‘Everyone has the right to become what they want’

Fifteen-year-old Anjali,whose father is a computer assistant in an institute and mother a home-maker,is an Economically Weaker Section (EWS) student at the prestigious Springdales School on Pusa Road in Delhi. But the tag — which got her admission in the school seven years ago,long before the Right To Education Act came into force in 2010 — doesn’t matter in the classroom,or with her friends or teachers. “On my first day of school,I had fun like I never did before,” says Anjali,who passed a scholarship test to secure admission,under the school’s programme of asking government schools to recommend bright students for scholarship. The school bears half of her fees under the programme,which got scrapped after implementation of the RTE.

Anjali,a Class XI student,has her own gaggle of friends at school,many of them from economically privileged families,who often look up to her as she is among the “brightest in her class”,according to her teachers. But her academic record took a long time to look up. When she joined,she was first shocked to see students sitting on benches,using computers,studying with discipline,and speaking English,a language she couldn’t understand well and made studying difficult. “I saw these basic facilities and even the discipline as luxury. In the government school I went to,we sat on the floor. The rooms were very hot in the summer and extremely cold in the winter. I had only one notebook and wrote all my classwork in that. Most of the time,we did nothing. The school had only three or four teachers,and there was one teacher for all the subjects in a particular class,” she says.

Anjali didn’t allow herself to get overwhelmed by the differences between her two schools,and focussed on her studies. She says that besides her hard work,it was also her teachers and classmates who helped her sail through her studies. The social transition,she says,was “so smooth,I hardly felt it.” “At first,I didn’t expect other students to be nice to me,but they made me feel very comfortable,” she says. Making “true friends”,however,took time. “Working together in class as students was easy but opening up with each other in a group wasn’t. Honestly,it took us over two years to overcome our hesitation to become friends.”

The new environment also opened her eyes to other aspects of education. She realised that she loves reading novels — much to the disapproval of her parents,who insist she shouldn’t “waste her time” and should read textbooks instead — and playing the guitar. In fact,she wants to become a musician. “We never had a music teacher at my old school. But at my new school,the music teacher encourages me to go after my dreams,” she says.

Despite her new-found friends and interests,Anjali remains conscious of her economic background,and that of her friends in her neighbourhood in Inderpuri,southwest Delhi,who still attend the government school. “It is a privilege that others,including my parents or siblings,did not enjoy. Every year,hundreds of parents stand in long queues outside the school for many hours in the hope that their children can get the kind of education that perhaps wasn’t available to them. I am quite lucky that way.”

Almost philosophically,she says,“I have been given a life-changing chance. Everyone has the right to become what they want.”