After completing graduation in education, Laila came back to see the village of her grandparents. She came out in the morning with her mother for a walk. Fresh air was blowing, birds were singing and trees were dancing. The people were working in the fields and the children were ready to go to school. The village was full of blessings of peace, happiness and satisfaction. Laila and her mother were walking near a school building. She saw a board above the school gate with the school name “Multigrade School” She stopped; and looked at the board with eager eyes. It was something unusual. She asked her mother about it, her mother started a story in response to a question.
Long before, there was a village, having one Primary school, in which only two teachers were teaching. The villagers were not happy with their performance, always called them crazy and made fun of them. The village was full of every blessing but the children of the village were always fighting, scolding and screaming at each other. It was early morning, and a girl, wearing a black Abaya with a Scarp, having beautiful eyes full of Big Dreams, came to the village. She asked about the school from the ladies working in the field. They passed a smile with satire, looked at each other and said, are you asking about the school in which both the teachers are crazy?
I am asking about the one and only school in your village, the girl replied. They told to group of three girls to help her to reach school. The students were also passing the same comments about the teachers. Mad, Mad, Mad, she repeated while lost in thoughts of why the people of the village are so mean to teachers. She came out of her thoughts with the noise of knocking; she looked in the direction of the sound and was surprised to see the girls knocking on the door with stone. A scream of women appeared from inside the school, Open the door girls, and open the door. The door was opened by two Girls after ten minute’s wait. She thanked God and entered the school.
Students were running, fighting and screaming. The teacher was sitting on the chair in front of some students, teaching and continuously scolding the students. She looked around, students were busy clapping on one another hands and repeating statements cham cham cham naawi la sharbat uka, and others were playing with a small ball and some pieces of stones. She looked to the left and found students busy in the business of purchasing pencils and raisers from one another and fighting. A group of students saw her and started the voices of Assalamualaikum with different tones and different rhythms. She thought that she would lose her hearing sense if they did not stop. Stop, stop, and please say it in normal volume with a normal tone. They all are crazy, did not understand, the teacher said with an angry face. What is your good name, the teacher asked. The whispered “multi-grade teacher”, “multi-grade teacher”. The teacher surprisingly asked what? The girl responded sorry I was thinking about something, I am a newly appointed teacher for this school.
The teacher welcomed the girl and was happy to know that she had come to join their school as a teacher. Which class is this, she asked. Once again, the students responded instead of the teacher with mixed voices and full volume, “fifth”, “one”, and “three” turning ready to split her eardrums. Once again, the teacher looks at them with angry expressions. The teacher informed her about the reason for teaching one, five and three classes in form of absence of another teacher. All the children of this village are crazy and their parents are always ready to fight, think before joining this school, the teacher informed her. The girl smiled with murmur of it’s not difficult, it’s not too late and I will handle through “multi-grade teaching”. She spends the whole day in school and silently observes the environment, learners and teaching-learning process. The next day, she came to school and started her work; she made three sections of students (Early childhood care Education and one, two and three, fourth and fifth classes).
Next two days she was to make a calendar of merged SLOs (students’ learning outcomes) for these classes and involve the other two teachers also in this process. The new academic year started and they started following the right track of the academic calendar of multi-grade teaching. The school environment becomes conducive, the teaching-learning process improves and the SLOs are achieved on a daily basis. She also motivated other two teachers; she developed their interest in learning and implementing fruitful multi-grade teaching for a fruitful learning process. Student’s involvement through different teaching methodologies and assessment strategies not only improved their learning but also minimize their disciplinary problems. The fruit of her hard work came in the form of good results at the school and optimistic changes in the behaviour of students. The villagers also felt the positive vibes of the school in the village. Whenever any stranger came and asked about the school of the village now, their response changed from School of crazy teachers to school of multi-grade teaching. After spending five years in this village, the multi-grade teacher got married and went with her husband to the city. The villagers were sad about her departure from the village.
However, she used to visit the village, and the villagers trusted her suggestions about their children’s education. She is part of the prayers of villagers and students. She was the sign of a good omen for the teaching-learning process of this village. In her honour, the villagers with her consultation gave the name of “Multi-Grade school” to the school. When the mother was busy with Laila, someone called her from behind “Multi-grade teacher” Nice to see you, I will come to you after finishing fieldwork to take your suggestion about a good college for my daughter. Laila hugged her mother when she came to know that she was telling her own story. She uttered with tearful eyes that I would be the next “Multigrade teacher” of the school. I will follow the positive vibes of teaching, she said to her mother with a shine of hope in her eyes and a soft smile on her face.
