Recently, the 'Teach India' campaign has been started in Bangalore by 'Times Of India', and after hearing about it I registered online and got the reply in 3 days saying that I have been assigned to work with 'BornFree School' and the Induction Programme will be on Aug 26th at 'BalBhavan, Cubbon Park, Bangalore'.
On Aug 26th, at 3:00 PM when I reached the Bal Bhavan I was surprised to see nearly 150 - 200 volunteers. The director of 'Born Free School', John Devaraj has initiated the programme by welcoming all and giving the basic introduction about the organisation. Below are some of the major details about the 'Born Free School'
- It is operating in Bangalore at 3 centeres.
- At Jayanagar 4th Block,
- Near Sarakki lake
- Near Banashankari
- Currently supporting 30+ children of all age group
- Has the credit of writing the 'Worlds Largest Love Letter' which has got placed in 'Guinness Book of Records'. The content of the letter is a message from the children of India to the children of pakistan and it says Dear Children of Pakistan, Let's join hearts in friendship. Together we can make a better world. -The Children of India
- Now they are planning to go to Pakistan over bicycle to spread the awareness of peace
After the introduction they played a play 'Shiroi Hana', which means 'White Flower' in Japanese. The play was about the after effects of 'Hiroshima and Nagasaki' bombing. Concluded with a message that 'We do not expect 3rd World War'. The play was done by the students of the 'Free Born School'.
While the play was going on, there was some kind of confusion among the volunteers as why and how this play is related to the 'Induction Programme'.
After the play, John Devaraj introduced all the students of the 'Free Born School' giving the history of some students as how did they join the organization.
Later was the 'Question Answer' session. Below are some of the questions from the volunteers and an answer from John Devaraj
- Q: What is the strength of the students at 'Free Born School'?
- Ans: Around 25 - 30 of all the age groups and many more are joining
- Q: When can I start teaching?
- Ans: We will go through the forms filled by you. Based on the requirements we will allocate and will get back to you very soon and then you can start teaching
- Q: Here ratio of teachers are more than the students. 150+ volunteers(teachers), 25+ students. So how do you manage the resources?
- Ans: This is the first time I am seeing such a tremendous response, so obviously we can't make use of all the volunteers for 'Free Born School' but we will talk to other NGO's too and will allocate wherever the need is there
- Q: What is the syllabus? Is it already available or should we work on structuring and finalizing the syllabus?
- Ans: There is a particular course structure for the students studying in 7th and 10th standard. The syllabus of 'NIOS' (National Institute of Open Schooling), whereas for the syllabus of other standards, we need to finalize
- Q: I don't know Kannada, but I know only Hindi or English? Can I teach as most of the students, in school, have been found as Kannadigas or knowing only kannada.
- Ans: Yes, ofcourse. The language is not a barrior. Infact our students can sing in various languages like Japanese, Spanish, French etc. So easily they can pickup
- Q: Here most of the people might have opted for 'Weekend Teaching', how will you allocate all of them?
- Ans: Yes it is quite difficult to use everyone on weekends only. So we will go through the forms, plan and then decide.
- Q: Can we try to go and teach in other NGO's as the number of students in 'Free Born School' is less?
- Ans: Yes. We will speak with other NGO's who are in need of teachers and then you can go and provide your valuable service
- Q: How will you select the people among the 150+? Will you interview?
- Ans: No, we don't want to interview and say, you come and you don't come. As this is social service, we don't want discourage anybody. So we can judge the performance of an individual only after working together for few months. So we will try to give chance to everyone
Therewere some more questions and I liked one answer from Devaraj, and I found it good. He told that,
I too am just one volunteer like as you all are. I don't have solution for all of your questions. We all need to sit together and come together to find the solution, for this kind of good work
So true. Isn't it?
With this the programme ended.
My views and opinions:
Based on the questions and reactions by volunteers I found that, many of them were very eager to start their teaching service as soon as possible but after seeing such a small strength of students some were not so happy. Many of them were worried about the communication language as they were not knowing the kannada, and they had feeling that, it may become a barrior for effective teaching.
Here what I opine is that, just based on one or two interactions we shouldn't give up our aim. We need to wait for the call and then should give a good try. We should atleast try for first 3 months, where we will come to know whether this kind of initiative is really working or not. And moreover, rather than depending on the NGO's director to find all the solution for all the problems, we should try to get the solutions with mutual co-operation, only then we can make a programme a BIG SUCCESS.
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