Her classroom has ‘one student’!

TEHRAN,July 6(MNA) --True, “one father is more than a 100 schoolmasters” but a schoolmaster can offer ‘eternity’ to his students. It may seem far-fetched to us all, but in our story, Leila Khodabandeh is the proud teacher who has been offering her time, energy, and knowledge to her only one student in the class dedicatedly. And it is not only that. Leila travels 55 kilometers (about 34 miles) every day to teach Reza Kosari Parizad, her sole student, who has no way of commuting to town to attend school. Leila got her master’s degree in educational psychology from a university in Tehran, and now, with 9 years of teaching experience under her belt, she has been serving the students at Salim Sorabi village in Gol Tappeh, Hamadan Province. In a report published Sunday, Leila told that her only motivation to go far and beyond her responsibilities as a teacher is the ‘love’ she has for her job. “When you love what you do, the difficulties you have to put up with will ease off,” she was quoted as saying. Leila is convinced that number of students in the classroom is the last thing a committed teacher who loves her job has in mind; what really counts is the ‘outcome’ of the teaching, the young female teacher said. She continued to restate that the key to overcome challenges and to eventually succeed is to approach life with love. In her interview, she also asked officials in the Ministry of Education to provide educational facilities for all students across the country, especially those who live in the most remote and hard to reach villages in Iran.