Unsung Heroes
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Balaji Sampath
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The purpose of true
learning is to understand the subjects well. Literacy rate or level of education
cannot be the measure of the comprehension of subjects among students. One
such individual who has taken the initiative to foster the process of
learning rather than rote-memorization of subjects, to give the youth a
technical and analytical mindset is Balaji Sampath. Balaji Sampath has for
the past 20 years, challenged the archaic ways of science education in India
, and facilitating the learning process among today`s youth.
Balaji Sampath`s parents were in government service;
as a result he did his schooling in various schools across India. Where ever
he went he faced difficulty in understanding the concepts of science due to ineffective
teaching practices. They themselves were not clear and their styles of
teaching did not facilitate comprehension of the subject but
rote-memorization. This probably was because of the education system
prevalent in India. His parents encouraged him to analyse situations and come
to the solution of it.
Balaji Sampath, had
mastered the comprehension of subjects, which is evident from the fact that
he secured an all India fourth rank in the IIT-JEE exam. He got admitted to
IIT-Madras, and it is from there that he first started his journey of
teaching poor kids. While at college, he taught these children in a village
called Thiramani, nearby the IIT campus. He had some help from the other
students also who volunteered for the cause. He left India to pursue his
doctoral program, from the University of Maryland, USA. There he mobilised students and friends to raise
charity for citizen sector organisations in India. He also found students in
the campus as well his batch mates who had just started an initiative
dedicated for India`s development. It was in a nascent stage and named AID: Association
for India`s Development. The main focus of this group of students was to do
something for their country; some helped financially while other volunteered
physically. They stated out by
identifying villages that had no school, and identifying motivated
individuals to take classes for the meagre stipend that they could give. Slowly,
through the presentations of Balaji Sampath, and his e writings, lots of new
chapters of AID opened up in USA.
Rather than follow
the often followed path of joining a corporate or a research lab after doing his doctoral,
Balaji Sampath returned back to India, to work full time as a volunteer for
reforming the education system in his own way. Balaji was very clear in his
goals; he knew the biggest problem in the education system was how education
was delivered to students. The teaching methodology did not generate interest
among the students, and hence even in
states with high enrolment ratio of students, there is a high amount of
student drop outs. First students drop out from the primary school, then
middle schools and finally from the high schools; all in increasing
proportions because of lack of interest generated among students whose
parents themselves are poor. The reason being schools focusing more on the measurement
of learning from the beginning before generating interests among students for
the subject.
Balaji started teaching poor children, in a
temple on the road side, next day a local offered him space on his roof top.
The roof top did not have lights, so teaching got stopped after, sunset. From
the next day, all the kids collected money to get the bulb, and slowly
students came up to him for classes. “There was no lack of motivation for me,
seeing the poverty around it was easy, persistence for a task is important, persistence
to carry out a task even when you face failure multiple times.” “People wanted to do something; they just
needed platform to do so.”
Education installs a
sense of confidence among people, and one of Balaji`s first student
epitomises that. When Balaji first met
her, she was in sixth standard and suffering from polio. She passed tenth,
but her parents were not willing to send her to school further. Balaji
intervened and persuaded her parents to let her study. After passing twelfth
when she wanted to study, her parents were uncooperative. Balaji arranged for
a scooter with extra wheels so that she can travel herself. She completed her
graduation, post graduation and has been working as a manager with the Indian
Overseas Bank. She is not a liability on anyone but can take care of herself.
Her brother who dropped out of school after class ten is now working as a
courier service boy. “Everywhere we try to build confidence.” It is Balaji`s
persuasiveness and belief in individual`s potential that has helped change
numerous such lives.
The platform provided
brought in people from various lives. One of his friends, Chandra left her cushy
software job, to become a full time volunteer for the cause. “Chandra was
getting depressed in the first 1-2 years because of lack of visible progress;
but after persisting when she saw the visible changes of her hard work, she
is excited.” “People start to work,
but move away when they don’t see impact of their work.” Balaji emphasises
that starting a good initiative is one thing, but persisting with it when you
fail numerous times to get the desired role is the real deal. He says, “If
you fail solving a problem many times, you know what mistakes you are making;
just try to solve it in another way. Identify a big problem and stick to it.”
Balaji has identified
the core problem and has come up with unique solutions. He stresses on “learning
by doing”, thereby helping in internalising the concepts rather than
memorising. Balaji`s methods of using examples from daily life, simple
cartoons, specially designed tool kits, simple reading material incorporating
stories is proving beneficial to students. His creative approach to problem
solving comes from the fact that he is a good listener. “Trust in the
sensibility of the poorer sections of the people; if something is not
working, they will tell you. You just need to change the approach to suit
them.” Balaji cannot work alone to achieve everything. He has a team of
volunteers who mostly are high school drop outs, they learn the skills of
teaching and then go to rural places and implement them. “Don`t work as an individual, work as a
team; with that you get more ideas, more support and more contribution.”
