My Volunteering Journey

My association with Blogchatter started with the team reaching out to me saying that many of my blogrolls submitted qualify for the #CauseAChatter challenge that had just begun in the first quarter for this year. This was in Feb. this year as soon as I joined the platform creating my profile. While this marks my journey as a #CauseAChatter champion, my journey as a volunteer began when I was in 6th Grade at school. The earliest I remember was enrolling myself as a part of Scouts & Guides team. I remember wanting to be part of the National Service Scheme (NSS) during my secondary years, but my new school did not have NSS. 

My blogs are a means for me to share my lived experiences in my life, filled with changes and learning from adapting and dealing with the constant changes that I have gone through as a student (K12 completed in 7 different schools) as well as an adult glomad (resident in 4 countries on 3 continents in a span of 13 years).

This year’s UN theme for International Volunteer Day is Volunteer now for our common future. On this day, this makes a lot of sense for me in my mid-life, I can’t claim that I knew about this as a child or even as a young adult. Yet the warmth I felt, when I volunteered and saw that my time and effort created a positive impact wherever I was able to contribute, was something that I wanted to keep. This is what made me to continue volunteering my time, effort, and skills in every place I resided. Once I settled into the new place, I would seek out the local community centre or NGO through the network of friends that I made in the initial phase and start my volunteering journey working for the cause that I felt at home with, in the local community. 

Over the years, I have faced one question that I have always struggled to answer with conviction, not because I did not believe in volunteering, but because I never really paused to think what was it that always brought me to volunteer my time and effort and not my money that I earn from my profession. There have also been times when I have felt low when peers and juniors (sometimes even seniors) have made statements to the effect that excellent skills were probably not used enough to support myself towards mending/uplifting my career path. 

Thanks to Blogchatter’s question for this International Volunteer Day on what #Unstoppable means to me as a #CauseAChatter Champion, my mind raced down the memory lane to come up with the answer to why I always kept being pulled towards volunteering.

Working for a cause is always measured by the impact that it has created and for me this measure was always important. The purpose of my work, I preferred to measure with the impact that it had/has in the overall schema of things. Most people associate success to a number (either the figure of salary that reached our bank accounts, the ordinal number in the race of life, or the hierarchical position in the career ladder), for me it meant the feeling of contentment for me and if someone else also benefited from my work, then that is the cherry on the cake. Volunteering never failed me in this. 

There are different kinds of volunteering based on what you are willing to volunteer: Financial Aid, Time, Expertise & Effort. All of them are essential components to be able to bring the required impact.

While I know what benefit I gained, the measure of impact that my contribution is some instances are unknown so far, maybe because they were seeds of thought planted to initiate/enable change and I had to relocate from there before I could see the progress of my planted seed.

Blogging (close to 2 decades) here & on Momspresso (for the last 3 years), and answering on Quora (at least the last 3 years) is another voluntary activity that I have had the pleasure of doing. This is my way to leaving behind responsible digital footprints of my lived experience and knowledge gained from these experiences, for the future generations to come, because what you put online, remains there forever.

What is in it for me?

This is one question I have faced time and again from many, despite the higher personal benefit gained from volunteering experience. So here I am listing it out again, hoping that this article will serve as my answer in future the next time I encounter the question.

