Vadodara: About a decade back, most students from Dahod were drop out of school after grade 8.
It was not an option, but the lack of facilities forced students to stop their studies.
Government elementary school here – at that time and even now – running classes only up to standard 8.
But today many of these Heartland tribes have secured work in the Air Force and Police Department.
And there is a girl who aspires to become a judge.
The man who formed many lives and gave birth to more dreams was Chandu Bhabhor, a teacher.
Bhabhor acts as a catalyst of change by ensuring that smart students from the region have the opportunity to learn outside the 8th grade and further.
Starting a new school in the backward area is beyond his ability.
So, it focuses on the next available option, preparing students for the Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya (JNV) entrance examination and the Eklavya Model Housing School (EMRS).
Both institutions provide education to class 12 along with dormitory facilities.
Bhabhor, a teacher at the Tagawada Primay School in Dahod Taluka, began traveling back in 2007, but only achieved recent success.
“Students succeed in various tests, but my first success in ensuring acceptance at JNV came only in 2014,” Bhabhor said.
He said that in addition to preparing students for JNV and EmRs schools, he also taught them to various scholarship exams conducted by the government.
Today the classes resemble them from Super 30 films, where talented students from the background are less able to dream of making it big in life.
The number of students increases consistently.
“When people in the villages around Agarda know about their classes, they began sending their wards for coaching for competitive exams,” Bhabhor said.
He added that while the focus was in students in eight standards, he even held a class for elementary school scholarships from six students.
Bhabhor said that so far, he had ensured that 248 students were completed in the list of EMR services while 21 found in the JNV list.