india

Updated: Jul 24, 2019 19:58 IST

Three girls who passed out of government school in Rajasthan’s tribal district of Pratapgarh are over the moon after their first flight on July 20 which was underwritten by their principal who kept her promise of sponsoring such a trip for any student scoring over 85% marks.

Seema Meena, principal of Government Girls Senior Secondary School in Arnod in Pratapgarh, had announced on August 15, 2017, that she would sponsor air travel for students of Class 10 and 12 who score more than 85%.

In the 2017-18 session, no student got this opportunity. This year, when the Rajasthan Board of Second Education (RBSE) announced the results of Class 12 on May 22, three girls became eligible for their principal’s offer.

Ranjana Gayri, 17, scored 89.8%, highest for a government school student in the district. Pooja Nath, 17, got 87%, and Sapna Kumawat, 18, scored 85.20%.

When the school reopened after the vacation, the school management called the three girls and their parents to school on July 19 and took them out in a procession accompanied by band of drum beaters. Management committee members, school staff and other students walked behind the girls.

The next day, around 5 am, the principal, her family and the three girls left Arnod for Dabok airport in Udaipur to take a flight to Jaipur.

In Jaipur, they went sightseeing and ate at restaurants. Meena took them to her house in Sanganer, which she built when she was posted in Jaipur two years ago. “I didn’t want to risk staying in a hotel. Their parents had trusted us so we found it safest to stay at my house which is unoccupied,” the principal said.

They returned to Pratapgarh on July 23 by a bus. The principal doesn’t divulge how much she spent on the trip. “I didn’t do it for publicity for myself. I did it to motivate students to score well,” she said.

The girls are overjoyed after the trip.

The three girls at Jaipur’s Jantar Mantar. ( HT PHOTO )

“I live in a village and have never even been to Pratapgarh, which is only 17 km away. I could never even imagine seeing Jaipur,” said Ranjana whose father is an Army jawan. “Getting into a plane, travelling and staying with a principal was not possible even in my dreams,” said the girl who has taken admission to a BA course in PG Government College in Pratapgarh.

Sapna Kumawat’s father is a mason, who did not want her to continue studies. “He wanted me to get married,” she said, “But when I told this to madam during the trip, she called him to school and motivated him to allow me to go to college.”

She says she loved the Nahargarh fort in Jaipur and eating her dahi vada and chaat. “We don’t get these in our village,” the teenager said.

Pooja, the third girl, said she has only seen broken roads in villages. Her father has a small tailoring shop in the village and couldn’t afford to send her to school. “Madam bore my school expenses in senior secondary and she has promised to look after us in future, too,” said Pooja, the youngest of four siblings.

On Wednesday, the three girls visited the school to offer to teach Class 12 girls. “They have already spoken to six girls who got supplementary in Economics and have promised to help them for their August 8 exam,” said the principal.

“We want to give back to the school. We are poor so we can’t do anything else but we want to at least help girls who are not good in studies,” said Sapna,

Meena has promised parents of the girls to look after them and even fund coaching for whatever job they want to pursue. Pooja wants to join the state civil services.