by Maleeha Sofi
SRINAGAR: A group of five students of Government Middle School (GMS) Brar have developed a Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) leakage detector under the guidance of their science subject teacher, Javeed Hassan Sofi.
Students of eighth standard, Abrar Sofi, Suhaib, Uzain, Aatif, and Ifham, learned Coding from their teacher, helping them develop an LPG leakage detection equipment.
The school functions in two buildings, one lies on the main road and another on a hill. The school lacks basic infrastructural facilities but is still helping the students innovate in fields hitherto not taught at the school level.
Javeed Hassan Sofi, the teacher, took pains to teach these students after school hours. According to students, Sofi taught them coding, which has been introduced as a vocational subject for middle school level students under the New Educational Policy (NEP) 2020.
“I wanted to see how the students in my school perceive technology and whether they will take any interest in coding or not,” Sofi said.
However, due to a lack of infrastructure and resources, he chose only five of his meritorious students, requesting their parents for buying a smartphone for them.
“I taught students coding from my own resources and laptop as there is no such facility in the school,” Sofi said.
Sofi says the idea came to him after a gas leakage incident in his kitchen. “I bought all the hardware for this online from my own expenses,” he said. “I expounded it and assembled it for my students and they encoded a functional LPG detector after one month.”
Mir Bashir Ahmed, District President of Teachers’ Forum Bandipora who visited the school to ‘encourage’ teachers and students said, “This school will give birth to many scientists. Every student in the school talks about science and inventions which left me amazed.”
Besides students, Ahmad added the teachers of the school are very talented. “ Sofi has developed numerous software programmes but, unfortunately, lacks the facilities and recognition from the administration.”
“They have been in the news for their feat, but the need is more than that. Such teachers and students should be equipped with the best technology and facilities,” Ahmed added.
The students’ group is currently working on new projects. Now, these five will train ten more students to spread this skill and knowledge in school and beyond.
