By Priyanko Sarkar | TNN
Hardik Mehta may be small, but what the four-and-a-half footer lacks in length, he more than makes up in spirit. A smile perpetually lights up his boyish face, and not surprisingly his students take to him readily.The 27-seven-year-old businessman is one of scores of Teach India volunteers at the Kotak Education Foundation (KEF)-run Aamchi Shaala, a Marathimedium school in Chembur. The students who drift in from the neighbourhood slums are children of sweepers, maids and drivers. Mehat’s job is to help them improve their broken English so that they can speak confidently and correctly when they leave school.
KEF has decided on a novel method: instead of teaching a whole classroom, volunteers will be assigned a small group of two or three students so that each child gets individual attention. The students seem pleased, although in the Ganpati festive week only 50 of them, one-fourth of the entire strength, has shown up. Some of the volunteers seem unsure of how to proceed in each one-teach one mode, but Mehta has no such qualms. He
is assigned one student: a shy, pint-sized thirteen-year-old, Nikhil Kapse. Having quickly got the measure of each other, Mehta gets down to business.
He shuffles the stack of sheets he is carrying, and points out objects, words and numbers. They stop at a page with pictures of a fish, a ball and other objects, and Nikhil admires the drawings. Name the objects and write down the names, instructs Mehta. Nikhil easily tackles this part, but stumbles when it comes to writing down numbers. Mehta takes him through the exercise, encouraging and smiling all the time, and in their two-hour slot, they manage to go through the whole sheaf.
A commerce graduate with a diploma in business finance, Mehta enjoys teaching so much that he’s even signed up as an economics teacher at a Bhandup college. He talks about the “immense satisfaction in teaching students life skills’’ and says that Teach India is a much-needed concept that he is glad to be a part of. “The students completely depend upon me. So I have to make sure I know everything first. It makes you feel rather conscious in the beginning, but now I am fine.’’
The aim is to broaden Nikhil’s limited vocabulary and help him frame full sentences. The first word is a simple household one, ‘tap’, and fitfully, the sentences begin to flow. Mehta allows the boy to speak in ungrammatical English without correcting or scolding him. “Once he’s finished his sentence, I help him develop it again with correct grammar and pronunciation,’’ he says. Nikhil constructs sentences like, ‘My house has null (tap)’ and ‘I see cartoon with TV’, which he utters in a small voice. Realising that he likes cricket, Mehta asks him about the game in English.
“What colour is the ball? What shape is a cricket ground? Nikhil says the ground is ‘gol’. Mehta prompts him, “Gol, circle, round,’’ and Nikhil pounces. “Round,’’ he shouts, his voice no longer weak. He learns to say other sentences: “Sachin Tendulkar is my favourite batsman’’; “A Test match lasts for five days’’; “India played a one-day series with Sri Lanka last month.’’
“That was good,’’ says Mehta with a smile and a wink as he wraps up. “Can’t wait for next week.’’
Kotak Education Foundation
Kotak Education Foundation (KEF) is a new non-profit promoted by Uday and Pallavi Kotak. It was set up in January 2007 and functions out of Mumbai and Raigad district. KEF’s mission is to empower children and youth from underprivileged families through education, help them conquer the poverty line and lead a life of dignity. KEF wants to train 1,500 underprivileged youth in the year 2008-2009.
