CCCL Hexaware: first interaction with kids: by Ravitej

From Cmi Spark

Date of the event/events: January 28, 2007

This article is related to the efforts of CMI Spark to educate children of construction workers at the CCCL Hexaware site

This is a first-person article (or section of an article) by Ravitej

As it stands on this Sunday, there were eight Telugu kids who came for the interaction session by Spark. These included some additions to the listed ones in the previous data collection, and also some absentees who went to the city as it is a Sunday.

[edit] The interaction and it's outcome

[edit] The Profiles

A bird's eye view of the Telugu children who were present:

As I already told there were 8 kind who were present at the First Spark session of "Interaction with kids". They included students of various interaction and interest levels. But, to make a general statement...They are interested. The children included one who discontinued 4th class an 2 others who discontinued their 1st standard. Remaining were kids who haven't been under any formal education.

The kids present are :

• Narayana Rao (8 years, male).
  • Studied till 4th standard in a Government School at Parvathipuram (Bobbili) and did not attend his exams as he had to come along with his parents who came here to work. As he had already studied till 3rd class, he knew Telugu alphabets and knows how to write words in Telugu, English alphabets and knows few words and their meanings in Telugu. In Maths, he has a knowledge about addition, subtraction and multiplication.
  • He is interested in English (vocabulary, etc. ), Telugu(sentence, etc.) and is willing to learn everyday (he was asking about our next session and when asked for he showed interest in learning daily).
  • I think we can refresh his previous learning and then continue with his interests, because they match with the usual curriculum at school.

• Santosh (6 years, male)
  • He is the brother of Narayana Rao. Started 1st standard at the same school as his brother but discontinued due to the same reason. His knowledge spans reciting(in Telugu) numbers till 100 and writing them. He was also taught Telugu alphabets but he forgot because of the lapse in time. Can do counting and do simple arithmetic on fingers.
  • He is interested in learning Telugu and Maths alone. Did not show an interest in English.
  • We can teach him all the three because, as I interacted with him he showed an implicit interest in English though he outwardly did not put it when asked for.

• Durga (5 years, male)
  • Started with first standard in a Government School at Amudala Valasa but then discontinued due to the same reason.He knows numbers till 50 (cannot write them, but can recognize few of them...and recites in Telugu alone). He told me he knows Telugu alphabets also, but was feeling shy when asked to recite (though recited the numbers after everyone did so).
  • Has interest in all the three fields that we planned and intially wants to learn to write.
  • He can be combined along with Santhosh and taught as their knowledge is almost the same.

• Sujatha(3 years, female)
  • Did not attend any school. Talks and understands only Telugu...but is pretty shy.
  • No previous education. Likes to play...but does not protest to stay.
  • She can be taught some basic things like alphabets and numbers.

• Chinna Rao(4 years, male)
  • No formal schooling.
  • Can be joined with other kids who are of the same age and teach according to our agenda.

• Jagamuni(?as I understood it?)(3-4 years, female)
  • No formal education. Could not get any information about their native place. She once said "Hindi" when I asked her for some information....but did not reply even when I asked her in Hindi.
  • Can be joined with other kids who are of the same age and teach according to our agenda.

• Manisha (sister of Jagamuni, female)
  • No formal education. Was very shy and did not talk with me at all (though she was conversing with her sister)
  • Can be joined with other kids who are of the same age and teach according to our agenda.

• Nidhiswaran (2years, female)(Tamilian...mother understands and converses in Telugu also)
  • Understands only Tamil. I was not able to talk as she went back to her mother after 15 minutes of the commencement of the session.
  • Can be taught in the same way as Vasu(one of the first kids covered under Spark at CMI).