Today’s story is not exactly mine, but it happened just in front of my eyes, to someone very close to me.
In Primary Classes I had very less friends. Ravi Kiran was one of the species I could get along with. Academically not very strong, but he had the heart of Gold. I most of the time wanted to know Y he couldn’t excel academically to which one day his reply was, “I like to learn History, Mathematics and Science, but out of six subjects I have, I am forced to learn HINDI as I am not very good at it in writing skills, This made me focus more on HINDI and I have less time to learn the subjects That I am interested in. As I have less time to learn those subjects, I am getting weaker and weaker in other subjects too. I want to learn other subjects but I really have no time for that as everyone is Pin Pointing me that I am not good at learning HINDI.”
His additional words were, ” I belong to RAJPUT Family and this adds up to the bubble of pressure. I was raised my whole childhood here in Andhra Pradesh (an ex state of India which is now subdivided into Telengana, Rayala Seema and Andhra) and only the languages I learnt from childhood is Telugu. Now Not having knowledge of HINDI to a Rajput family is an insulting factor to me as well as my parents. Thus I have to learn HINDI and then I have to learn other subjects too.”
All the justification he gave to me seem logical but I did not trust even a single of what he said to me as I believed that its only his imagination that people are pin pointing him to learn HINDI, as its a national language and he is able to speak HINDI well so no one should pestered to Learn a National language, I guessed. Until one strange day
Mid day classes were going on where Hindi subjects was taught after the lunch break. Fortunately or unfortunately Ravi’s Father was called to school for his poor performance in Mathematics to meet the faculty. Exactly on the time when Ravi’s father was near the door to enter the class room, MRS. ARORA Madam our HINDI teacher asked Ravi to Read some chapter of text book, when he stumbled upon some words and she started scolding him in front of the class and in fact, in front of his father too which she was unaware initially, when his father entered the class and he introduced himself as he is Ravi’s Father, She continued her words about Ravi to him, “What kind of student don’t know HINDI when it is a National Language? Your son is so poor in HINDI that he failed all the unit exams which were conducted last month. I advice that he should not be allowed to come to this school, let him study in some other medium if he cannot manage here”
When this dialogues were going on in front of class, both of father’s and son’s head were down but a Rajput has already made a decision in his mind. And how so unrealistic the situation may be, but just two months before the final exam session, the only day of this conversation was the last day of my best friend in the school we studied together. His father took him out of the school very next day and admitted to some other institute which gave him penalty of losing one more year of his education, according to Education system of India.
As a child, I hated Mrs. Arora madam, as for me she did not play the role of a TEACHER properly and blamed the student for his failure. For me his going out of school was not a failure of one subject or two. But it was a failure of a PARENTS trust on his Child, It was failure of Parents Trust on Education system. Where even If it was my child being insulted in front of class just because he/she is not able to get satisfactory standard marks, were actually a teacher fails to teach that subject to my kid, I would probably take my kid out of the institution, as its not that my kid is facing the failure, it is that The INSTITUTION should learn standard in teaching and handling children as their minds are shapable to any direction if not guided properly.
For me Language are just mode of communication, Even today I try to learn more and more, not only various languages of India but also international Languages only with a spirit that it will make ‘me’ more accommodatable to various ‘communities of the world’. The barriers of communication are removed when we learn more languages and we are exposed to vast cultural diversity and people of various nation. Stories like above and others are just stores for us, but to the person who lived this story will definitely developed a harsh thinking towards various stages of learning, student life and language learning.
Some stories amuses you,some stories irritates you but some stories make you think, and I think this story is one of them which has to reach out to audience and let everyone at least give a thought: ARE WE MOVING IN RIGHT DIRECTION OF EDUCATION ?????
#tapishdongre #utsp
Tapish Dongre 