To bring back school dropouts, MP school Principal holds street plays

A government school principal along with the help of his students in Madhya Pradesh had recently organized street plays to glorify the importance of education across the district. The motif of the play was to bring back the underprivileged students who had to drop out from their schools due to financial reasons. The Madhya Pradesh government is also trying to make these students go back to their schools through the “School Chale Hum Abhiyan”.

The initiative was started by the Government Middle School, Mahalakshmi principal, Manohar Lal Rai. Eight year old ragpicker Ravi Sahu and nine year old vegetable seller Gopal Ahirwar got moved through the play, which is titled ‘Tan Tan Ghanti Baji School Ki’. Many other students too have got influenced through the play and have decided to join the schools.

Manohar Lal Rai had been bestowed with a President’s award in the past, for using communication technology in the field of education in the year 2015.

According to Rai, who is holding the play since 2012, “Starting of the current academic session means a new opportunity for me to sensitize more impoverished students to return to their studies.” Rai mentioned that the idea for conducting such a play came to him after seeing an advertisement in Doordarshan channel about the benefits and facilities that students can reap if they attend their schools. He then discussed the idea with his school students and with a troupe of 15 students from classes 6 to 8, he began his journey in 2012.

Rai further said, “Before conducting a street play in any part of district, we started taking permission from district collector and additional district magistrate. Our efforts started drawing results as the number of students admitted in government and private schools increased. Even after completing school education, my students are still associated with me in this cause.”

Stating the motif behind starting the play, Rai said he had planned to instill responsibility among parents to send their children to schools and do not send them to work at an early stage. He wanted to reassure them that it is the only way through which they can eradicate poverty and inequality. The District Collector of Shajapur, Rajeev Sharma was quite impressed with the efforts of Rai. He said, “He is setting an example before other school teachers and principals. Among 228 of his school students, most of them are from underprivileged sections. His connection with students is even better than that of their parents.”