Stories that Inspire

A group of EachOneEnrichOne Ambassadors coming from diverse but strictly urban background decided to volunteer as Teachers in the rural school at Kosbad. The project was to teach 10th standard Marathi medium students from Adivasi background Science and Maths. This was an entirely untrodden path. They started out with a lot of doubts about their capability. They stumbled and fumbled but ultimately managed to deliver whatever they could to the best of their ability. Was it a success? Only time will tell.

Along the way, there was a lot of learning. It was an exciting adventure as well. Here are some experiences which perhaps might be useful to others planning to take a plunge in uncertain waters.

• Different worlds -  The world students are exposed to, and the world you have seen are two different worlds. Not meaning to exaggerate but it was as good as teachers were from Mars trying to teach the earthlings.
• Syllabus - The challenge does not end there. The syllabus was alien too. In other words, the subjects were equally out of the world. The Adivasi students were to be taught about GST, Brokerage, Mutual Funds and Units in Maths, write a blog in English and answer questions about the label stuck up on a cold-drink bottle. This can go on and on.
• Language - The language was a big time problem. Scientific terms in Marathi, with the corresponding English words, given in the bracket. In Maths, numbers were written in English. Formulae in English, but the explanation in Marathi and mathematical entities had pure Marathi Names. The kids are taught English from the 1st standard. Their mother tongue is not Marathi but Warli. So in the 1st standard they learn Marathi and English – two totally new languages. By the time they reach the 10th standard, they have a third language Hindi.
• Resources - The syllabus was new and Balbharati, the Syllabus making body, has put up an excellent website. There are lots of resources on the website. There are question papers, answer sets. There are also useful videos. On the flip side, the schools do not have computers. Teachers are smart, but the lack of access poses an issue. On top of it, there are electricity issues and bandwidth issues.
• Science Experiments - Setting up a laboratory is an expensive affair. Moreover, school teachers need to be trained to handle labs.

The list is long. But still, it was an exciting adventure. With Project Vidya, we will all take up these challenges head-on … Pull up your socks buddies and get ready to join.