Education—More Than Numbers

We learnt that teaching is, spiritually, extremely rewarding, that life is what one makes of it, and that education is an inalienable right.
     —Sahiba Chopra

In the summer of 2006, my sister Siya and I worked for two months at a school in New Delhi, teaching math, English and environmental science to second, third, and fifth graders. Named "Deepalaya," the school's motto is "enabling self-reliance." It aims to provide quality education to children from socially and economically deprived communities. That goal was exactly what my sister and I found important.

Two weeks after joining Deepalaya, the principal asked us to work with a group of children in third grade who were not keeping up with the rest of the class. To our joy, with a little bit of extra attention, the children's performance in English and mathematics improved. Students at Deepalaya are ambitious and enjoy learning about the world and their environment. B.K Singh, an 8-year-old boy, is one such student. He wants to be a super-hero who will protect people in need! His father drives a three-wheeled automobile and earns close to $20 a day. His mother is a housewife. B.K. has a younger sister, so his father's salary supports four people.

Deepalaya provides students like B.K. a stimulating learning environment that compels them to aim for a life sans deprivation. Seeing B.K.'s growth in those five weeks, from someone who wasn't able to read or write fluently in English, to someone whose reading had improved considerably, and was doing extremely well in the spelling tests, was very fulfilling.

We built strong bonds with the students we taught, as well as with those whom we did not teach but spent time with during lunch breaks. However, the students were not the only ones to learn during our two months at Deepalaya! We, too, learnt a lot. We learnt that teaching is, spiritually, extremely rewarding, that life is what one makes of it, and that education is an inalienable right. However, the most important lesson we learned is that education can not be measured solely by numbers. It is also about learning certain values and challenging the status quo; it is about aspiration and ambition. In teaching children, and seeing situations from both a teacher's and a student's point of views, we realized that a complete education requires a well rounded life, which Deepalaya promotes.

Students at Deepalaya are allotted one daily class period each for music and physical education. The school also organizes various functions such as the Annual Day celebration, which the children love being a part of.

I am proud to have taught there. Not only did I gain a deeper insight about the challenges faced by those who have not had many opportunities for education, I also saw the hope and courage with which they look at the future. Siya and I promised the faculty and students at Deepalaya that we would return in the summer of 2007. We are looking forward to seeing how our students will have grown, to teaching and learning more about life, and to broadening our definition of education.

In 2006, Sahiba Chopra was 17 and a senior at the Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, Maryland, United States, where she was relocated from New Delhi, India.

Take Action

You don't have to travel to New Delhi to make a difference in your life or the lives of others. Help a friend struggling with homework, start a book club, organize a book drive, become a tutor, spread the word—write your school board, community leaders and representatives to tell them the importance of a quality education! Check out what some of the NGOs are doing for education.

^ top