• Personal Satisfaction of Serving by impacting: While financial independence may not be there, I get the experience of deciding how the funds, shared by those volunteering funds for causes close their heart, get utilised to positively impact the recipients of the cause.
• Knowing that my skills are directly being used to impact changes at the grass root level issues and hence will bring a better changed perspective and maybe by extension a better world for our future generations, because I am on the ground working at the grass root level and hence see this impact sooner than most.
• It also helps me identify the causes at the grass root level to give me a front row seat view of how concepts of social and parental conditions, community groupism drive the group think. So, while solutioning, inclusion comes naturally due to having experienced these things on the field rather than just reading a passive version of it in books in the form of theories.
• Helps me become a better person because mindfulness becomes a way of life in every role I don as part of a larger group/community. I am aware that the world of opportunities and privileges aren’t the same for everyone, even within the same community and hence the solutions or community level programmes need to be open and flexible enough to accommodate for this kind of variations, is a deeply ingrained lesson from practically experiencing it.
• The personal detachment also becomes a way of life, while receiving feedback and criticism. Both success and failure are transient, is something that I have learned over the years, and hence the criticisms have started becoming less personal and less trigging. Equally, appreciations bring momentary pleasure, they never get to the additive phase, and I can move on to the next goal or cause that I identify for myself to work for the community wellbeing (that will eventually also cater to my wellbeing).
• Success and failure are impact based rather than number based, which is a huge change in perspective but very calming for my personal self. I am out of the rat race because I know why I am working and not doing it because everyone aspires success. I also do (aspire for success), but just that my success definition has changed.
• It allows me to experiment and learn skills outside my expertise and comfort area through online certification courses that contribute to the Continuous Professional Development (CPD) and growth.
• The freedom to work outside the comfort zone also gives me scope relook at my educational qualification based on the country's acts and regulatory norms before I can narrow down on the right degree to top my current qualifications to continue my personal journey of skilling and qualifying, that would enable me to contribute towards the cause and the community with more relevancy and expertise.
• Builds my personal and professional network and helps in personal self-care (with a sense of contentment and accomplishment) for the multitude of reasons mentioned above.

While #sustainability and #EnvironmentalTalks invoke the thought of green initiatives and reduce, reuse & recycle, I think the sustainability and environmental talks are incomplete without the impact of the role of volunteering and volunteers in these. On this International Volunteering Day, sharing my continuous tryst with volunteering till now and one that will continue in future also, is my dedication to this year’s theme in urging those of you who happen upon this blog to start volunteering to experience and enjoy what I have, and if you already are a volunteer, then to continue your journey.

This blog is part of Blogchatter’s #CauseAChatter challenge (#EnvironmentalTalks & #MentalHealthTalks) and #CauseAChatter Projects.

You can find all my blogs written for the #CauseAChatter challenge here.

You might also like to read:

• Playing a small part in my Social Responsibility
• My First FB Live on 'Coping with Social Change', Learnings & Recommendations

Playing A Small Part in my Social Responsibility

My volunteering journey has been quite long and has traveled with me to every school that I have moved to as a child and to every country I have relocated as an adult. Giving back in kind to the community that I reside in, is something I have picked up from my childhood. “Our Village Our Responsibility” (OVOR - #OurVillageOurResponsibility, #OVOR) is an organisation that I have had the pleasure to be associated with after my recent move to India. They are a team, who is passionate about making things better around for all of us, a group of people who share similar views as me.

Their call for volunteer tutors on their Facebook page, to conduct eTeaching for children studying in Government schools in the Virudhunagar district, caught my attention and thus started my association with the founder, Ms. Kavitha K Pandian – an NRI living in the USA. Through their “Classes through Skype” initiative, English and Computer subjects are taught across 28 Government Schools in Virudhunagar, Dindugal, Villupuram and Theni Districts, covering 5200+ students per week involving 150+ volunteer tutors. 

Our Village Our Responsibility was registered as a trust in 2018, though Ms. Kavitha has been working towards this cause individually for around 15 years. The main focus areas for OVOR are: 

• Motivating youngsters to participate & work towards ensuring better governance by elected representatives and public servants.
• Focusing on bringing Govt schools to the forefront by
• Teaching English, National Means-Cum-Merit Scholarship (NMMS) & Computer Science through Skype. This is to bridge the gap between the private schools and government schools, where the government schools are at a disadvantage due to the challenge in the available resources (including personnel and materials). 
• Improvement in Infrastructure: A very critical aspect of providing quality education, especially for the girl children and first-generation learners. In order to make education more appealing and comfortable, infrastructure is a key factor. E.g. toilets, safe and strong school building, comfortable chairs & tables to sit, a library with at least a handful of books for additional reading to improve language and knowledge.

I have been tutoring 25 children in Class VIII from Government High School, Thulukapatty in Virudhunagar District, once a week, for the past 6 months. When an opportunity presented, I also made a personal visit to the school on 18-Nov-19 for face-to-face interaction with the children and staff. 

