Howsoever
disputable Gandhiji’s ideals might be for the modern society, this adage of his
holds great sense per se, "The best
way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others."
Indeed, there
is no better feeling that comes when you help someone. I felt the same quite
recently when I volunteered to teach kids in a rural government school, ZPHS to
be precise, during my office hours. My colleague Lalitha and I are going to take
a one hour class every week on Tuesday for 6 weeks. We will teach English to ten
kids of 7th standard. We have already taken one of such classes with amazing
response from the students and learning a great deal ourselves.
Just so that
you know the condition of the school; there is no electricity, mere 6 rooms for
all higher secondary classes, abysmal teacher-to-student ratio, one unkempt
toilet, an undersized playground and the biggest incentive for the kids to come
to school is not education but the Mid-day Meal Scheme which provides them free
food during Lunch. Sometimes, the teachers are absent and most of the times,
the students themselves. With this dearth of infrastructure and meager
motivation among teachers and students both, there certainly is a need for a movement
in rural areas which can flex people’s attention towards education.
Nevertheless,
even after so many shortcomings, the kids study with alacrity. Their spirit is
commendable and enthusiasm contagious, which really helped us when we started with
the teaching session. However, their foundation in English is too weak which
makes it difficult for them to understand a language whose rules even the
pundits are not sure about. Speaking tongue-in-cheek, English has ironically got
more exceptions than rules! Another hurdle to overcome while teaching them is the
language barrier. Students’ mother tongue is Telugu and north-Indians know the
least of the language. To overcome this, Telugu speaking employees are paired
up with non-Telugu speaking employees so that the kids can be taught with least
possible glitches. Although we had some innovative plans in mind but one hour
was over before we could implement them. One student did win a chocolate, but
we have to encourage others too to partake proactively in the activities along
with the theory sessions.
Pooja, Aruna,
Mounika, Shashi, Badri, Shankar, Anjanayelu, Ramu, Uday Kumar are the kids
Lalitha and I are responsible to teach. Initially we spent some time in knowing
them as we felt it was necessary to engage them in the process. The kids remain
interested if you make them feel that they are all being focused upon and
that’s where the teacher-to-student ratio is so important. The lesser the
number of students per teacher, the greater is the individual attention paid. We
taught them the three articles, a, an and the, of English. After some teaching,
we gave them practice exercises, helped them solve it and discussed the doubts.
Since there were just 8 students for us, we could touch every kid and solve
queries individually.
Kids from
urban areas learn quickly as they have better assistance and facilities. Most
of them speak English as soon as they finish a year in School and sometimes
even earlier as their families realize the importance of the language. Kids in
rural areas are devoid of such support. Mostly, their families are not literate
enough and want their children to help them in the fields or other such professions.
So they have to give up school. Sometimes financial constraints prevent
children to get higher education while sometimes there are family
responsibilities to be borne. Reasons can be many; we have to ruminate over
them and come up with strategies to mitigate those and make education rewarding.
Somehow, we
have to turn the tables around. We have to make them understand the
significance of education whether it be moral, spiritual, vocational or
bookish. As when people are educated they possess much better skills to help
themselves and the nation. They not only understand their
rights and duties better but can use them when and where necessary, thus less
prone to exploitation and working for the betterment of the society. Proper training and education can help increase a nation's productivity.
I write this
article hoping that the educated community will understand the acute problem of
illiteracy in the country and contribute for the education of the illiterate mass.
This way, just from a small scale, you could not just be a helping hand in the
country’s growth but can move a step ahead in ‘finding’ yourself.