Mamring Toryok Higher Secondary School: Nurturing Innovation Beyond the Classroom Walls

Teachers of the government Mamring Toryok Higher Secondary School in Kurseong, rural Darjeeling district, are building the school instead of merely putting "another brick in the wall."

Students at this Lower Mamring school, some 22 kilometers from Kurseong town, are being encouraged to produce a wide range of products, from digital clocks, automated egg incubators, eco-bricks, LED lights, and a prototype excavator, to herbal soaps and smart greenhouses.

In addition, the school has established a kitchen garden with medicinal plants, a herbal garden, and a butterfly park.

"We want the pupils to be more than just another brick in the wall. Principal Kiran Lama said, "We want to let the youngsters show off their abilities and teach them practical life skills while they're in school.

The well-known English rock song "Another brick in the wall" by Pink Floyd is regarded as a protest song against strict schooling.

It is reasonable to say that the 320 pupils of Mamring Toryok Higher Secondary School get an education that is everything but inflexible. In fact, it has a few lessons that many metro area schools might use.

Eight clubs were established by the school five years ago: waste management, games and sports, technology and business, agriculture and floriculture, library, economics and political science, and culture and music.

the soap they prepared with herbs
the soap they prepared with herbs

"Every Friday, the kids participate in club activities all day long, and students are required to select one club," assistant headmaster Passang Sherpa, who oversees the agricultural and floriculture club, said.

The teacher that is spearheading the school's creative technological initiatives is Kamal Rasaily.

"Technology has always captivated me. We've made a lot of inventions, which is fantastic," Rasaily said.

The school created its sensor-based sanitizer unit during the Covid era. "A school in Kurseong purchased one of our sanitizer units," said Rasaily.

Using a smartphone, the automated greenhouse manages variables like humidity and temperature. Little human interaction is required with the autonomous egg incubator.

The school offers mugwort, neem, and aloe vera-based natural soaps.

Our soaps are bought by homestays in the area. Additionally, we've sold our LED bulbs. We generated a profit of around Rs 36,000, which we donated to pupils from low-income families," Lama said.

It's not surprising that so many former students have launched their own companies.

Another instructor added, "One of our alumni members has started a small-scale LED manufacturing business."

Hydroponics is a developing trend among students in rural areas, where plants are grown without soil by utilizing a fertilizer solution based on water.

In order to create eco-bricks, each student must also gather ten plastic wrappers in a week.

Lama said, "This little effort also goes a long way in helping the village stay clean."

Academics are unaffected by any of these extracurricular activities.

Instructor Janardhan Sharma said, "Since our school was founded in 1983, there has never been a student who failed the Class X or XII board exams."

In 1983, the school was founded. In 1997, it became a junior high school; in 2011, it became a high school; and in 2017, it became a higher secondary school.

The school won the Swachh Vidyalaya Award (cleanest school award) in 2022 and placed first in the scientific competition hosted by the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration in 2019.

Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Press Time staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.