Police officer takes lead in coaching poor students

Ambika Sharma

Sirmaur SP Ajay Sharma is passionate about exploring talent among poor students. His free weekly ‘pathshala’ at Nahan for poor students has gained much appreciation. 

This is Sharma’s second venture. He began his first free police ‘pathshala’ on an experimental basis last year while serving as the Commandant of 6th India Reserve Battalion at Kolar. “As many 45 students of Class XII from five government schools of the area were provided free coaching in physics, chemistry and mathematics by the police staff posted there. I carefully selected police officials who had a background of teaching and passion to teach the poor,” says Sharma.

As many as 100 students had initially enrolled at this ‘pathshala’ but later only 45 of them completed the entire coaching provided at the Nahan Police Lines. About 60 per cent students, who availed of the facility, were girls.

“Students, who can’t afford private coaching, are being provided the facility. The idea stemmed from my own personal experience when I had no means to avail of coaching, as I too hailed from a rural area in Hamirpur district”.

The students coached last year in four of the five schools excelled in their Class XII exams. The coaching also helped in strengthening their basic understanding of a subject. The pathshala has now entered its second year.

Encouraged by the results, Sharma after assuming charge as the Sirmaur SP replicated the experiment and began a second ‘free pathshala’. He has roped in teachers from Arihant International School, Nahan, to coach Class XII students of the non-medical stream.

“In order to ensure that only serious and deserving students are provided coaching, an entrance exam was conducted where out of 40 students screened only 16 were selected. There were 60 questions with 20 each from three subjects. The performance of the students was evaluated for 90 marks,” avers Sharma.

The teachers have prepared a module of the key components of the Class XII syllabus of chemistry, physics and mathematics that can be completed in 20 Sundays.

Sharma lauds the efforts and dedication shown by the teachers of Arihant International School. He says that they have also agreed to teach on second Saturdays, if need be, to complete the syllabus.

“This is a small beginning to provide the needy children an opportunity to bring out the best in them. These students will also be helped in appearing in the joint engineering entrance exam next year,” he adds.

Sharma’s passion to help students doesn’t stop here as he has adopted Government Senior Secondary School (Girls), Nahan, where a suggestion box has been placed to help children.