Jammu: Director School Education Jammu, Ms. Anuradha Gupta greeted the teaching community on the occasion of Teachers’ Day, observed on the birth anniversary of India’s second President Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, who himself came from the teaching fraternity, in glowing terms by penning down an open letter addressed to the teachers and titled ‘ An Open Letter To My Favourite Teacher ‘. In the craftily written piece, Ms. Anuradha Gupta has brought out every aspect of a teachers daily efforts towards performing his duties with heart and due diligence. Here are the orignal wordings of the open letter :
Dear teacher,
I happen to be on an administrative post of a department which has teachers of all cadres whose number runs into many thousands. But this letter is addressed to my favourite teacher who is making colossal efforts to change the way people look at this department. There are still countless problems. Somewhere the roofs of classrooms are leaking, somewhere there is a laboratory which doesn’t have the equipment, somewhere the library has the number of books that can be counted on fingers, somewhere the staff is more and the students are less and somewhere one teacher teaches the whole school. Dismal picture, one would say. But, there you are! Braving all these challenges! You never lost hope. You kept doing your bit. Pooling your resources to make the most of what you can have.
Then the pandemic came and you realized the children would be the most vulnerable. They needed to be protected physically and psychologically. And despite the closed schools they needed to be taught the curriculum as well. You held my hand when I wrote to you for helping me start the DSEJ Homeclasses. You smiled and assured me of your support when I ventured into DSEJ Home assignments. Despite busy fighting on all fronts, you honoured the commitment you made for being a part of the brave counselling team managing telecounselling Helpline Aao Baat Karein, the psychological task force and the District coordinators group. You didn’t stop at that and joined IT wing in the directorate. With an incredible competence you designed the android app which gave a happy face to the online educational initiatives taken so far. Who would have thought that virtual PTM and morning assembly can be done. You accomplished both. You extended your arm and embraced all those little kids performing small little tasks taught and tutored by you. You took them on virtual tours, travelled with them in to the past, shared with them the golden heritage of our art and culture. Re introduced them to the aroma of local wisdom. How could you let those amazing scenes go unnoticed. You captured the wonderful feats of children and let the world see what are kids capable of achieving. On a lighter note, facebook and twitter are basking in the glory of young angels. As you support them with a pat on their back. Getting pulled in different directions dint affect your zeal. You readily joined online trainings, workshops, brainstorming sessions. How can I forget the way you delivered mid day meal, ration packets, text books, study material at the door steps of children. When the unlock guidelines came, you thought of children first and made yourself available for voluntary community classes. Did you grumble when the district administration put you on Corona duty as well ! You braved it all. So here I am wanting to say a grand thank you. Thank you for every big and small step you are taking. Its your unflinching support that helps me hold my head high as the Director of the Department which has the largest human resource. Dear teacher, amid all the Covid crisis your spirit kept guiding, conceiving creative ideas, designing modules, trying to find time to discuss with me how to make the metamorphosis of the department beautiful. You burned the metamorphic midnight oil despite the occasional cribbing and complaints.
My favorite teacher, you deserve a big bundle of gratitude and appreciation today on teachers day and all days to come.
Thanks and regards
Anuradha Gupta
Director, School Education Jammu
