Teachers Day: Set up in 1888, Boys Primary School in Chhattisgarh's Antagarh continues to shine

Antagarh (Chhattisgarh), Sep 5 (PTI) On the occasion of Teachers Day on Friday, alumni of the Boys Primary School in Antagarh in Chhattisgarh's Naxal-affected Kanker district said the institution continues to remain a beacon of learning more than 137 years after it was set up.

Many residents of Antagarh termed the Boys Primary School, established on July 1, 1888, as a living monument to how education can transform society across generations.

What began as an initiative during the British era to provide basic education has grown into a landmark of heritage and pride, shaping young minds all through, they said.

Generations of children from farming and tribal families have studied at the school, many of them going on to become teachers, doctors, engineers, police officers, and public representatives, they pointed out with pride.

Among its prominent alumni are former Congress MLA Anup Nag, late Bhuneswar Nag, who served as President of Bastar Zila Panchayat during undivided Madhya Pradesh, and Rajesh Pawar, a police officer who was martyred in a Naxal attack. The school's register records its first student as Chandan Halba.

"The institution has completed 137 years and produced countless students who carved a distinct identity for themselves. The school initially had classes only up to the fourth standard. At that time there was no other school in the entire area, and children had to travel to Kondagaon for further studies. Later it was upgraded to Class 5," said alumni Hemant Panigrahi, now media convenor of the state Bharatiya Janata Party.

As Antagarh was part of a princely state, the area had facilities ranging from a rest house and tehsil to a mini jail, with the school at its centre, which has stood tall despite the Naxal problem in the region, Panigrahi said.

Other alumni include incumbent Nagar Panchayat president Radhelal Nag, former Sarpanch late Rizwanulhaq Khan and Dr Abdulhaq Khan, who completed his MBBS from Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College, Raipur, in 1980, winning two gold medals before earning an MD. He later worked at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, New Delhi, and retired in 2018 as Director, Medical and Health Services, Bhilai Steel Plant, he said.

"Dr Abdul Khaliq Khan completed his MA from Durga College, Raipur and has been serving as a professor of economics at Durg Science College since 1985. Rajiv Nagaich, selected in the 2005 All India Engineering Services, is currently posted with the Telecom Department in Nagpur," Panigrahi added.

Rajesh Pawar, who was selected in the Madhya Pradesh Public Service Commission and served as Additional SP, was killed along with eight colleagues in May 2011 when Naxals blew up their tractor in Gariaband district.

"In his honour, the Government High School in Antagarh has been named after him," said Panigrahi, who worked as a journalist for over a decade in Chhattsigarh and studied at the prestigious Film and Television Institute of India and National School of Drama.

Panigrahi's brothers Pramod,working in Delhi at a renowned film production and media company, and Tushar, an agriculture scientist, also did their primary education from this school.

Antagarh Block Education Officer (BEO), Sanjay Thakur, who studied in the school in the early 1970s, said the school currently has 20 students and three teachers.

Renovated in recent years, it has three large classrooms, two verandas, a staff room, and facilities for drinking water and sanitation, he said.

"During the recent rationalisation exercise, in which several government primary and high schools were merged, institutions that had completed 100 years were spared due to their historical importance," he said. PTI TKP BNM