By: Tanvir Salim, January 28th, 2014.
The initial response from the community was lukewarm and disappointing. In spite of the banners and posters, there were few takers. It took us some time to realize that we were trying to sell a product at a place which was full of hopelessness. It was difficult to change the mindset of the community overnight, because nobody believed that they can use the education as a tool to change their destiny.
They were not wrong. The dropout rate in the poor localities is soaring. Nobody is becoming Engineer or Doctor by attending the local school. Sooner or later they will end their education because of the peer pressure. They have no role models. Most of the people they know are either a hawker, or a rickshaw puller or a day labor. There are some who are employed, but none of them are in a position where they can make a difference in other’s lives. It took great effort to convince them about the benefits of the education. The reluctant ones and the shy ones also started showing up for the classes once the date was announced. We found girls to be more interested than the boys.
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That was last year. This year (July 2013-Dec 2013) has been different. Based on the success stories of the last year (couple of students got selected in good engineering colleges, all other students who were shying away from studies because of hopelessness attained first division, success stories in the banking examination), this year we found more students joining the coaching we provide. At present there are 20-25 students in the Intermediate batch long with 30-35 students in the banking and other competition classes. At this point it is too early to gauge the effectiveness of the coaching provided to these students because so far they have not appeared in their exams. But from the internal exams we conduct, I have a feeling that they are on the right track.
It is disappointing to note that in spite of our best efforts the seats still remain empty. I will call it success when the classes will run full capacity. In my opinion we need to put some effort on awareness camps where volunteers may go home to home and convince parents/students to come out and get educated.
The Coaching & Guidance Center in Gorakhpur, U.P. India is financially co-sponsored by AFMI, since 2011, and managed by Ashfaq Husain Ansari Memorial Society
