Bengal Teacher Climbs Tree Seeking Better Internet Connectivity For Online Classes Amid Lockdown

Teachers around the globe have often gone over and beyond their duties for students. Like, a teacher let a student sleep in class to support him emotionally or another helped a colorblind student see colors for the first time.

And, now during these troubled times, another teacher has come through to ensure his students don’t miss on learning amid the lockdown. Subrata Pati, a history teacher is giving lessons to his students while sitting atop a neem tree in his village situated 200 km away from Kolkata, reports NDTV.

Subrata, who teaches at two educational institutes in Kolkata, has been taking classes online from his native Ahanda village in West Bengal. However, he doesn’t receive a good cell phone reception in his village.

“I have temporarily shifted from my Kolkata residence to Ahanda, which is a part of the state’s Jangalmalal area, to be with my family in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis. That done, I couldn’t have shrugged off my responsibility as a teacher. The Internet network here is mostly patchy, so I had to look for a solution,” he was quoted saying by Hindustan Times.

Not willing to give up easily, Subrata came up with an idea. He decided to climb a tree and see if getting a few yards closer to the sky would make any difference. And it did. Surmounting the obstacle, the 35-year-old man now climbs up a neem tree every morning to receive uninterrupted data to teach his pupils peacefully.

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He set up the DIY (do-it-yourself) desk near his house, using bamboo, gunny sacks, and hay, with the help of his friends. The idea of setting up the bamboo structure came from villagers who build ‘machan’ (makeshift watchtower) on tree-tops during the harvest season, reports India Today. They do so to keep an eye on elephants straying into their fields.

Surprisingly, the history teacher doesn’t find this daily climbing tiring. In fact, he takes food and water with him to the tree-top platform and conducts two to three classes at a stretch.

“Sometimes the heat and the urge to pee bother me, but I am trying to adjust… sometimes storms and thundershower damage the platform, but I try and fix it the next day. Under no circumstances I would want my students to be inconvenienced,” he was quoted saying.

All his hard work paid off, as the attendance is usually high for his classes. 

“The students keep boosting my confidence. They have always been very supportive. They assured me that they would put in their best efforts to score well in my paper,” he said with a broad smile. 

Buddhadeb Maity, one of his students said the history teacher is an inspiration for many. “What he does for his students is exemplary. I never miss his classes, nor do my friends. In fact, he takes time out to answer our queries too. Attendance for his classes is usually 90 percent,” he was quoted saying. Well, we’re sure with a teacher like him, students would be more than willing to attend lectures. Hats off to the teacher for all his efforts and dedication.