Teaching in Northeast India is a fascinating experience but comes with its unique set of challenges. The stunning landscape of high mountains, dense forests, serene tea gardens and swift rivers are breath-taking, no doubt but it often conceals a harsh reality – the daily ordeals of teachers who teach in remote areas.
To reach schools built on mountainous terrains or inside forests often requires long treks, precarious bridge crossings and risky boat rides. Inaccessible roads, erratic electricity supply, limited exposure to pedagogical knowledge make teaching difficult and cumbersome. Furthermore, teachers have to balance multiple roles as instructors, parents, translators, interpreters, election volunteers and responsible community members and that is not all!
Northeast India’s language diversity poses problems, too. A classroom in a government school, for example has students who speak different languages. The teacher grapples with a shortage of bilingual resources and books and is often forced to improvise, learn a local or a second language to connect with the students. Most schools lack proper textbooks, trained staff, and basic facilities, making teachers feel lost and overwhelmed. Also, poverty and migration in some north-eastern states disrupt schooling and children frequently drop out to support their families in farming and other livelihood activities.
Despite these struggles, inspiring stories of teachers who have made a difference in the lives of their students do exist and they are certainly worth recounting.
A Tea Garden School
Debajit Ghosh was a teacher and is currently the Principal of the Namsang Tea Garden Model School in the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh border. A few years ago, Debajit observed that the majority of his students looked pale and listless. Feeling concerned, Debajit conducted a health camp with the help of doctors and medical tests on students revealed rampant malnutrition. Debajit acted quickly! He introduced green leafy vegetables and supplements to the students’ food under the PM – POSHAN meal scheme which increased the haemoglobin levels of 165 school children. Debajit also organised science exhibitions in collaboration with ISRO in June 2023 to ignite children’s curiosity and reduce absenteeism and even managed to bring back 267 dropouts into the classroom! The results were encouraging! The students became healthier and happier, their academic performance improved and they actively participated in sports and cultural activities.
Peer-Learning App
Similarly, in Nagaland, a teacher called Peleno Petenilhu founded a peer-learning app called ‘Each One Teach One’ where junior students from underprivileged backgrounds were mentored by trained students of Class 12. She worked hard to reduce the number of school dropouts by conducting home visits and personally sponsoring admission fees for poor students. Paleno Petenilhu even provided mobile phones to disadvantaged learners.
Both Debajit and Paleno are now well known teachers but there are dozen others who have overcome daunting obstacles to teach children in difficult situations. Yet, their names and achievements are not printed in newspapers or shared on social media but whoever has met them knows the difference they have made in the lives of children.
A Classroom on the Hills
Government Primary school in Kaho in 2010
In 2010, we visited Kaho, one of the easternmost villages of Arunachal Pradesh with a group of people connected to education. Getting there was not easy. We drove up steep, mountainous roads for hours and finally reached a small Government Primary School to meet the teachers there. We waited for a long time for the teachers to turn up but no one came except for a shy young woman in indigenous costume who said, “My name’s Choden Wangmo and I’m a teacher here.”
“In fact, she’s the only teacher of this village,” informed Mr. Nayak from the Education Department who had organised this trip for us. Just eighteen families lived in Kaho and only a handful of children come to school.
“You mean to say she’s the only one here teaching these playful students?” I asked, surprised to see the children running around wildly. Mr. Nayak let out a laugh.
“She’s by no means ‘delicate’ as many think her to be. She’s a courageous teacher who sometimes walks kilometres and crosses hanging bridges over turbulent rivers to attend teachers’ meetings when the roads are blocked by landslides!” said Mr. Nayak enthusiastically and then asked Wangmo to say a few more words about herself.
“I’m a Buddhist,” began Wangmo slowly, “and I was brought up in Bomdila where I studied in a school run by Buddhist teachers. Our lessons were fun yet always laced with philosophy. We were taught not to harm people, to do good, to have elevating thoughts and be more giving etc…. My teachers were my inspiration.”
“Is that why you are such a great teacher yourself as Mr. Nayak tells me?” I asked. Wangmo smiled.
“I’m not very sure of that,” she replied quietly, “all I know is that I give these children a lot of love and encouragement.”
“How do you do that?” I eagerly asked. “I just try out different methods like songs, stories and games depending on how children learn best. I often go up the hills and have classes up there as there is only one classroom and there are children from three different standards in this school! We sit under a tree and students read their books, write poems or simply hear the chirp of birds, the swish of the breeze and touch leaves that are drenched in dew. Education is not only about textbooks, it’s also being aware of what’s happening all around and what better surrounding than these mountains and trees that we have here?” finished Wangmo with a grin.
Closing Thought
The stories of teachers in Northeast India remind us that teaching is not confined to the four walls of a classroom or pages in a textbook. Whether it is Debajit Ghosh helping malnourished children in a tea garden become healthy, curious learners, Peleno Petenilhu getting digital teaching apps into schools, or Wangmo turning mountains into classrooms, each teacher shows how love, imagination, and courage can overcome isolation and scarcity.
Education is not just about learning how to survive in harsh conditions. It is also valuing children’s cultural identities, fostering creativity and developing grit that make teaching a worthwhile challenge and a great privilege!
Nabanita Deshmukh is a writer and a teacher educator. Currently she is involved in the Billion Readers Project for indigenous language preservation with the Government of Arunachal and IIT-Delhi.
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