Right to learn, for all

LITERACY PROGRAMME

The class is small but vibrant with colours and sparkling eyes. The seven children of myriad ages are gathered around the ‘Miss’ in the middle of the room.

“Miss, I you give?” asked Parul, shyly, holding out her notebook. “Sure, but only if you repeat the correct question after me,” says Sujatha Balakrishnan, the instructor, member of the Soroptimists’ International (SI).

So what is so special about this routine?

The fact that this is not part of the regular curriculum. There is no formal exam, or assessment test, yet it is an important class for Sujatha Balakrishnan, member of SI, who started the unique project, called ‘Stars of Tomorrow,’ 19 months ago.

The project is basically a belief that children of all income groups have an equal right to learn, express themselves and rise in life by learning English, “an important language in today’s globalised world,” according to her.

Inaugurated on World Literacy Day, September 8, 2009, the project started with the Gopal Ramnarayan Government School in Bangalore North. Being an extra-curricular activity, the volunteers had to initially visit several homes to convince the parents to send their children. Once the usual reluctance and doubt was overcome, there was not too much resistance, as the parents too understood the value of the language.

The English teachers include SI members with a few volunteers, mostly students from engineering and management colleges and young professionals. The goal is to make students fluent in conversational English when they graduate from Class 10. An equally important goal that is identified is character building and ‘human values’ as an important part of the curriculum.

The strategy followed by SI is simple. About 30 children have been sorted into four groups, not on the basis of their age, but based on their proficiency in the language. The youngest child is six, while the oldest is 14. About 60 per cent of the students are girls.
The groups get promoted as they become progressively better and more proficient. “Most of the younger children are below average in English skills. We start group 1 with phonetics, vowels and consonants,” explains Sujatha. “The students who have graduated to group 4 can read simple stories.”

The point is to keep encouraging children to think creatively and express themselves in English, even if their sentences are full of grammatical errors. The effort is to provide just the right environment to think out of the box.

The integrated curriculum consists of communicative English, hygiene and human values. Hence, each subject is interwoven with the other. For instance, a lesson plan on verbs includes all the activities needed for hygienic living, such as “wash” your hair, “clip” your nails or “brush” your teeth. About 15 minutes of the one-hour class is devoted to simple conversation.

Apart from regular classes, SI has also organised other programmes. For instance, on November 14, 2009, Children’s Day, the club exposed students to inspiring role models.

Hence, two girls from similar socio-economic backgrounds, who were well-educated and successfully employed in nursing and business management, were identified. They joined the event and spoke to the children on how education, particularly for the girl child, can lead to an empowered life.

Vasantha Peters, an SI volunteer, entertained them with puppets, enacting various fables such as ‘The Hare and the Tortoise’ on World Peace Day 2010. A painting competition for the children of three government schools on the theme of World Peace was also organised.

A year and a half after the inauguration, the SI volunteers look back with a sense of wonder as well as satisfaction. While the improvement cannot be quantified or measured, the hike in the comfort level with the language is palpable. “Initially, the students had difficulty following even basic instructions. Now, they are more comfortable with English conversations in class,” explains Laura Nayak, an SI volunteer. Students have also started creating some kind of change in their homes. A hugely rewarding statement a volunteer received was when a student’s grandmother told her that her grandson insisted that family members speak in English as “it was the order of Sujatha Miss!”

Who are the Soroptimists?

The Soroptimists are a group of 22 busy women who take on various social service projects. The members are diverse professionals who include doctors, lawyers, IT consultants, bankers, mediapersons, teachers, counsellors, dieticians, opthalmologists and dentists. The SI is affiliated to a sisterhood of an international voluntary body of working women. Due to lack of time, the club does not take up sole responsibility for a major project, but tries to support and network with other organisations, which are already into socially relevant work. The club is funded by donations and goodwill.