Having lived in the city all my life, even the Government School building that I have come across, was big in size. This school, which was about 30 minutes’ drive from the town of Virudhunagar, was quite small and no bigger than 4000 sq ft area (maybe even lesser than that). It has a total strength of 156 students (Classes I to X) and 8 teachers who are responsible of teaching these children every subject and prepare them to face the exams of school and life. Having said that, I could not find even one unhappy child in that school. Every direction I turned, I only saw curious happy faces, eager to know who I was (a stranger who was visiting their school). 

I spent almost 2 hours with Class VIII. I had prepared 2 interactive activities to understand how I needed to change my approach to teaching English for them. One was a translation of a small Tamil moral story and the other was to build a passage or a few sentences using 5 random words. They put in their best and earnestly tried to do both these activities for my benefit. In all that 2 hours, I never saw a bored face, a face that was frustrated to sit in class, none of them wanted to walk out of the classroom when the break bell rang. They all were actively participating in the classroom activity, being seated on the floor. That showed me a new perspective of life at a Government school and made me want to do more for the eager to learn spirit. This day turned out to be a humbling and happy experience for me. From the response of the children, I am to understand that they also had fun & benefitted from my visit.

There are people who do chequebook charity and there are those who spare their time and effort for the same cause. Both kinds are needed for any purpose to see the light of day. While I and many like me spare our time for Skype tutoring, there have been many who have contributed in the form of money and materials that made the installation of a computer room with at least a dozen systems, broadband connection to make Skype classes possible and a room to hold these things. This school and many like this one still need basic infrastructure improvement and basic amenities like clean toilets. 

I would urge all those who do not provide for either of the above, to do their share either for OVOR (or through other means), to do something to give back to the community. The contentment and the sense of achievement of being an instrument of change in someone’s life is a big personal morale booster that nothing else in life can give you. 

My earnest request to all parents (esp. with children studying in private schools) and youngsters who want to bring in a social change: Please join hands with such volunteering initiatives and do visit at least one government school, for them to give them an exposure to being socially inclusive and responsible.

Let us do our share to realise the dreams of our leaders who dreamt of a socially inclusive and adaptive society that treats every individual with the same dignity and respect as self!

Draft National Education Policy (NEP) - An invigorating day-long dialogue practitioners (Part 2)

Draft National Education Policy (NEP) - An invigorating day-long dialogue practitioners (Part 1)

Post Lunch Sessions

Mr. Nandakumar took the stage (again) to talk in length on School Education. He gave the facts and governing bodies as listed by the policy and concluded his speech with a few observations of his:

1. The governing bodies that will be set up will be mutually exclusive in their functions and roles and hence there will be no conflict of interest. 
2. The split of school education is 5+3+3+4. The last 4 years correspond to 9-12 standard with 4 years, 8 semesters, and 24 subjects with flexibility for students to choose subjects of their choice in addition to the mandatory subjects.

His suggestions, which he said he had already written to the concerned people were:

• Lack of single government-approved rating agency, like the OFSTED in the UK, to rank schools based on some valid criteria such as child safety, inclusivity, active learning, etc.
• No mention of PPP - Private Public Partnerships.
• Private schools to be declared as “industries”.
• Go beyond School Management Committees (SMC) and bring in Boards (Board of Trustees/directors with roles and responsibilities.)
• Bring Coupon system for fee payment where the coupon can be given to the school during admission, which can be converted to money by submitting to the treasury by the school. If the parent wishes to secure private school admission for the child, then the coupon can be topped up with personal money for the difference in fee!

Next, we had Mr. Divanshu Kumar, Founder & CEO Involve - focus area being peer teaching with Student Leaders and Student Learners as stakeholders. The draft NEP talks about National Tutors Program (NTP), which is in line with the focus area of Involve. He gave a concise picture of their solution for improving learning outcomes in school children, the assessment modality and how they have witnessed a marked increase in the learning outcome with the group that was part of their program. He also spoke how the model is a viable solution for the NTP suggested by the draft. The result of his program saw student leaders (role of peer teachers) develop 21st-century skills like collaborating, cooperating, creativity, communication, flexibility in addition to literacy.

