Jharkhand: Senior police officer tests class IV student’s maths skills during village visit
THE JHARKHAND STORY NETWORK Daltonganj, Sept 2: A routine field visit by a senior police officer in Palamu’s Chhatarpur took an unexpected…
THE JHARKHAND STORY NETWORK
Daltonganj, Sept 2: A routine field visit by a senior police officer in Palamu’s Chhatarpur took an unexpected turn when the officer stopped to look through the notebook of a Class IV student and ended up checking his basic mathematics skills.
Chhatarpur SDPO Prashant Kumar, who was in civilian clothes, noticed the young boy returning from tuition and stopped to see what he was studying. The brief interaction, however, left the officer concerned about the child’s grasp of basic arithmetic.
Officer spots error in four-digit subtraction
While going through the student’s tuition notebook, Kumar noticed that the Class IV boy had made a mistake in a four-digit subtraction exercise.
“I grew pensive. A Class IV student has no idea about ‘jore ghatao’ (addition and subtraction). He had done a wrong four-digit subtraction. Perhaps his tutor had not noticed it,” Kumar said.
Rather than reprimanding the child, the officer encouraged him to attempt another problem. He asked the student to solve a four-digit addition exercise.
The boy got the answer right.
Kumar said the student, who had appeared slightly upset after the earlier mistake, regained confidence after being praised for getting the addition correct.
‘Foundation of teaching needs to be stronger’
The SDPO said his interaction should not be interpreted as a comment on the overall quality of teaching in government schools.
“I am not the one who is going to make any comment on the standard of teaching. There is no dearth of able teachers in government schools. I just want the foundation of teaching to be stronger,” he said.
The incident reflects the officer’s stated approach of using his field visits not only for police-related work but also to interact with people and understand issues affecting them.
SDPO interacts with workers during field visits
Police sources said Kumar often takes time during investigation and supervision visits to interact with people in Chhatarpur.
He said he frequently speaks to labourers travelling on tractors loaded with bricks and hears about their working conditions and wage-related problems.
“I often interact with labourers sitting atop brick-loaded tractors. Their brick is their bread, it looks. They tell me about how their daily wages are kept pending by brick kiln owners,” Kumar said.
According to him, Chhatarpur also has an unusual labour pattern, with local residents generally not working as unskilled labourers and a sizeable workforce coming from neighbouring Bihar.
Migrant workers raise banking concerns
The interaction also touched upon difficulties allegedly faced by migrant workers returning to Jharkhand from states such as Haryana, Delhi and Punjab.
The issue of bank accounts and delays in transferring accounts from branches at their former places of employment to their home locations was raised with the officer.
Kumar said he advises workers facing such problems to submit a written complaint so that the matter can be formally taken up.
“A written complaint about it will make all the difference. I tell the migrant workers through this digital platform,” he said.
The episode involving the Class IV student, meanwhile, highlights how a routine police outreach visit can sometimes bring attention to issues extending beyond policing — from basic education and confidence among children to the everyday problems faced by workers and migrants.
