Children benefit from Teacher of the Street

Mr Deep Narayan Nayak teaching children who do not have access to Internet facilities and gadgets outside houses in Joba Attpara village in Paschim Bardhaman district, West Bengal.

He has converted the walls of the houses into blackboards in an effort to close the gap in learning for the village's children brought on by prolonged school shutdowns and strict Covid-19 restrictions.

"The education of our children stopped since the lockdown was imposed. The children used to just loiter around. The teacher came and started teaching them," said Mr Kiran Turi, whose child learns from Mr Nayak.

The 34-year-old teaches everything from popular nursery rhymes to the importance of masks and hand-washing to about 60 students and is popularly known as the "Teacher of the Street" among the grateful villagers. "I want to make sure the children's learning doesn't stop," he said.