Dr. Uma Muthuram, Managing Trustee, Suyam Charitable Trust, spoke about Equity and Inclusion in Draft NEP. She raised a few operational concerns regarding the lofty changes that the policy was speaking about. She registered her reservations on the effective execution of the policy to its spirit, based on her current and earlier experience with bureaucracy and regulatory authorities.

Ms. Pooja Jayaram, Education Consultant and Teach for India Alumnus, spoke at length on Curriculum and Pedagogy based on her experience as a fellow of Teach for India initiative. Her concern was that the rural-urban divide may become more pronounced if the implementation of the processes documented in NEP, doesn’t take into consideration the practical implications with respect to the teaching abilities of the volunteers who are expected to support the schools!

Another panel discussion ensued with the stage adorned by Mr. Vikas Arya, Director - DAV Group of Schools, Ms. Vidhyavathi, Head Mistress - TVS Higher Secondary School Madurai, Ms. Gowri Shivshankar, Principal - Chettinad Harishree Vidyashram, Ms. Aruna Rathnam, Executive Director - Madhuram Narayanan Centre for Exceptional Children on Draft NEP and the Teacher. The common point raised was on the aspect of the implementation. From the practice standpoint, they felt that there will be challenges in implementing the change, based on the current and previous practices that they have had the chance to experience over their tenure. Also, Ms. Aruna Rathnam felt disappointed that the draft NEP does not talk anything about exceptional children and their education.

Last but not the least, on stage, was Mr. Vishwanathan Radhakrishnan, Corporate Volunteer to share his views on Remedial Instructional Aides Program (RIAP). Like the NTP, RIAP is also an initiative that involves community engagement to support school teachers in addressing the gap in achieving Foundational literacy and numeracy.

Key Take-Aways:

• The Draft NEP is a welcome step to uplift our national educational system combining the traditional Indian and modern international pedagogy and emerge as leaders in the educational front.
• The clear differentiation of regulatory, governing and implementing bodies removes any conflict of interest and would ensure better quality education.
• The Census exams proposed at standard 3, 5, and 8 are not to be confused with board exams. They are a way to assess the student’s ability to understand the minimum requirements for that stage and if there is a mismatch noticed, then the needed corrective action with additional teaching/learning support could be provided.
• The three-language system is expected at basic proficiency. Learning more than one language in a diverse nation like ours increases the prospects of better career planning and makes relocation (due to globalization) seem like a breeze. 
• Imbibing 21st Century skills and increasing the employability of graduating students.
• Concept of school blocks, which necessarily do not mean the closing of small schools, but combining of facilities of bigger schools with that of the small school that cannot scale up to become big enough so that the student learning is enhanced and hindrances due to scalability can be avoided.
• Bringing World-Class universities (similar to Elite Universities of the USA) by urging the Type 1 colleges to increase standards to meet the necessary requirement. Similarly, Type 2 and 3 colleges to continuously strive to up their standards to better themselves in delivering quality education to the graduates enrolled in their institutions.
• The focus to shift from rote learning to experiential and practical learning for all ages. 
• Equip our children with the confidence to face exams instead of fear and shift the focus from marks to learning outcomes and subject knowledge understanding.

As a concluding remark, the organisers TNYTF, Bluewhistle, and the experts & panelists alike urged the participants themselves and the general public to read through the draft (even if the time duration to give suggestions has expired by now). As this policy has the capacity to run its course for at least 2 decades (if not 3), it can undergo revisions if needed. If anyone wishes to submit their recommendations, suggestions, changes, concerns or comments on draft NEP, it is now very easy to do so. Just register yourself on Mygov.in and then look up Draft NEP 2019 and then give your feedback (this page also has links to the summary of the policy in different languages) on the respective section as you would like to.

I know it was a long read (hence the 2 part article), but I think it was very important to share the information based on facts, to remove the misinformation that is spreading panic and confusion among a various section of the population. Also, this is going to impact each and every individual or family irrespective of your stake on the system. So please download the Draft NEP (English) and read it, or at least skim through it like a non-fictional read! The summary of the draft is also available in other languages. Here is a link to the Tamil and Hindi version for the summary.

