01/08/2017
Get to know the new set of people in my life to whom Teach For India has introduced me to! Read about their passions, life, the story of their community and the advice that they want to give to everyone. Meet my students of 9th Grade, Varsha Nagar MPS Mumbai. :)
Meet our fun and hardworking student Priyanshi Pandey. She is a student of 9A and has her own story to share. "I want to start by thanking Angeline Dias Didi, Kalyani Saxena Didi, Haenik Kamdar Bhaiya, Lalitha Didi, Ashwini Didi,Janet Didi Prasid Bhaiya and Gaurav Bhaiya for believing in me, showing me what difference hardwork can make, that I am equally capable of achieving greater heights no matter whatever barrier exists in the real world, for instilling values in me and that always motivating me. You all have shown us that a teacher is someone who is a guide and a friend to their students, who doesnot use violence or loud voice to discipline them instead are warm and caring even though we have made our share of mistakes. You all are the best gifts any student could receive! THANK YOU"....
"There was a girl who quietly sat in her class with a confused look on her face. She belonged to the first grade and did not even know how to write her name. Though her basics were not clear to her (she usually got confused between the alphabets) but her math was really strong. Oh! how much she loved math! She could understand it quicker than anyone.
The situation of the school was not that good in a sense that one day the quiet girl goes out of her class to drink water from the handpump. The situation was such that the water that came out of it was mixed with sand and the students had to keep it still for 10-15 minutes so that the sand would settle down and then drink the water. But many a times the sand would not settle down and the kids had to drink the water no matter how it was. To add to this there were more than 200 students and only 3 classrooms. The teachers kept sitting outside beneath a big mango tree and kept talking to each other while sipping their tea. No studies ever took place.
But the life of this quiet girl changed when one day she saw that one boy was being beaten up by the principal of the school. Crying and weeping the boy begged for forgiveness but the principal did not listen to him. He was hung upside down from the tree and was beaten a lot because he had not completed his homework instead he was just running around in the corridor. The quiet girl ran, screaming and crying her heart out, to her father at her home and explained the situation to him.
It was then that the father mentioned that he had brought a new uniform for her and that she was going to change schools. Relieved, the girl smilingly and happily danced with her new uniform. The uniform was expensive and her mother struggled to take the girl out to study because few people in her family did not agree to let a girl child to transfer to study in Mumbai. There was a lot of violence but her family made through it. She was conscious in her new school because she could only speak in bhojpuri and not in English. But soon she met few classmates who would remain her friends, Kajal, Sony and Saheda to name a few who helped her come out of her shell. The quiet girl was no more the same, she could speak English and was more confident than ever! All this was made possible for her through entering the Teach for India intervention classroom where she met the teachers she never thought existed and friends who were so giving! She learned so many new things and values from them and that 'you control the destiny and the destiny does not control you'. Now I think I can achieve anything no matter how much of inequity exists. Hard work will show me the path to success, this is what I have learnt here. Teach for India has changed my life and I really do feel privileged and lucky to have been a part of this journey. I do believe in their vision that 'One Day All Children Will Achieve Excellent Education' and that many lives would be changed due to Teach For India. A new India will soon be made where there education inequity does not exist and better citizens of India will arise and make the country great!"
