The first two months saw good participation by around 25 kids but then it dwindled very fast. One Sunday morning when I reached the village, not a single kid turned up because they were all busy harvesting the ripened grains on their fields. It was quite heartbreaking but that's life in a village!
It was clear to me that this monthly competition thing won't work for two reasons. Firstly, the village kids have too many other things going on. And secondly, these kids have no way to actually prepare for such competitions. There are surely a few government and private schools in and around the village but their condition is beyond pathetic.
Next I started actually teaching them on a weekly basis (Saturday afternoons). I started with a little English and a little Math for students of class 7th and above. I just can't deal with younger kids! To my pleasant surprise, I found a few students to be very smart and able to learn quite fast. But the problem was that they had little motivation to work hard and do homeworks on their own during the week. And I couldn't find anyone there who could be my facilitator during the week.
I tried to tell the kids that studying English and Math well will get them well paying jobs, but strangely that didn't excite them at all. They had seen many people from their village who studied very hard but ended up at salary levels similar to what uneducated people in the village were earning through farming or other manual work. So the idea of studying hard to earn 6 figure salaries in big companies didn't really resonate with them. It's like the moon that's beautiful but too far out of their mind's reach.
I thought that learning basic Math and Science could perhaps help farmers in earning better but I was wrong there too. Important and relevant scientific advances in the form of agricultural tools and practices are passed on to the farmers by the local government representatives. And they don't really need to know Math beyond counting money. I am happy to be proven wrong here but that's my experience so far. Despite talking to farmers over many months, I haven't been able to find a single reason that can motivate them to learn these concepts beyond what they already know.
The other problem is that in any particular village, there are only a very few students who have this kind of potential to earn well through education. And so the overall atmosphere is not conducive to education. A few lucky ones end up in JNVs or other such govt schools but the rest are left to be regular village folks.
Getting back to my weekly classes, I could see that while only a few students had an interest and talent for Math, a lot of kids were quite interested in learning English. Not because it will get them a job but because it's a cool thing and a kind of a status symbol in India. So I then pivoted to this idea. I started doing various kinds of fun activities and games related to basic English. And that seems to have gotten the kids quite excited!
I am a huge believer of education in local language but learning English can open many doors for these kids both in terms of further learning and opportunities. I am hoping that more kids will start joining my Saturday English classes in the next few weeks. If you have any ideas on interesting activities and games for these kids, please do share. And if you are in Bhopal and would like to visit my school on a Saturday, please do drop me an email.
And by the way, my school is called "Under The Mango Tree". :)
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