Gopalpur Basic L P School

If you walk down Khandagiri Road and look for G-40, you’ll find our little school. We are a basic lower primary school, which means we mostly see the very young kids from around this part of Bhubaneshwar. The building is right there on the road, so we hear the buses and cars going past all day long. It can be a bit distracting, but the children get used to it pretty quickly. We have a few classrooms with low benches that are just the right size for small kids. Most of our day is spent teaching the basics like the alphabet and counting. It’s simple stuff, but it takes a lot of patience. The walls have some old posters of fruits and animals that have been there for years. We don't have a lot of fancy equipment or computers, just books and slates and some chalk. During the rainy season, the roof leaks a little bit in the corner of the hallway, so we have to put a bucket there, but we manage. The staff here are like a small family, mostly because we’ve worked together at Gopalpur Basic L P School for such a long time. We know all the parents by name and we know which kids need a bit of extra help with their letters. It’s a quiet life, mostly, except when it’s time for the kids to go home and everyone is shouting for their bags and looking for their parents.