Shrikanth Ram Patagar, a drama teacher at the Karnataka Public School in Thirthahalli, knew the importance of regular offline contact with students, considering the patchy Internet access in the area. So, during the COVID-19 lockdown, he went to villages to meet his students every day.
“Every day, I met at least 10 students during the lockdown. During the visits, I interacted with them and spoke to their parents. This continued for months and the students were aware that I would be there the next day. Our colleagues also did this exercise and it forced the students to do their homework and study every day,” says Mr. Patagar.
Being a drama teacher, he did not stop at that. He took up two lessons from SSLC syllabus and staged two plays involving students of Class VIII and IX. “I involved local students at Konandur for the plays ‘Sepoy Dange’, based on a chapter on history syllabus on the Sepoy Mutiny, and ‘Yuddha’, written by Sa Ra Abubakar, also in SSLC text. We staged the plays on March 27 to mark World Theatre Day. This was very well-appreciated by villagers and students,” says Mr. Patagar, a graduate of Neenasam Theatre Institute at Heggodu in Sagar taluk. He has uploaded videos of the plays on YouTube as well.
For the past 12 years, Mr. Patagar, a native of Kumta in Uttara Kannada district, has been working in Konandur. He is known for his theatre activities involving students. The play ‘Jagada Birukige Gandhi Maddu’ that he directed for his students was part of the national theatre festival held at Sanehalli in 2010. He is among those to have won the best teacher award this year.
