Mukti Support School – When a Year Becomes a Story

When the 2025 academic year finally rested its wings at the doorstep of our 84 Mukti Secondary Support Schools, it did not feel like the end of a session—it felt like the closing chapter of a long, living poem written by children, teachers, mothers, fathers, and the countless footsteps that walked beside us.

Through fields that glowed with early morning mist, through narrow lanes that echoed with bicycle bells, our teachers arrived each day—not as instructors, but as quiet companions in a journey of becoming.

This Year the Teachers Became the Children’s Sky.

Ask any teacher this year what changed them the most, and they will not mention training, schedules, or question banks.

They will mention eyes—

the frightened eyes of a girl attempting her first reading aloud,

the determined eyes of a boy practicing sums under a lantern,

the sparkling eyes of a class erupting in applause after a friend finally solved a problem.

One teacher shared:

“A poor student of Class 8 came to class with no geometry box, only a hope in his hand.

When we gave him stationery, he looked at me as if I had handed him wings.”

Another whispered during a sharing circle:

“A girl stayed back one morning. She held up her star sticker shyly and said,

‘Didi, this is the first thing I ever earned.’

I still carry that moment like a prayer.”

And during value-education drawing time, a Class V boy sketched two stick figures—one big, one tiny—holding hands.

Below it, he wrote in crooked English:

“Teacher is someone who does not let you fall.”

That drawing travelled across the Support School like a soft wind, leaving many eyes moist but shining.

Moments That Became Memories

Children danced on Teachers’ Day with rehearsed steps and un-rehearsed affection.

They laughed freely on Children’s Day, their voices rising above the usual silence of rural mornings.

They planted saplings on World Environment Day as if planting tiny promises.

They stretched in unison on Yoga Day, the fields around them breathing with them.

And on Rabindra Jayanti, their recitations carried the fragrance of poetry to the far edges of their villages.

Each day, the school was not merely a place—

it was a heartbeat.

A Quiet Triumph

When Madhyamik results came, the villages buzzed.

Teachers gathered under banyan trees, checking each name with trembling anticipation.

598 out of 600.

A 99.6% pass rate.

Seventy-five proud first divisions.

Fifteen brilliant stars.

But the true celebration was quieter.

A teacher said: “When I saw their results, it felt like someone had lit a lamp in my chest.”

Parents came with sweets, with tears, with folded hands. Many whispered,

“We never dreamed our children could go this far.”

And in that whisper lay generations of healing.

Mukti – A Word Made of People

This year, Mukti Support Schools did not feel like a mere coaching class.

It felt like an embrace, stretched across 84 centres,

a soft hum of reassurance in the corners of 8 districts Bengal where hope often walks barefoot.

Teachers often say: “Mukti amader moner kachher ekta naam—ekhane amra kaj kori na, amra bondhutwo baniye tulchi.”

“Mukti is not work—it is a relationship we tend.”

Indeed, it felt as though we were building not just schools, but a vast home,

where every child found a seat, every tear found listening, and every dream found someone to guard its fragile start.

The Road Ahead—Lit by the Light We Carry

As this year folds itself gently into memory, our teachers stand at the threshold of the next with renewed courage.

They know challenges wait.

They know the journey is long. But they also know this:

If a child can walk miles just to sit in their classroom,

the teachers will walk farther still—

with patience, with purpose, with love.

For education is the lamp we hold—

a flame passed from hand to hand,

from teacher to child,

from child to the future.

And in that glow,

a new horizon keeps opening—

quietly, steadily, wonderfully

right before our eyes.

Ananya Chatterjee
Senior Program Manager – Education, MUKTI