Book review - "The Diary of a School Teacher"

It was a great time and quite interesting to refer to "The Diary of a School Teacher - Hemraj Bhatt" translated by Sharda Jain in English and published by Azim Premji Foundation and University. This forced me to recollect my own college days when I used to write the diary of the day's important events. Definitely, the diary gives a broader perspective of our area of work and records day-to-day activities.

The references of events recorded in the diary also made me recollect how DPEP, SSA functioned in India at ground level, which I missed to understand as I was connected with both these Programmes at the state/national level. This book not only gives an idea about the teacher's personal life, daily routine but also his interaction with students, community members, government officials, teachers of other schools, teaching-learning process, school development activities, involvement of teachers in census surveys, polling arrangements, in-service training (conducted at CRC, BRC, District (DIET), State level), etc. 

We need to understand the burden and difficulties of teachers like single school teachers in day-to-day school functioning which are recorded in the diary including overcoming the prevailing bureaucratic and/or official pressure to remove corruption in activities like construction of building, mid-day meals scheme, training workshops (if it all persists), to avoid difficulties for the innocent dedicated teachers. This diary is an important document and many more such documents by teachers must be brought out to understand the ground realities in school education to resolve difficulties faced by stakeholders at schools in various aspects. 

I am neither aware of the teacher nor referred to his write-ups in Hindi under the pen name ‘Balsakha’, but the English translation of his diary is a very fascinating journey of a school teacher and a must-read for all teachers and teacher educators. It is suggested that if the publishers agree the media houses may attempt to produce TV serials or films on stories of such real-life teachers and related events to bring ground-level real community workers in front of the national audience. 

Congratulations are due to the Azim Premji Foundation and University in bringing the story of Hemraj Bhatt to life. The book can be accessed at the following link

The Diary of a School Teacher