Focusing on rural initiative in strengthening educational infrastructure in a village in Punjab
When education minister Daljeet Singh Cheema announced that 372 schools in Punjab will be upgraded, Lohatbaddi, a small village in Ludhiana, rejoiced. Finally, its high school will now teach till class XII and all thanks to its alumni.
IAS officer GK Singh Dhaliwal had taken over as Director General of School Education Punjab (DGSE) two years ago. He had studied at the Pandit Misri Das Government High School, Lohatbaddi till class X in 1971.
“This village has waited too long. I became an IAS officer but my school, which gave me everything, remained how it was then. This pinched me. My batchmates and I formed an Old Students Association” said Dhaliwal. “My batchmate Avtar Kaur started it with a donation of Rs 10 lakh for new classrooms. Then I did my bit by pushing its case with the government. I worked for it as an old student, not as an IAS officer.”
The school is almost seven decades old. It is said that a child-less couple donated all their earnings into building the school, which is now named after the man. But it could never gain accredition for classes Xl and XII. “Our village gave many free-dom fighters” said Sukhdev Singh, a retired bank manager and Dhaliwal’s former batch-mate. “Harnam Singh Chamak is a well known freedom fighter. But politics did not help us. We never had a ruling party MLA or Sarpanch who could push our case. The school suffered alot be-cause of this.”
Students after their class X had to travel, some times on foot, to neighbouring Raikot town to attend higher classes. Sukhdev’s own children were among them. “AAP MP Harinder Singh Khalsa donated Rs 2.5 lakh once for the school. But of course, that is not enough for a school. No grants came and we collected Rs 30 lakh on our own for new classrooms. We never had any backing from the Congress or Akali Dal” he said. And now the collage celebrates. Some 300 students in the Lohatbaddi school celebrated on Saturday night with crackers. “It is kind of Diwali only”. said a student.
Original Newspaper Article
(From top): The entrance to the school; alumni donate to upgrade their alma mater.