered into the computer lab set up by PWS to learn some more basic computer skills. Things were indeed looking up for Raju because he no longer felt left out when it came to learning new things. There seemed to be nothing missing at his school compared to even the best schools in the city. He felt proud that his school in terms of facilities was now one of the best in the State of Telangana.

As the day drew to a close, Raju went to the library founded by the agency at his school, and picked up a few books to read at home during his leisure. Subsequently, he attended a supplemental class again in the mini-auditorium built by the NPO. Then he bicycled his way home, after a satisfying day at school, dreaming about the experiments he was going to conduct tomorrow in the science lab started by Pragathi.

That evening, along with the Pragathi volunteers, he increased awareness of all their initiatives for about 900 students in the high school and the six primary schools. They discussed about importance of education for girls and the goal to achieve hundred percent pass rate in the 10th class exams. He spoke about great learning experience at the 40 days residential summer camp about 60 km from the village. Villagers flocked around mobile devices, to see the all the programs to improve education on PWS website pragathiwelfaresociety.com