© IE Online Media Services Pvt Ltd
Tags:
Journalism of Courage
In India, we expect a candidate with PhD degree to take up research or join a higher educational institute as a faculty. However, a student of Jawaharlal Nehru University, Anagha Anil Kinjavadekar is breaking such notions. This 32-year-old has decided to teach nursery students over graduates.
Kinjavadekar pursued a bachelor’s and master’s degree in History from the University of Delhi. She went on to pursue an MPhil degree in the same subject from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Delhi. Thereafter, she enrolled herself as a PhD candidate at JNU where she is researching “History of Pilgrimage in Varanasi till 13th century.”
However, life took a surprising turn when she had a baby during the first wave of Covid (2020) and had to put her PhD on hold after writing 2.5 chapters. After shifting to Bengaluru with her family, Anagha searched for a school for her toddler that followed a pace and play-based education system, rather than a set syllabi. She observed a dearth of good teachers at the foundational level and decided to contribute to the solution of this problem by turning to a nursery teacher.
As her maternal grandparents were professors at Banaras Hindu University (BHU) and her mother a teacher too, Anagha knew she will become an educator eventually.
I haven’t ever regretted it and hope to stay a nursery teacher even after completing my PhD.
“Initially, I thought of taking up UGC NET after my masters or PhD. Then during my undergraduate degree, I started teaching as a freelancer at several places in Delhi. I even taught children of expats, and took up a job at the Sanskrit Promotion Foundation (SPF) where my task was to prepare teaching material. However, I had never thought that I would be teaching nursery children,” Anagha shared.
However, her interest in child’s education aroused during her pregnancy. “I started reading up on parenting and wondered what kind of education I desire for my child. I wanted a teacher who can have a strong impact on my child, treat him and explain things to him like a grown-up. This is where I saw a gap. As a teacher, the kind of impact you can have on younger children is very different from what you can do with 18-25 years old. Here, I thought I could use the skills that I had gathered from my educational qualification,” she reminisced.
Anagha started using her skills to research more about pedagogy. As she started working as a nursery teacher/ facilitator, she realised that she could use the skills she had gained during her PhD study in teaching nursery students.
The ancient education focused on imparting ethics such as humility, truthfulness, discipline, self-reliance, and respecting all creations to the students. The teacher was required to give their disciple, all possible intellectual and spiritual help and guidance. Being an Ancient History student, Anagha has managed to pick up these practices and use them in her teaching profession.
“We treat these children as individuals who have the capability to understand things in its original form, rather than dumbing it down, so we teach them the concepts of the world in that manner,” Anagha said.
“Skills such as rigor, ability to communicate your point forth, the training of being able to break down content, think and research, and explain a complex thing in the most simplified way are some of the skills that I gained during my PhD days that I am having to use now while teaching nursery children.”
The JNU student further elaborated that a teacher’s job is to make learning interesting by citing real life examples.
“When my nursery students ask me what cutting of trees will mean for the environment or how we can reverse it, I am able to research about it and explain it to them. I have had to explain to my students the concept of Big Bang, rains or even death, and since we believe in treating them like a person instead of coddling them. It also requires me to research about it and give them the right information. That patience to research and then explain to them at their pace is something I had gained from my PhD experience at JNU,” she explained.
