Educating the kids: the story
From Cmi Spark
Contents |
Brief history
A spark from Bodhayan
Bodhayan Roy, a first-year B.Sc. mathematics student at CMI, was keen on using his energy, spare time and resources to helping under-privileged children. Bodhayan began by considering an orphanage. His plan was that CMI students can spend their spare time teaching the orphanage kids (viz orphans).
In a discussion group among the first-years, it was decided that Padmavathi (a first-year B.Sc. physics student at CMI) would ask a person she knew about details of orphanages and how CMI students could contribute to the work.
A redirection by Kshitij
Kshitij suggested to Bodhayan that instead of seeking students at orphanages, CMI students could direct their energies to educating and improving the lives of the children of the construction workers involved in constructing the CMI hostels. A general discussion among the first-years led to the conclusion that the Social Service Wing (as it was then called) would work towards improving the lot of the cosntruction workers.
Attempts at getting started
Vipul (a third-year B.Sc. mathematics student at CMI) discussed the possibilities with Bodhayan and suggested that if Bodhayan was serious, he should ask Mrs. Rajeshwari Nair (office person) for the background of the children and whether past efforts had been made to educate the children. Bodhayan sent a mail to Mrs. Rajeshwari, and she replied saying that the children were not Tamil, but Telugu, and that their parents had come from Andhra Pradesh. She also said that this had been a handicapping factor in past efforts to educate the children. However, she lauded Bodhayan for his efforts and asked him to get in touch with Professor K.V. Subramanyam, who knew Telugu.
Going there, getting introduced
A select group of first-year students went along with Professor K.V. Subramanyam to meet the kdis and their parents. Some of the parents were enthusiastic about their kids learning stuff. Bodhayan and the other big kids got introduced to the small kids. The four small kids were: Satyanarayana (alias Satish), Vasu, Bhawani, and Sireesha.
Formal activity begins
Daily sessions (initial)
It was decided that a group of 5-6 volunteer teachers would go and interact with the 4 kids for one hour every working day. This session was usually held in the afternoon, at the gate of the to-be hostel, because the kids were very comfortable with that location. By default, the volunteers were first-year students, but occasionally, students of other years, if free, would pitch in and relieve the first-years.
Here's a picture of one of the very first sessions.
The general pattern of a daily session:
- The volunteer students (including at least one Telugu speaker) assemble. One of the volunteers picks a packet from the office. The packet comprises slates, chalks, pastels, a few pencils and a pen.
- The volunteers track down the students, and after a few games of hide-and-seek, all the students and volunteers settle down at the steps of the hostel gate.
- One or two of the volunteers teach Satish the alphabet and concepts of basic arithmetic. The medium of instruction is a mix of Telugu and English. Satish has his own notebook and all work done is recorded in that notebook.
- The other volunteers help around with the other kids, play with them, and take care of them in general. Bhawani is encouraged to experiment with using the chalk on the slate. Vasu and Sireesha are a little shy, and the volunteers generally just play around with them.(Bhavani is also extremely shy)
- At the end of the session, the volunteers collect the belongings, mop up the place (not really!) and dump the packet back in the office.
A mailing list is created
There were many debates on how Spark could work more constructively to help the kids. Many of these debates were carried over e-mail.
As more and more CMI students became interested in volunteering their time, money and resources for Spark, it was decided that a mailing list be created for all interested people. Anirbit Mukherjee created the mailing list spark (at cmi dot ac dot in). This mailing list enabled further constructive discussions on important issues. More information about the mailing list is available Here.
Given the help that Mrs. Rajeshwari Nair had offered Spark members, Vipul suggested to Anirbit to invite her to the Spark mailing list. Mrs. Rajeswari Nair promptly joined the mailing list and made suggestions for Spark activities in the coming semester.
The end draws near
According to current plans, CMI hostels will be ready in January, and the construction workers will move out by then. Around the middle of November, Spark members began to feel the need to bring their sessions with the kids to a logical conclusion. At Vipul's suggestion, Bodhayan began considering buying some colouring/drawing/reading/writing books for the kids. It was decided that the books sohuld be taught while there was still a week to go, so that the kids could be familiarized on how to use the books.
Because funds would be needed to invest in the books, a mail was sent to all spark members. Mrs. Rajeshwari Nair forwarded the mail to some faculty members who made significant contributions towards the Spark fund, totalling to Rs. 1300. Students contributed some more money (totalling to around Rs. 400). Out of this money, around Rs. 900 was spent in buying books and drawing/colouring material for the kids.
Activities draw to a close
The books are handed over
On Tuesday, November 21st, Spark volunteers handed over the books to the kids. The kids enjoyed the idea of having books and also eagerly listened to explanations from volunteers on how to use the books.
Final session
The CMI semester examinations ended on Friday, November 24th. On Monday, November 27th, three Spark members (Jayanth, Nivedita and Vipul) were in CMI. They informed the kids that it was unlikely that Spark would be interacting with the kids again. The kids, particularly Satish (who understood the full import of the message) were disappointed. The final session was spent explaining to the kids how to go through the books. Here's a picture of Bhawani gazing at the textbook and a picture of Satish learning mathematics.
One of the parents also went through the Learn English through Telugu book and requested for another set of colouring books for his daughter, whom he had not got here.
Emotional farewell
At the end of the final session, Satish requested for photographs of himself and the other kids to be taken on Jayanth's mobile phone. He also called up Jayanth from Vipul's mobile phone and talked to him on phone for a minute. He took Jayanth's mobil number for contacting Jayanth from his uncle's phone.
Please click here for a Progress report on the kids.
