A teacher who strives for change

Mahabubabad: Teaching is the most revered profession and teaching children is a task in itself. But, not for one Voore Gurunadha Rao who goes to the extra mile to make his classes as interesting as possible for his students.

A school assistant (Physical Science) at Zilla Parishad High School at Kambalapally, Voore Gurunadha Rao dons’ multiple roles in his efforts to inculcate scientific temperament among students. He is a National Green Corps master trainer, engaged in environmental protection and social service with Disha-a non-profit social service organisation he formed. In recognition of his services for the cause of science education, the State government made him resource person for NCERT Science Fairs, DST National Childrens’ Science Congress and others.

Gurunatha Rao makes use of every occasion to engage the children at his school in science related activities. For instance, during last year Rangoli festival he conducted a ‘Science Rangoli’ competition where students were asked to draw science objects like rockets, mathematical equations and objects from physics, biology and others.

Every year on Raksha Bandan, he organises a novel programme ‘Vriksha Bandhu Divas’ wherein students are asked to tie a ‘Rakhi’ to the trees at their houses and take oath to protect them and plant more trees.

“It is not class room teaching that the teachers need to use, festivals help a lot in inculcating a sense of caring for environment,” he told The Hans India. “Making science education and careers attractive for young people is an ambitious goal. It targets at drastic improvement of science and technology literacy. Innovative formal and informal science education methods are important in order to raise both boys' and girls' awareness on science and technology,” he said.

He further said, “As a science teacher I always strive to provide a unique opportunity to students to showcase their talent and creativity.” Nothing inspires a student more than a motivated teacher capable of instilling spirit of enquiry and scientific temper in young minds, added Gurunadha Rao, a Ph D degree holder.

Making students learn science is both interesting and challenging for teachers because today, students are more inquisitive and exposed to various sources of knowledge other than textbooks. Teachers should be expert researchers and keep learning every day to face new challenges when teaching science, he said.

Every class across the country has a significant proportion of children who are first generation school-goers. In a backward district like Mahabubabad most of them come from severely disadvantaged families hence teachers need to travel an extra mile to meet their demands, he added.