Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (MS)
Mangaluru, Mar 31: In a perfect example of being a real teacher, who leads not only by words but by deeds, a teacher of an aided school in the city made sure that the future of the students of his school is not jeopardised because of lack of funds and donated half of his salary every month since the last four years to the honorary teachers of the school, who used to get a meagre salary.
Suresh Rao, a teacher at Shri Ramashrama Aided Primary School Konchady in the city is the great silent Samaritan who retired from his service on Friday, March 30.
Suresh Rao, a resident of Pachanady in the city, worked as a teacher in the said school for forty long years. He was the head teacher of the school for the past two and a half years. He has been sparing half of his salary since the past four years and sharing the same with four honorary teachers who work in the school.
School could not afford to pay honorary teachers
There are 135 students studying in this school. In total there are eight teachers. Four of these are permanent and four are honorary. Permanent teachers get salary from the government. The salary of the other four honorary teachers has to be borne by the school from other sources. School administration committee used to bear this expense for some time. However, after a certain period, the administration committee was unable to pay the honorary teachers.
Suresh Rao, who saw this grim situation, came forward to donate half of his salary to the honorary teachers and thereby giving a good future and quality education to the students of the school in addition to providing bread to the honorary teachers. The parent-teacher association of the school is lauding the great selfless service of this teacher, who belongs to a very rare breed in this modern society where people kill each other for the sake of money.
A sacrifice of Rs 25,000 every month
Suresh Rao, who served the school for forty years, used to get a salary of Rs 55,000 towards the end of this service. Out of this, he used to give Rs 25,000 as salary to four honorary teachers. He used to shell out Rs 5,500 each to two teachers, Rs 8,000 to one teacher and Rs 6000 for another. In addition, he used to spend Rs 5,000 for other expenses of the school.
Self-motivated service
"Government does not recruit teachers. As such parents are not interested to send their children to Kannada medium schools. Out of self-motivation, I came forward to pay the honorary teachers from my salary. This is a small service towards the education of children," says the humble and down to earth Suresh Rao.
He paid school fee for poor children
"Out of the 135 students studying at present in Shri Ramashrama Aided Primary School, 90% are the children of poor daily wage labourers who have come from north Karnataka. Providing quality education for these children is the responsibility of the teachers. Suresh Rao's selfless service in this regard is laudable. Not only the salary of honorary teachers, but he used to pay even the bus fare and school fee of poor children," said a former student of this great teacher.
Model for everyone
"Suresh Rao is a model teacher. He has lots of concern and love for the students and the institution. He used to give salary to the honorary teachers working in this school from his own earnings. This is a model to all," says Manjappa, present head teacher of the school.
Happy family
Suresh Rao resides in Pachanady in the city with his wife Chandralekha. His son Shailesh Rao and daughter Rashmi are employed in companies. His daughter Rashmi secured the second rank in Karnataka state in the SSLC examination in 1998.