I entered my class on 1st June 2017 as a Teach for India fellow. A first-time teacher who didn’t know the local language (Tamil), I was placed at CHSS TH Road, a low-income government school in North Chennai. Here, I found myself in the middle of a culture and attitude I did not understand, and my objective was to provide an excellent education to 123 students in the next 2 years.
I got to work in the grass root levels to understand what the causes of subpar education in Chennai are. I realized that the causes underlying this collective failure are numerous, varied and complex. My school lacked in basic infrastructure, teachers are burdened with inefficient and unnecessary administrative work, ineffective government policies and curriculum are in place, and the student-teacher ratio is 50:1. Apart from this, the children belong to a community of poverty and violence, a community that focuses only on survival and hence, may not always be able to see the value of education. This culture in the school and community plays a major role in shaping a child’s attitude towards yearning for a better life for themselves.
My 123 adorable eleven-year-old students were energetic and full of potential but were much disinvested in education. They would get violent with each other for small reasons and understood very little English. Soon as I joined as a teacher, I knew that there were so many more roles I had to play to make a difference in this community. Educating parents, finding opportunities to expose students to different learning opportunities and lifestyles, bringing in counsellors for mental health awareness, fund raising money to improve the infrastructure; the fellowship made me explore so many avenues apart from teaching. I focused on building values in my students and setting vision and culture so that they see value in learning. It has been a long journey with no overnight successes but in retrospect there have been remarkable developments. It is true that they say, “It take a village to raise a child”.
Here is when I saw change happening because of collective action. I have witnessed my students transform themselves academically, mentally and in the way, they approach life in the past 2 years. Today, 100% of my students understand spoken English and 80% of them rank at least a 4 out of 5 on the Student Vision Scale (a quantitative measure of academics and values set by Teach for India) and most importantly, I see them be the leaders of tomorrow.
The past 2 years have taught me an important lesson: if you want someone to have faith in you, it is important that you have faith in them too.
The fellowship taught me to make difficult decisions under trying circumstances, be a team player, communicate effectively and being compassionate towards the people I am working with. I’ve learnt to learn from everyone and every situation and I will forever be grateful for the opportunity I was given to work for the T.H Road community.