I decided to help Gopal, a 9th class dropout, to prepare for his Class 10 Open School Exams. He’s from Orissa, so the first decision was whether he should take the exams in Hindi or English – neither of the two languages he was very comfortable with. After much deliberation and convincing, he agreed to go for English. The subjects he chose were English, Oriya, Business Studies 1, Business Studies 2, Accounting. We decided to start the preparation with Business Studies 1 - a subject I thought I could handle without embarrassing myself too much. So the first session happened – more a familiarization activity. I was quite zapped by the content though – it just reinforced how theoretical our education system is. Did you know that human beings do two types of activities – economic and non-economic?That there are many nuances that separate the two. What are the different types of Occupation? Apparently they are Professional, Employment, and Business. What are the different characteristics of each, attributes of each, and differences from each other…do we really care?
What was interesting was the place where he was struggling in studies. So instead of reading a word completely, he would read only the beginning and then try and guess the meaning – more often an incorrect one. He had hearing recognition but lacked reading recognition. So when I asked him to read the word aloud, he was able to tell me the correct meaning, but when I asked him to read and explain the meaning, he struggled. Also, he struggled with understanding the essence of a question. When asked to write two characteristics, or write two differences, his question to me was how should I start the sentence? He religiously made notes once I proposed that he could possibly start answering the ‘differences question’ using the phrase “Although these two items look similar there are some differences….”
I can see how challenging it is for this young man – struggling to understand the question, finding the right words to explain, a subject he doesn’t know. I am filled with admiration for him, for his courage to continue challenging a situation that seems fraught with potential failures. I guess he has learned to focus on what lies ahead, beyond this mountain - a better paying job, more self-esteem, and the confidence to climb any mountain that comes in his way.
Sapna Moudgil
NIIT Foundation
