Serving a red-letter cause

54-year-old Kumar,Dean of Delhi School of Communication (DSC),a mass communication institute in Neb Sarai,says,“It was by chance that two to three children,who were known to the employees of our school,enquired if we could teach them the language. These children,who go to government schools,didn’t have much exposure to the language. I felt,why not? It was a great idea — something that would benefit them in the long run. Since the children who started coming here were known to our institute’s employees,mostly relatives or neighbours,the parents were not reluctant to send them here.”

They get about 12 to 20 students — ranging from Class VIII (junior) to Class XII (senior) to people who have already completed their schooling,but want to improve their language for landing a job. Kumar,along with three of her colleagues,conducts classes in the institute premises from 3 pm to 5 pm on five days a week. Sometimes,she even does mornings.

“We have a spare classroom where we can accommodate these children even while we are conducting our mass communication classes,” she says. DSC students and some alumni members also volunteer to teach.

Elaborating on the structure of the course,Kumar says,“For the junior batch,we start by teaching rhymes,simple sentences,pronunciation and then move on to tenses and grammar. For them,it’s learning combined with fun — they participate enthusiastically and engage more willingly if you tell them stories and make it exciting. For,senior students,correct pronunciation and fluency of language is important,so we put more emphasis on that.”

Though Math classes are also held,the focus is on English. Quizzes and tests are conducted frequently to assess how much they have learnt,and homework is given to them regularly. However,there are no time constraints. Even if some members of the junior batch take more than a year to become familiar with the nuances of the language,they are given the option of being taught along with a new group of students.

The efforts of Kumar and her team have benefited a lot of students,who have become more confident,and feel that they have learnt a lot under their guidance.

One such student is 20-year-old Charu,who has cleared her CA Common Proficiency Test (CPT) entrance exam. “I owe all this to Ramola ma’am and her colleague,Rupanjali ma’am. I wouldn’t have dreamt of clearing this test if I had not come here. It’s not just about the language; it’s also about how one can speak in front of people,conduct himself or herself in a better way,and etiquette. It really means a lot to me,” Charu gushes. She had studied under Kumar for six months,starting January 2010.

Rupanjali Lahiri,Admissions Executive at DSC,has been teaching these students for three years now. “I teach PR and marketing to mass communication students,and their classes get over around 1.30 pm. As I am free after that,I considered involving myself in this. I mostly teach English to the senior batch,and it’s a great experience. Two students from the first batch landed jobs soon after. One of them,Priti Singh,works in an NGO called Nav Shrishti as a non-formal education teacher. It feels so good when we hear about their achievements,” says 26-year-old Rupanjali.

For Kumar also,this means a lot. “If we can make so much difference in their lives just by giving them a few hours,we are more than happy to do it. For me,it’s an enriching experience,almost spiritual,” she says.

Looking ahead,she wants to take the good work closer to the place she stays. A resident of Gurgaon,she says,“I want to teach English to underprivileged children near my place also. Very soon,I’ll be looking at that.”