Government Senior Secondary School Dhira Ghara declared as best school 

Ferozepur: Government Senior Secondary School, Dhira Ghara has been declared as the best school under the Punjab government scheme of ’63 Award for Best Government School in Each District’.  

Yogesh Talwar, a science teacher of the school has an emotional connect both with the school and the local community. He has seen the school grow from a middle to a senior secondary level in a span of 10 years after his first joining in the school.  

The approach road, which is a narrow- stretched link road, runs along the Dhussi bandh and leads to the school, which is considered the last school of the district at Ferozepur- Patti link. Almost every year, the school turns into an island when Sutjej river runs havoc causing inundation in the whole area, thus cutting the link of the school from the rest of the world until the water recedes. 

Yogesh, who had been the only male teacher in the school for 10 years since 2009, had to work on many fronts to ensure the studies of the students got going without any hindrance. 

The biggest challenge for him was to convince the parents not to marry off their girls early as was the trend in the area. Yogesh along with Rupinder Kaur, Maths mistress of the school took this as a challenge to ensure smooth education of the girls. Visiting the parents who didn’t send their kids to school daily, counselling the students to study and meeting the influential people of the village to get the work done in the school are some of the staple works that have become a part of his job over 10 years of working in the locality. 

"I first joined here after the school got upgraded from a primary to a middle school in 2009. Later in 2012, the school was uplifted to a high school level. That year, the looming deluge was ready to cause damage in the coming rainy season.  I had a meeting with the village residents, who swung into action and came along with their tractors- trolleys and a large chunk of sand and soil was laid in the school to lift its level to save it from the damage that the ensuing floods may cause", said Yogesh. 

Notably, the school got upgraded to the senior secondary level earlier in 2020. Yogesh considers himself lucky that Rupinder Kaur, Supreet Kaur and Veena Rani, the female staff members worked tirelessly on every front and as a result the school is now a fully- fledged senior secondary school and the girls of the area will be able to continue their studies after high standard. 

However, under the best school award scheme, the school has also got a sum of Rs 1,36,363 which will be used for the further development of the school. Under the scheme, a middle, a high and a senior secondary school had to be given the prize. Notably, GMS Chabba and GSSSS Khai Pheme Ki are the other schools which were selected for the prize from the district.