Rendezvous with Kallar

There is a sweet shop right next to Bus Stand. I go there, very often, either to drink lassi or to have morning breakfast (a random mix of samosa, jalebi and chai). The shop is owned by an old man and his early-thirties son. Until this point, I never realized that I don’t know his name!!!

A few days back, one evening, while I was enjoying lassi at his shop, the son started talking to me. He told me that, long time back, he got an offer from police force because he was a good wrestler, but he didn’t join them because his father wanted his only son to look after the shop. So, he deemed it fit to help his father run the business rather than serve the force. Then, he started comparing the two professions – he said that, right now, he can spend his time with his family (an educated wife, a son and a daughter and parents), he has his business with no loans outstanding or anything and he has a well known and fixed schedule (from morning 7:30 AM to 10 PM in night, with a break of 2 hrs during lunch time). He then continued saying that none of this would have been true had he opted for joining police force. He pointed out that, in police force, there is no fixed schedule and job location. Also, one has to unnecessary take wrath from criminals and politicians for doing one’s job.

When he was sharing his thoughts enthusiastically, I was going through a mixed bag of feelings – marveling at the simplicity of this person to the sheer stupidity of his thought process. On one hand, it was very clear that he is an ordinary citizen who is just busy thinking about his family and himself. Though, at the same time, I was getting irritated by such a narrow way of looking at things, where people don’t think of the society, system or the nation they live within, as if everything ends where personal benefit/well-being ends. Reminded me the false cocoon of safety which we all feel we are living in.

I wanted to ask him about what he has thought about the future of his kids, but I just restrained myself, as I didn’t want to rudely snap him out of what he perceives, right now, as the perfect life due to the wisest decision, he ever made. Though, this Sunday, I shall bug him with some tricky questions ;-) Will report later …

// posted by amAUzed @ 6:06 PM 2 comments

Around a month back, I started teaching English and Computers to the youngsters in the villages. This was after a popular demand from most of the parents (and some youngsters too) that youngsters from the villages lose out due to their weakness in these two areas, which has become almost a necessity in outside world.

Keeping in mind the objective of the trust - quick returns on any effort, I decided to start with people who are either already graduated or doing their graduation. I met quite a few youngsters in each village to figure out what they know and what they want to learn. The mix was quite varied - some are doing computer course in a private institute in Berthin or Ghumarwin, some have done a basic course in computers during 10+2, and some have never studied anything about computers. One common theme was that everyone is weak in English and not just weak but pretty weak. One astonishing fact which I came across during this exercise was the realization how much money parents were spending to get their wards to do a computer course. Most of these courses had taught these youngsters only theory and almost no practical work. Students also, it seems, had decided not to explore anything at their own, and hence when I would ask what was the Operating System of the machine on which you used MS Word, there are no answers. Surprisingly, I also found out that lot of courses are teaching these youngsters MS DOS and WordStar!!!

After collecting all the data, I decided to start two batches - one for computers and one for English speaking. The classes started, and after first couple of days, I realized how weak these youngsters are in English – they don’t know anything about English!!! They have read everything, but just don’t understand and hence remember any of it. So, I spent first week in brushing their knowledge about tenses – how to find the tense, what are the different rules etc. I also covered what are commonly used verbs, what are common English words, what various things (body parts, vegetables, fruits, objects at home & school etc.) are called etc. Meanwhile, I also told them how to practice for English – read newspaper (which I promised them to provide everyday), listen to English news channels on TV, read books or magazines (I offered to bring them some), converse with each other etc.

During the classes I observed few patterns – students will take notes of whatever was discussed in the class. They seemed to be more worried about taking notes than understanding what is being discussed. Most of them will not ask anything despite my continuous assurances and suggestion that they should stop me as and when they don’t understand something. Also, a couple of students will not give any expressions during the entire duration of the class, day after day. I was unable to say whether these people understand anything or not by looking at their face. Like others, they also won’t open their mouth. None of the students ever asked me for newspaper or book or magazine which I had told them about during fist week.

After around 10 days or so, one day I just posed few basic questions to the class, and as I was expecting, there was a dead silence in the room. No one could tell me the answers. So, I started probing into the problem. After around 40 min of probing from various angles, they told me that they don’t study at home. When I asked what they did with their notes no one had any answers. It seems that during their entire schooling, the only thing they did while sitting in a classroom is to take notes. These youngsters are not used to of focusing on understanding what teacher is teaching them; rather their focus is to take notes, because they believe that’s what teaching is all about. Though, in the current scenario, they were not even looking at the notes after going back home. They are also not used to of asking questions in the class, even if they do not understand something.

This reminded me of what I had observed in Kallar School. Exactly the same story, except that here, I was looking at the end product, whereas in the school, the products are still being made. This is the pathetic state of our education system, and so much for the much touted Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan program, which is being projected by the government as a major step towards bringing literacy in rural and backward areas.

// posted by amAUzed @ 12:25 AM 3 comments