Learning & Teaching - One

First, the dedication to Satya and Sivani, both of whom have encouraged this for a long time.

Yesterday was another happy day in life since I got around to finally start something I have been wanting to do for a long time. Thanks to Siva (a fellow runner) who provided the opportunity to do so. Siva works with an organization named ASHA, which works with underprivileged children among other things.

We (Siva and some more ppl) went to this govt school to play with some school kids. I have had this plan to teach school kids for some time, but had sadly done nothing about it. Yesterday I made a start. After we finished playing I met the school princial and took a look at the syllabi of standards 5, 6 and 7 so that I had an idea where to start. Then we did a lot of discussing the current state of the school.

Satya had asked that I write about the challenges that one encounters while trying this out. So here they are. First one is on infrastructure. There are currently 3 classrooms. There are 31 kids in class 5, 33 in class 6 and 8 students in class 7. This means that we are severely stretched for space, especially since the classroom also serves as office room for the teachers! Next, the kids start off class 5 with no English knowledge. No alphabet even! Some kids even join straight into class 5 as they come from all sorts of places and some would have never even been to a school. Also the attendance is poor as not all kids attend regularly. Not all teachers who come to the school are engaged throughout the year. Some are leaving after September. So ASHA volunteers are welcome to teach.

The kids (due to some reasons above and others) do not continue much beyond class 7, which is evident from the nos above.

God Bless ASHA. They have accomplished so much with so many constraints, including constructing an extra building for the school above, picking up salaries for some additional teachers elsewhere, etc.

So that is the report from day one. More next weekend when we meet the kids. Lots of work to be done. Am all excited.