130 Kilometres a day, Tarun Kant Rai’s Journey to the Classroom
At 6 a.m., the buses leaving Dhamtari Chhattisgarh are rarely quiet.
Vendors are calling out, school kids are wedging themselves into seats, and others who are commuting to work are looking at their phones. Every weekday for two years, a young man has been mingling with everyone else in the crowd with a bag on his shoulder, lesson plans inside, and not enough sleep under his belt before the start of the school day. That young man was our pre-service teacher Tarun Kant Rai.
His journey into teaching did not begin with a degree. It began much earlier in a private school in 2018, where he started teaching classes of 11th and 12th. B. Com graduate by qualification; Tarun relied on the concepts from his subjects and his confidence to succeed at his school interviews without having a diploma in educational studies. In addition to teaching in the classroom, to support his finances he took a private coaching in Dhamtari as well. Tarun did not consider teaching as a fall-back plan for employment, after his high school graduation, he purposely chose to pursue teaching as a profession just for the passion of teaching.
But if he wanted to become a government teacher, professional training was important.
He attempted Pre-B.Ed three times. Each time, counselling did not work in his favour. The rejections were quiet but heavy. Still, he did not stop. This time, he appeared for both Pre-B.Ed and Pre-D.El.Ed. When the merit list was announced, his name appeared in the first list for D.El.Ed at Government DIET Nagri (Batch 2022–24). The relief lasted only a moment.
Nagri was nearly 65 kilometres away from Dhamtari.
Staying in Nagri meant giving up his teaching job. Leaving his job meant losing financial stability. And the course had to be funded by him.
After days of thinking, Tarun made a difficult decision. He left the school job and chose to continue only his coaching classes so he could finance his education himself.
What followed was not glamorous.
He woke up at 5 a.m., reached his coaching centre by 6:30 a.m, taught until 8 a.m., caught the 8:20 a.m. bus to Nagri, attended DIET classes all day, took the 4:20 p.m. bus back, reached Dhamtari, went straight to coaching again from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m, returned home exhausted, and then studied for his D.El.Ed coursework often until 2 a.m.
Then he repeated it. For two years.
Some days, the body and mind resisted. But the goal was clear. And slowly, the distance stopped feeling like distance. It became routine.
During his time at DIET Nagri, there were faculty shortages and academic gaps, challenges common in many teacher education institutions across the country. But Tarun relied on his classroom experience and self-study to stay ahead. When Sterlite EdIndia Foundation began engaging with the institute under its Teacher Education Program in Chhattisgarh, he found structured academic guidance that strengthened his preparation.
Through state-level teacher professional development workshops, he received support in English pedagogy, reading comprehension, and classroom management. These were not abstract lectures. They were practical discussions rooted in real classrooms. He also participated in classroom observations that helped him rethink how students respond, not just how teachers deliver.
He began using the akrava app to complete short certification courses on inclusive education and special learning needs. Digital learning, which once felt secondary, became part of his routine.
The impact showed up in numbers.
When he first attempted CTET mock tests, his scores ranged between 50 and 60 out of 150. Through consistent practice and the Foundation’s structured mock analysis, his scores crossed 90. The improvement was not dramatic; it was gradual and that made it sustainable.
This kind of support matters, especially in the context of NEP 2020 implementation support for teachers, where expectations from educators are evolving rapidly. From inclusive classrooms to competency-based learning, teachers today are required to do more than ever before.
Tarun’s journey shows what becomes possible when individual determination meets education system strengthening programs that focus on practical capacity-building.
Today, he continues to run coaching classes while applying for government teaching positions, he is better prepared not just academically, but professionally, he understands classrooms differently now, he plans lessons differently and reflects more.
His story is not loud. It does not rely on dramatic turning points.
It rests on something quieter that is discipline, consistency, and a daily 130-kilometre commitment. Sometimes, the road to becoming a teacher is not symbolic.
Sometimes, it is exactly 130 kilometres long.
Learn more about EdIndia program, an exceptional teacher education and training initiative designed for both pre-service and in-service educators.
