Learners' Voice

WISE Learners 2012 visited Madhav Chavan’s Urban Learning Center in an underprivileged region of Delhi. The center is run by Dr. Madhav Chavan’s Pratham Education Foundation and its influence is extending to benefit over 2.6 million students with the help of about 60,000 volunteers.  It uses locally available materials at nominal cost and thus constitutes a living example of the possibility of education for everyone.

The center is open from 9 am to 5 pm with different shifts to suit students’ school schedules. It is meant to bridge gaps between the knowledge schools provide and that which students actually gain in math, science, English and Hindi.

The centers target underprivileged children who have to work, despite their tender age, just to help their parents support their family. Volunteer tutors visit the parents, introduce the center and convince them to let the kids join. There are tests to evaluate students’ current abilities so the tutors can group them appropriately and customize teaching materials. Regular progress evaluations are shared with the schools they attend.

To receive tutoring, each student pays a nominal “responsibility fee” of a maximum of 100 rupees a month. The actual amount is based on the financial situation of each family.

Volunteer tutors are usually from the neighborhood and receive a stipend, depending on the work they do. Furthermore, they learn working skills which are definitely helpful for their full-time jobs.

We had two passionate debates on social issues with four teams of three people. Each debate involved two teams and was conducted in three rounds, namely: motion, rebuttal and open house.  The debates were conducted to select a team to compete with last year’s winner of the same debating format on the third day of the ADB conference.

The first debating topic was, “Social media can bring about positive behavioral change in society”. Team A, who favored the idea, won for concrete arguments that prove the undeniable benefits of social media such as providing a direct platform for self-expression and discussion, an effective means of networking and fast information dissemination.  Team B, who were against the idea, mentioned some drawbacks of social media that were worth considering such as difficulty in controlling anonymous information, or violence, pornography and privacy violation.

The second topic was, “Social revolution rises on the shoulders of the young”. Team C, who were advocating, won with convincing ideas of youth’s capabilities to contribute to social revolution such as substantial energy to sustain activities, willingness to receive and adopt ideas, and strong commitment to strive for a better future. Team D, who had not yet  been successful, recommended youth to pay attention to gaining hands-on experiences so as to better conduct revolutionary initiatives.