Placeholder canvas
 
Close
Igniting Ideas For impact

Embarking on a transformative journey through six chapters, we traverse India's landscape, exploring pioneering startups and their revolutionary...

8 months

TBI Blogs: Meet the Young Turk Bringing Hope & Joy to Children of Jammu & Kashmir through Education

The conflict in Jammu & Kashmir has affected all the citizens of the region, and particularly the children. An initiative is attempting to help restore some normalcy to the children’s lives through education and teacher training.

TBI Blogs: Meet the Young Turk Bringing Hope & Joy to Children of Jammu & Kashmir through Education

The conflict in Jammu & Kashmir has affected all the citizens of the region, and particularly the children. An initiative is attempting to help restore some normalcy to the children’s lives through education and teacher training.

It’s a frigid winter day in Srinagar, where political conflict has brought life to a standstill, and shows no signs of abating. Children in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, who haven’t seen the inside of a classroom in more than five months, have been affected adversely. “My opinion is that the children are definitely suffering, but I feel it’s not my place to say anything, because I’ll never be able to understand the kinds of things that they have gone through,” says Mainak Roy, a 2012-2014 Teach For India Fellow who has since been working in the region with Simple Education Foundation (SEF), an organization he co-founded and currently leads.

_k2a4841

Their initiative – Project Taleem – is a school development programme that supports and collaborates with the Directorate of School Education of Kashmir in Srinagar and Bandipore. It’s one of the few nonprofits to have made inroads there. SEF began as a school transformation project working closely with teachers and headmasters in 10 schools, but after curfew was imposed, it pulled its team out of the region. However, they remained committed to the region, and coordinated with Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan program to revolutionize their teacher workshops. Their redesigned teacher training modules and remote efforts now impact more than 80,000 teachers in the state. But each minute of instructional time lost is tragic for a community that’s so committed to learning. The children are constantly calling the team to ask them when they’ll be back.

“Whenever this thing sorts itself out, and whatever the results are, I know that the kids will go back to school. I know teachers are looking forward to going back as well. I see SEF being an organization that will help connect Kashmir to a lot of support that is available outside,” says Roy, “We’re looking to understand Kashmir and design support that could fast-track its growth and help its students.”

Roy has been in the education sector for more than five years, and his journey to Kashmir began somewhat serendipitously. An engineer by trade, he joined the Teach For India Fellowship 13 days after submitting his thesis at SRM Institute. While lucrative corporate offers awaited him then, he realized that working at an MNC – in a job that could easily be refilled by 10 eager applicants – would mean merely making electronic devices “slimmer, faster, cheaper.” But those tools would still be out of reach for millions of underprivileged Indians whom he wanted to impact. The Fellowship provided the opportunity to combine his interest in making tangible impact, changing a “deplorable education status quo” and rising to a challenge: “If not me, then who?” he asks. Roy’s goal is to improve teacher training, and he believes that no number of technological advancements can obviate the teacher.

_k2a4898

Teaching in Sangam Vihar in Delhi – one of the largest slums in the country – for two years transformed Roy. It gave him an inside look at an education system riddled with problems, but more importantly, fundamentally shifted his approach to leadership. “In college, I always took the initiative to start clubs and organizations, but my managing style was top-down and corporate. I had no empathy—I didn’t even know what it was. I was angry and short-tempered, with a strong opinion on every question. When I started working with parents and students (in the Fellowship), I realized that wouldn’t work. Now I never take a decision without at least listening to others,” says Roy.

Post the Fellowship, he co-founded SEF with a 2012 Teach For India Alumnus, Rahul Bhanot, and undertook a small independent education project in Delhi. During the summer of 2015, many Teach For India Fellows volunteered in Kashmir, and after the government saw the value they added, it was receptive to SEF’s Taleem project. SEF can now count on space, resources, and buy-in from the local government. “We focused on building relationships, really rooting them to the main cause: Why are we really teaching? How can we keep the child at the centre of what we do?” he reflects.

Working in tenuous, conflict-ridden Kashmir might sound like a risk with few rewards, but Roy maintains that everyone in the region is remarkably open and eager to transform it. He adds that people are quick to accept and implement feedback; he’s seen them change teaching methodology within a matter of days. SEF often gets requests from people who want to get into education, to which Roy responds by, “redirecting them to Teach For India. We ask them to work with us after that. There’s no better experience.”

_k2a4903

Taleem brought teachers together every 3-4 weeks to equip them with a set of skills that enhances learning outcomes for children through their Instructional Leadership Curriculum. Each teacher is also assigned a coach who observes them weekly. Post the observation, they debrief and share observations about the classroom to find the positives and areas of development. The coach might also teach a skill to address a certain area of development. The Headmasters go through a Leadership Development Module (adapted from Creatnet Education’s programs), where they explore their own leadership styles through reflective questions that help them understand different facets of leadership.

“We’re designing curriculum, consolidating a lot of the work we do now, and exploring other opportunities,” says Roy, “My team is extremely committed to our mission.” SEF’s team consists of 10 people, three of whom are working with Taleem, including Anushka Ghosh and Samantha D’Cunha.

taleem2016_cohort

A few weeks after inducting teachers into the programme and exposing them to the concept of Guided Practice – a major challenge in most schools – Samantha observed Humaira Ma’am’s class. During the debrief, Humaira Ma’am spoke tearfully about a transformation: “I’ve been teaching in this school for years. My students and I share a cordial relationship. Despite this, I had been struggling to bridge the Sunni-Shia divide in class. Ever since we started working and studying in groups, I have seen my girls get along so well. They even share their food, a spectacle I thought I’d never witness. The solution was so simple, and yet I struggled for years. Today is a very proud and emotional moment in my life.”

“As an organization, we’ve been advocating for Kashmir whenever we go back, and we can paint a really good picture of it,” Roy says. With a resolution in Kashmir unlikely, we can thank organizations like SEF working for the youth caught in the middle. It’s efforts like Taleem that help humanize such conflicts and give us hope for a brighter future in the region!

(Written by Sneha Kalaivanan, Associate, Communications at Teach For India)

Applications for the 2017-19 Fellowship programme are now open. Apply online to submit your application by 24th December, 2016! To learn more about Teach For India, please visit the website.

Like this story? Or have something to share? Write to us: contact@thebetterindia.com, or connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.
NEW: Click here to get positive news on WhatsApp!

This story made me

  • feel inspired icon
    97
  • more aware icon
    121
  • better informative icon
    89
  • do something icon
    167

Tell Us More


We bring stories straight from the heart of India, to inspire millions and create a wave of impact. Our positive movement is growing bigger everyday, and we would love for you to join it.

Please contribute whatever you can, every little penny helps our team in bringing you more stories that support dreams and spread hope.

Support the biggest positivity movement section image Support the biggest positivity movement section image
Shorts

Shorts

See All
 
X
 
Sign in to get free benefits
  • Get positive stories daily on email
  • Join our community of positive ambassadors
  • Become a part of the positive movement