Engineer Who Became a Weekend Teacher

Deepak Yadav had a stable job at a Patna-based engineering firm when a colleague told him about a weekend volunteering opportunity with AIM Pathshala.

He showed up on a Saturday morning in October 2020, expecting to spend two hours and return to his weekend. He spent the whole day. And came back the next weekend. And the one after.

Something about the children's hunger to learn — and the stark contrast with his own comfortable schooling — moved him deeply. Within three months, he was teaching Mathematics every Saturday and Sunday.

In early 2022, a full-time educator position opened at the Patna centre. Deepak applied, and resigned from his corporate job the same week he was offered the role.

He took a 60% pay cut. He has never regretted it. 'The salary I gave up was money. What I have now is meaning,' he says.

Today, Deepak leads the Patna centre with 180 enrolled students. He has trained four new volunteer educators and introduced a mathematics olympiad that runs across all four centres. He is also pursuing a B.Ed. through correspondence.