Here are few examples of how our efforts are making significant impact in the lives of the children in Mujmahuda slum.
- In year 2018-19, the 8th graders became the first batch of students to graduate from our program. They have been with us from the beginning and we are elated with their success and achievements. We are honored to report that 5 out of 12 students were selected for an academic Scholarship from Mahavir International Foundation. Two of those students joined the 9th grade at prestigious Baroda High School. Similarly in 2019-20, two out of six of our students were accepted for grade 9-12 programs by Sai Angel Foundation, Vadodara.
- Every year, about 20% of the academically weak students in content areas could improve after counseling and extra coaching.
- Some students fear their parents because of parental physical/verbal abuse. One of such students was so scared of her parents that she would cry when she heard their names. However, after counseling the student and parents, the unjust treatment terminated.
- Two 4th grade female students were disruptive in the class. Teacher practically showed them how talking in the class impairs learning by demonstrating progress with and without talking. The students reduced disruption.
- In grade 5 and 6, 14 students’ handwriting was illegible. It became a project to improve their handwriting for a month. The students had to rewrite everything if their writings were not neat. Initially, the students did not like this, but finally most of them started writing better except one.
- Two cousins were attending the 1st grade at the nearby government school. Initially both of them were showing apparent signs of learning disability and emotional disturbance. They used to chew/suck their shirt, collar, pencil and even their finger and toe. Initially for few days, the teacher had to go to their home and bring in the class. They were unable to hold pencil or chalk properly. After two months of rigorous training for ‘Fine Motor skills’ they could improve in pencil grip. Their behavior also improved after listening to stories.
- In the beginning the students were careless towards the books and other teaching materials. They were motivated to take care of classroom material by introducing an idea of collective belonging of the classroom.
- Five cousins (age 5-10 years) whose parents migrated from Gujarat to slum in Kolkata for employment and then came to Mujmahuda slum in Vadodara. Like their parents, they never attended the school. We used their own names and extended family members’ names as a strategy to teach alphabets and words. This exercise awakened their hunger to learn reading and writing. In fact they used to reach the class before scheduled time and wait for the teacher. Due to their high enthusiasm, we had extended their teaching session from four hours to six hours. They all worked hard. We approached the nearby school principal and admitted them in appropriate grades.
- A second grade student on admission was unable to hold the pen correctly, but with our intense support she was able to pick up 1st grade material in six months. She also learnt quickly Hindi and English alphabets. This smart girl taught her mother how to sign instead of thumb impression. There were four other such students who taught their mothers to write their names.
- A 10 year girl with surgery of split palate has a speech problem. On admission she was looking like mentally challenged, but with our support she grasped material of two grades in one year. In fact now she is in 12th grade.
- We counsel parents not to push for premature admission in 1st grade so that student is mature enough to grasp the grade level teaching material. We were able to convince few parents to retain their children if they were performing at below grade levels. Our experience shows that these students are better in maintaining satisfactory academic performance.
- Grandmother of a five year bright girl was highly interested in educating her granddaughter. We decided to sponsor the child for a private school. The private school principal wanted to see the student before admission. When we went to her home with this good news, we found that the girl had left for railway station with her mother to go to her uncle’s place for a month. The grandmother was worried about losing the admission and rushed to railway station, brought her back and next day, we could enroll the girl into private school.
- The impact of the Corona pandemic on students was significant since they missed the social connection. Students were considerably left behind not only in academics but also socially and emotionally. Students have become lazy, unmotivated, lost attendance power, became more disruptive, increased in-fighting, careless, forgetful and irresponsible. It is challenging to finish the unfinished learning, especially for the underprivileged. For this we experimented with various approaches as shown below.
To help them realize the benefits of cooperation with one another, we began reading story books that described friendships and working together to accomplish specific goal for cooperative learning. After 1-2 months students realized the advantage of cooperativeness.
Few students were given story books and adventure books, which inspired other students to request reading and activity materials. During break time, we started playing recorded educational songs. Children loved this and they learned 12-15 songs.
Appreciations of Teaching Efforts
- Few comments from parents:
“Here the method of teaching is excellent. Teachers treat students like their own children.”
“As the education centre is within slum, we do not have to worry about children’s safety because they can walk to the classes by themselves.”
“Children learn better. Here they teach with love and affection.”
“Other private class are charging high fee of Rs 10,000 per year, here the fee is only Rs 600, but the teaching is far better.”
“All students are treated impartially.”
“Now my child is better disciplined, less mischievous and helping more at home.”
- Few comments from students:
“We love to come here because teachers do not discriminate and love us equally.”
“We can understand the concepts here and now we can point to our teachers’ mistakes.”
“Here teachers do not beat us.”
“Here we have freedom of expression.”
“Because of nominal fees, our parents save money and we learn better.”
“We want to become teacher, engineer, police, doctor, soldier etc.”
“Many of the students have expressed their preference for studying in our class instead of going to the school. When a possibility of starting an Open School was discussed in a class, almost all students were excitedly asked, “Can we stop going to school from today?”