Passion meets skills and expertise

Alimpia Barua believes that the purpose of education is to make good human beings in society. Her objective of teaching is to make her students understand how to think, rather than instruct them about what to think. Alimpia graduated with Bachelor in Commerce and is currently working as a Teacher-in-Charge of Raj Bhavan Free Primary School (Unit-I) under Kolkata Primary School Council. Along with her pedagogic skills and expertise, she is passionate to make learning a joyful experience for her students. 

She has dedicated sixteen years as a teacher to guide her students to realize their potential and fulfil their goals. According to her, the need of the hour is to ‘think of teaching and learning that goes beyond textbooks and a coded syllabus’. She tries to indulge her students in learning from the environment. Her goal as a teacher is to bring back all her students into the classroom once the pandemic period ends. 

The training sessions conducted as part of the Shikshaantar program in association with Pratichi India Trust has encouraged her to incorporate new ways of teaching for her students coming from economically vulnerable sections. She feels her joy of teaching has been nurtured and strengthened by these capacity-building workshops. “Workshops under the project entitled ‘Achieving Quality Education through Enhanced Teachers’ Capabilities’ have given me the confidence to meet expectations of my students and deal with the special needs of underprivileged children,” she says. The Shikshaantar program aims to build teacher capacities through discussions and trainings on subject-matter and pedagogical practices. 

After attending the workshops, she began to emphasize the importance of activity-based learning and the use of the constructivist approach in her classroom. For expressive language development, she incorporates positive reinforcement and reward methods to the best of her abilities.

An avid reader, Alimpia adapts new ways of teaching and learning from books and strengthens her abilities. Always ready to evolve and upgrade her skills, she aims at pushing her limits to achieve better and deal with new challenges effectively. School dropouts have been her biggest challenge but she continues to grapple with her students and their parents by making regular visits to homes in underprivileged neighbourhoods.