One of the major
challenges Balaji faced in India is the too much beauracracy in processes. The
problems to which he is solving the problem, is something that is created by
archain educational policies. Instead of acting as a facilitator for the
noble cause, there are too many bottlenecks created by the government. “At
policy level the government is not an enabler.” As it is getting funds is
difficult, on top of the the policies has not made it easier. As per Balaji,
the government at least can allow the NGO`s to fuction properly and allow
schools to collaborate with them. He understands that there are bogus NGO`s
involved in dubious works but believes that there shouldn`t be a blanket
attack on all NGO`s. The level of corruption has also been a deterrent for
his work. “The political interference is not much, but bureaucracy is too
much.”Still he has received collaboration from some area through which his
program is functioning in 400 schools in Tamil Nadu and has been approved by
the government in Tamil Nadu. He is also working in ststes like Kerela,
Andhra Pradesh and Bihar.
Balaji`s reach and
teach strategy involves low cost curriculum and teaching materials by
assessing the children`s current level of learning. These learning aids using
videos, low cost kits, and recorded sessions are easily comprehendible
and very useful for students coming
from low income groups. The Eureka science low-cost experiment kit: a
collection of 300 experiments covering all sessions and developed by Balaji,
has been very popular among students and teachers. It comes with a manual to
disseminate and demonstrate the teaching techniques. Being a firm believer of team work he has
involved volunteers from Tamil Nadu Science forum to train them and
disseminate the teachings to rural students. He is also working for training of teachers
in government school so as to improve their teaching techniques so that
students find it easy to understand.
He has started a
coaching class ahaguru.com where nominal sum is charged for ten lesions and
these are provided free for government schools. One computer in a village
school is enough for the education of all. This facilitates in improving the
quality content. He will persisit to work with the rural children and plans
to include their parents who are illiterate to help them formulate a better
future plan for their children.
“When I first meet
children, they say I can’t learn, one year later somebody wants to be a
teacher or a doctor. This transition is what gives me happiness and drives
me.” Balaji Sampath has been selling dreams to numerous children and also helps
them realise them come true. His innovative ways of teaching has definitely
helped people enjoy learning and take education seriously. He indeed is
giving people the opportunity to grow and kick-start a cycle of progress in
the country.
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Words in
apostrophe’s commas are quotes from the person himself.
Excerpts of the interviews as
conducted by Debangshu Bhattacherjee over the phone:
1.
What has been
your inspiration in making a difference to the lives of others? What are the
sources of inspiration? (If you like you
may mention any one or two instances that changed your life and made you
start something new or something different that laid the foundation for your
work).
There was always motivation for me to work
for the poor seeing the poverty all around, it was about taking an initiative
that was important. When I see children and find them happy that gives me
satisfaction and that keeps me driving. When I meet children they don’t have
hope, but a year later they are filled with hope. People come and when they
don’t see results they get de motivated, but once when they see the results
of their efforts they get energised. I faced difficulties in comprehending
science concepts during my childhood, hence I thought let’s make education
comprehensible for all.
2.
What are the
challenges that you faced while starting your initiative and what are the
current challenges that you are facing now?
·
Government: they are the reason for the
problem, but they are a hindrance when others try to help
·
Level of corruption: getting things done
without bribing someone is difficult and they expect us to be corrupt as them
·
Bottlenecks in terms of policy matters relating
to raising money and FCRA act
3.
What is your
opinion on getting inspiration and using your talent for doing simple things
that eventually become great and make a difference in the lives of others?
The ability to persist with a
problem and finding a solution to a particular problem. Find a problem that
affects a large part of the society and try to come up with solutions in your
lifetime.
4.
What do you
consider as your own strong points that helped you to accomplish whatever you
have been able to? When did you discover them? How? How did you cultivate
them?
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Persistence: don’t drop a good idea
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Don’t work as an individual, I believe
in teamwork
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Trust in the poorer sections of people.
5.
What in your
opinion are some of the qualities that people need to cultivate to make a
difference to others?
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Clear goals: know the problem to get the
solution
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Persistence: stay and measure the
importance of the problem for many years to come up with a solution.
·
Get suggestion about your work from
others; it helps.
6.
What future
scope do you have in mind for your work?
·
Continuing with the work that I have
been doing.
·
Helping parents to be literate and help
in their child`s career planning.
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Ahaguru.com : a
platform for online course materials focusing on science, maths, English to
drive self learning.
7.
What messages
would you like to give for others to be or to become an effective person?
Find a problem and see that
the problem is realistic, i.e. it can be solved in a lifetime. Try to find a
solution to that problem which is acceptable to the stake holders. Be
socially productive.
Reference: The following resources
have been used for the secondary research on Balaji Sampath
Downloaded as on: 1/05/2015
7.
“ Unsung Beacons”
by CSIM Publications.
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