Exploring passion during lockdown – Sumit

Amidst this pandemic, while education has taken a virtual turn, there are many students who belong to the lesser privileged families who have been finding it difficult to continue education due to the lack of resources. However, their ambitions and their dreams to pursue education stop at nothing! Sumit is one such student.

Sumit is a class V student of SDMC Primary School, Chanchal Park (a partner Governmnet School in Delhi under the Satya Bharti Quality Support Program). 10-year-old Sumit lives with his two siblings and his parents. His father is a rikshaw puller and his mother is the homemaker. The native place of the family is Bihar. A sincere and active student, Sumit had always been passionate about drawing.

While going to the school and learning new things was something of an avid interest to Sumit, ever since the pandemic hit us, he found it challenging to adapt to the new normal of learning. Due to the lockdown, Sumit’s father was completely out of work and suffered losses. Because of lack of availability of technology at home, Sumit did not even have a smart phone to continue learning process like the rest of his peers. He wasn’t able to keep pace with the activities conducted, like the rest of the class.

When the teachers had to make a group of five students who would take part in the international Design for Change competitions, they chose Sumit as one of the students to represent the school. Sumit enthusiastically accepted the opportunity to participate and contribute for the competition. Conference calls were arranged among the students to work in collaboration on the assignment.

Sumit displayed a great interest in the competitions and came up with some great ideas as well. He also made drawings to submit; however, since he did not have access to the online modes of sharing his content with the teachers, he went to the school to hand deliver his work. He was motivated to participate anyhow, and share his contribution to the project.

It is students like Sumit, who do not give up, who set an example of determination for everyone around them. No matter what challenges come through the way, learning never stops!