Jharkhand sponsors 4.5-year-old wonder child's education

RANCHI: Farmer

Kuldeep Prasad Gupta

has been knocking doors requesting academic support for his four-and-a-half-year-old son since 2014. On Tuesday, state education minister Neera Yadav fulfilled the father's wish. "I met the child and his parents last year but was helpless as he was below schooling age. Now, that he is grown up, I will get him enrolled in any school of his parents' choice."

The young boy, Abhishikt Kumar, belonging to Sarjamdih village of Tamar block, takes a keen interest in eography, Hindi, Chemistry, Physics and Defence studies. "Abhishikt was very fascinated by the world map in our room. Instead of singing lullabies, we used to tell him about alphabets, weekdays and months. He started speaking from the age of six months and it was all about the alphabets, months and days," said Abhishikt's father, whose dreams of cracking the

Jharkhand Public Service Commission

(JPSC) was nipped in the bud. Confirming the father's claims, Seema Sharma, child development project officer (CDPO) of Ranchi has been watching the boy since 2014 when

Rajesh Mahto

, a Khunti based social activist, had brought him to her for education sponsorship. She said, "Ask him any question on general awareness and he is ready with the answer." Prior to meeting Yadav, Gupta had met school education and literacy department secretary Aradhana Patnaik. who asked him to meet the concerned deputy commissioner (DC). "He wanted to enroll his child in a private school. It is not possible to take the step from my side at the district level so I advised him to meet the DC of the concerned district who heads the school committee and has the right to approve admission under the 25% quota reserved for BPL children," Patnaik said.

However, Gupta had failed to approach the DC. "When I did not get any help, I enrolled my son in a primary school in my village two months agowhere he is being educated for free. Right now he is in nurseryI hope my boy is able to study in a reputed private school of Ranchi some day," said Abhishikt's father who does odd jobs to support the family.

K Kumar, principal of

BO Public School

, where Abhishikt is currently enrolled, said, "He can tell about Dr Rajendra Prasad, first president of India and many more things which is not expected from a child of this age."