When the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) declared the Class XII results a month ago, S K Sharma’s students rejoiced. They had all cleared the exams with distinction.

With schools focusing on good results and putting tremendous pressure on teachers to perform, Sharma says he is relieved that his students have performed well. And what sets this Hindi teacher apart from others is the fact that in spite of being visually challenged, he has been able to deliver excellent results every year.

“I have been giving 100 per cent results for 12 years now, and I am glad that this year also my students have performed extremely well. I work very hard for my students, and I expect them to reward me with great results,” said Sharma, a teacher at Kendriya Vidyalaya. At present, he is teaching at the Kendriya Vidyalaya, Badarpur.

With University cut offs shooting up to 100 per cent this year, Class XII teachers are under great pressure to train their students to compete and get admitted in good colleges. The pressure is the same for Sharma too, and he has to prepare assignments, check homework, correct answersheets and set the results mostly with the help of his wife.

“There is no official assistance provided to me by the school authorities. My wife is of great help, and I always take my work home. After she reads out all the answers to me, I listen carefully and tell her to mark the copies. I tell her how to mark, and she does it accordingly, I also tell her to check all the spellings, which is very important when it comes to language. I also give comments on every copy.

My wife and I spend a lot of time correcting each copy carefully,” he said.

Even as a child, Sharma was a bright student with a deep interest in mathematics and science. He lost his eyesight when he was in Class X, after which he switched to Arts. Later, he shifted to a school for the visually challenged and learnt Braille. It was during his stint there that Sharma learnt to sharpen his hearing, which helps him a lot in his job.

“When you lose one sense, your other senses become very sharp. In the school for the blind, I used to take down notes in Braille even as our teacher dictated word to word. That training helped me teach my own students. I ask my students to read the lesson aloud in class, after which I explain the meaning to them, I also work on their diction because teaching language is not just about teaching how to write, but also pronouncing the words correctly,” said Sharma.

Recalling how hard he worked to reach this position, Sharma said he had to work very hard — through night and day — to get his masters degree and complete his B Ed. He treasures his job as he has earned it after putting in a lot of hard work. To raise his bar as a teacher and do justice to his profession, he keeps trying new techniques on his students.

“I hate to be like a machine, because that makes teaching a very monotonous job. It is a teachers duty to make things interesting for students, so they can learn and understand better. I interact with my students, narrate stories from my life, ask them questions, play games, participate in cultural activities and give them career instructions. This is how I am able to give 100 per cent result to my students every year,” he said

In order to improve on his teaching skills, he also takes lessons on teaching. Commenting on how it helps him polish his skills, Sharma says, “I listen to Gyan Vani on radio everyday. It has lectures on improving teaching skills and making classes interesting for students. Through it, one also gets to learn from international experts on various fields. I like to be updated, and share my knowledge with students,” he said

“In my free time I love to play harmonium and read books. I order a lot of books from the Braille centre in Dehradun. I have dedicated my life to knowledge and teaching. It doesn’t matter if I can see or not, or whether I get assistance or not — teaching is my duty and I do it with full dedication,” he added.