A young volunteer shares her journey on educating underprivileged kids
“All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy,” goes the popular saying.
But looking at the current education system in India, it seems parents don’t really care too much for it. This report by IndiaSpend states that a student commits suicide every hour in India.
In 2015, number of suicide-related deaths among students reached a staggering 8,934. Tremendous pressure on students about grades, marks and high expectations by parents, teachers, are the reasons behind this tragic epidemic.
Very rarely would you find children playing in their colonies these days, after roughing it out at school. Most of them make way for their tuition classes, right after school hours. The saddest part is that parents begin subjecting their children to this rat race at a grade as young as kindergarten!
There’s hardly any focus on co-curricular activities for students. The situation is even worse in government schools, where access to curricular education cannot be expected, let alone extracurriculars like dance, drama, sports etc. However, TAP (The Apprentice Project) Foundation, is doing its bit to change the scenario.
Founded by Anand Gopakumar in 2016, TAP started operating in 5 schools in Pune with a mission to teach co-curricular activities to underprivileged kids. The curriculum includes subjects like performance arts (dance, drama), visual arts (art, craft), sports (ultimate frisbee) and technical arts (coding) etc. In 2017, TAP had begun operating in 11 under-resourced schools in Pune and had a mission to reach more than 1500 students across 15 schools in the city.
20-year-old Sadhika Singh, who is a third-year design student at Symbiosis, Pune, took it upon herself to raise funds for the foundation, with a target amount of Rs. 54,000. She managed to surpass her goal amount in her first stint and then raised the goal amount to Rs. 72,000. Sadhika started her journey as a volunteer for TAP in the first semester of her college and now works an intern for the foundation. She taught visual arts at Vitthal Tupe Primary School.
She takes out time from her busy college schedule to talk to Impact Guru about her volunteering and fundraising experience, and provides an insight into the Indian education system.
How did you start your journey with TAP (The Apprentice Project?) and what motivated you to support this cause?
I started working with TAP when I was 19 years old. Somebody from my college was doing the program in 2016 and he shared an email with a link to their program. I simply applied and began my journey with TAP.
I am an artist. I love art and it has saved my life. I have also received a very typical Indian education where art was not encouraged and I have pursued conventional subjects all my life. I have take a stream that not many people would normally choose. I was a science student and when I decided to pursue art, everyone was like “why would you do that?” I could completely understand what the kids are going through and this cause (TAP initiative) is something that is helping them pursue their hobbies. When I read about it, I was like “hey, this is something I relate with completely.”
Does juggling your college timings and volunteer work get difficult?
The TAP work is mostly on Saturdays so it’s not very difficult. Now, I am working with them as a designer instead of doing a volunteer job. So basically they ask for me to be there for only a couple of hours a week which is manageable.
Tell us about the process followed by TAP volunteers to train the kids.
The kids are provided with a list of various subjects that includes performance arts (dance, drama), visual arts (art, craft), sports (ultimate frisbee) and technical arts (coding), that they can choose from. They first get to see what is going to be taught to them and then they pick one of the subjects and learn it over the course of six months.
The foundation ropes in skilled individuals from all walks of life, who can come and dedicate their time to teaching these kids. As far as the management is concerned, the government schools have given us good support whenever we needed it. It may sound like it’s something out of the ordinary but it’s pretty mangeable.
How has your personal experience been being around kids? How do they respond to you?
I am very young still and I was 19 when I started working with the kids so it was all very new for me. But I think being young works better because the kids connect with you on a personal level; they call you ‘Didi’ (sister) and really open up to you about their feelings. They tend do get awkward around teachers. We always ensure them that we are not their teachers and we are all here to learn something new together. This job is very fulfilling because at the end of the day, you see them smiling and learning different things. As challenging as it can be to be around kids, I would say the experience is enriching as well.
Does it require more effort to work with underprivileged children, considering they don’t have access to qualitative education like other children do?
I thought that this would happen but funnily enough, I didn’t feel it even once. Infact I find these kids more willing to learn, because they don’t have such privileges. So when they find something, they latch on to it.
How would you say TAP is different from TFI (Teach For India), another organization that also caters to the education of underprivileged children?
TAP was started by a TFI student. TFI at the end of the day is about teaching these kids the basic subjects, like most children learn in schools. It doesn’t cater to co-curricular activities. TAP essentially focuses on that.
Would you say people in India are beginning to look at volunteer work as a full time profession rather than just a hobby?
The mindset is changing but I would say that it’s changing at a slow speed. Many college programs across the country do encourage their students to take up volunteering work. But aside from that, there’s a huge generation gap. Sometimes, when I am not able to go back home because I have a TAP class, my family would say ‘why are you doing this, you don’t even get paid’. But I would explain to them that this is fulfilling and something that I want to do. Then they understand.
Have government schools been supportive of TAP’s work?
I have worked with only one school but in general I have seen that most schools have been very supportive and open to this initiative. There are parents who are willing to send their children to school on Saturday and they are happy their children are benefiting from something like this.
How was your fundraising journey with Impact Guru?
It was very hard to be honest. I have never done something like this and I am not really a social media freak. To message people personally was very awkward. But it was nice to see people helping us out. I was sharing my cause and people were understanding it. And I was glad to know that there is a crowdfunding platform that I could personally visit and raise funds on whenever I had the time. The experience was a little out of my comfort zone but overall it was exciting.
What was the biggest challenge you faced?
People are usually reluctant to give out money and it’s difficult convincing them that we are asking money for a good cause and not for ourselves. It’s hard to make them believe that their contributions will change someone’s life.
Which social media platform would you say worked best for you?
Whatsapp and Instagram worked better for me. On Instagram, after I put up stories, people followed me and shared my stories and they also put it up to support me, which was a pleasant surprise.
Comment on the education system in India. What is the biggest hurdle and what needs to change?
With my personal experience in TAP, I can say that before I worked here, co-curricular activities were not encouraged that much and were even looked down upon because they were considered mere “hobbies”. They weren’t seen as an important part of the curriculum. Though things are changing, I feel that the pressure on students about marks and grades really needs to get toned down because these kids lose their identity in the process.
You can visit Sadhika’s fundraiser here.
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