HOPE IN THE HILLS
A Retired Man On A Mission Starts Centre To Help Village Kids Make Transition From Hindi To English Medium ……….Atul Sethi | TNN
It’s a balmy afternoon in the small village of Purkal, located off the Dehradun-Mussoorie highway. The silence of the afternoon is broken by the sound of a bus, coming down the winding village road. As the bus comes to a stop, scores of children scramble out and head down a slope towards a building. The building is not a school—in fact, most of the children are coming here after attending regular school. Instead, it is a bridge centre that caters to the children of Purkal and neighbouring villages.
This centre is the initiative of 74-year-old G K Swamy, a former economist, who had not even heard of Purkal till 10 years ago. “It’s destiny that I’m here,” he says, with a smile. His wife, Chini, nods in agreement. The couple was planning to settle down in Hardwar after Swamy’s retirement, when they were told about Purkal, a small village 20 km from Dehradun. They visited, liked the place, built a pretty house overlooking the Mussoorie hills and settled down to a life of retired bliss.
But time hung heavy on their hands. Swamy decided to help a few village children with their studies. The objective, he says, was to help them make the transition to a good English medium school from the village Hindi medium school. “Poor children have to learn only in Hindi, while children of the elite go to English medium schools. This policy has hindered upward mobility and denied poor children access to good education,” he says.
That was just the beginning. Soon, the few children turned into few more and Swamy’s house wasn’t able to hold them all. “I realised that we needed to organize this operation,” he says. The result was Purkal Youth Development Society, with the objective of mentoring village kids, giving them intensive tutoring, and eventually access to good quality private schooling.
Today, the society has almost 200 patrons, who keep it going through donations. A few years back, the society bought land in Purkal and constructed a centre for the kids with classrooms, a library, a computer centre and a science lab. It has 13 teachers, mostly young adults from surrounding areas. The four or five children that Swamy started with have now swelled to almost 140, coming from Purkal and surrounding villages. Every morning, three buses pick up kids from their villages and take them to school. The society sponsors the education of almost 100 kids in private schools nearby. In the afternoon, the kids are brought to the centre for a wholesome meal after which, they attend structured classes till 7 pm.
“I don’t think anybody can ‘teach’ another person. One can only help in learning,” says Swamy. In accordance with this philosophy, the teachers at the centre act as mentors, helping the children review their work from school, clarify doubts, address difficulties and provide intellectual and emotional support.
Five of the children, who recently passed class XII, have joined professional courses ranging from hotel management and graphic design to even learning Spanish. Swamy’s emphasis on spoken English has made these children more confident. All of them now speak English fluently — no mean achievement, considering many of them are first-generation learners and almost all come from extremely poor families.
Swamy however, feels there is much more to do: “Why do we only talk of giving poor children basic education or ‘some training’. Rarely do we think of these children becoming leading professionals. I am convinced that professional success is necessary for the poor to break out of their social situation. It is this access that we must aspire for.”
BRIDGING THE LEARNING GAP: G K Swamy is mentor and teacher to youngsters with dreams