Draft National Education Policy (NEP) - An invigorating day-long dialogue practitioners (Part 1)

On 27-July-2019 (Sat), I attended a dialogue on the much-discussed and debated, Draft National Education Policy (NEP) 2019 at D.G. Vaishnav College, organised and hosted by Tamil Nadu Young Thinkers Forum (TNYTF), in association with D.G. Vaishnav College.

I had already started reading the draft before this meeting. Skimming through this sheer volume of 484-pages document was a bit daunting. I spent more time on Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) & Foundational Literacy and Numeracy sections. I personally felt, both these topics were well-documented (excellent English) and well researched on every possible aspect.

The speakers of the event were veterans in the education sector, who had been in the practice for at least more than 2 decades. There were prominent Educationalists, University/College/School Principals, Deans, CEOs of career planning/reskilling firms, EdTech Consultants, Social Entrepreneurs/workers, and volunteers, with years of varied experiences and exposure

The agenda of the program was for these speakers to pick each section of the NEP and giving a gist of what it says, their understanding, appreciation and criticism on the same and finally providing suggestions on what can be included or changed to make it better. What more could I have asked for to find an easy but very efficient route, to better understand the whole document in a single day?

The day started with Mr. Sundara Velavan from TNYTF welcoming the participants who filled the auditorium, followed by Tamil Thaai vazhthu, brought back memories of my school choir days. Following that, Mr. Nandakumar Venkatraman, Director-Datta Education Consultants, to set the context for the day’s proceedings. I was taken by surprise when I heard a name familiar from my school days - My Principal Sir, from secondary school. As a student, I admired him for his articulate and factual delivery of the speech on any topic.

He gave a brief history about the NEP starting with the Kothari Commission (1964-66), the NEP of 1986, and a few more. He touched upon the major revisions that it underwent, spoke about how this current draft NEP 2019 was the effort of two experts with TSR Subramanian Committee doing the initial work and after him, the current Draft NEP was brought together by the team which was chaired by K. Kasturirangan, Former Chairman, ISRO (among many other positions to his credit). His request to the audience was to listen to the day’s proceedings, get factual information about the draft, and then share it to challenge the misinformation that is making rounds in the various media (social networks, WhatsApps etc.).

He introduced Dr. S. Vaidhyasubramaniam, Vice Chancellor and TCS Chair Professor of Management, Sastra University, and welcomed him on stage to speak on Higher Education (Reforms in Institutional Governance and Regulation).

Dr. Vaidhyasubramaniam, who was consulted by both TSR Subramanian and K Kasturirangan, while the draft was being formulated, started with a brief on the 4 different models of governance, introduced the various governing and regulatory bodies (RSA, NEHRA, NRF, NAAC, NCTE, AICTE, etc.) that were responsible in future for the functioning of the Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs). He also spoke on the usage of the nomenclature - College, University, Deemed University and such. He was sure that this policy will be passed in the parliament session and was hopeful that the enactments (Central and State) that followed and the regulations designed would help in keeping the spirit of the policy intact. He also stated that the various regulatory and evaluating bodies will not have any conflict of interest as clear lines of responsibilities and roles will have to be defined for each of them. His take was that the policy was an outcome-based policy was good for the better future of education. It will also urge educational institutions to up their ante and rise up to world-class institutions quality standards.

Mr. Tamilselvan Mahalingam, Founder & CEO Future Captains, spoke on the section covering Professional Education. His stance, like his predecessor, was that the policy was great and he impressed upon the fact that the policy talks about skilling (through PMKVY) and 21st-century skills needed for career planning and development. He talked about the scholarship program that is being recommended for professional education and registered his concern for the proper regulation of its disbursement. He also felt that there was not enough said about the legal education & entrepreneurial curriculum as he felt these were very relevant and more focus. He insisted on career planning and exploration being part of the higher and professional education.

The panel discussion that followed him was on Vocational Education, Skills and Jobs. The stage was occupied by three vibrant (probably even diverse I could say from their thought perspective) people – Mr. Rajaram Muthukrishnan, Founder - Swatantra Foundation, Ms. Swati Komandur, CEO - Sixerclass, and Mr. Rajendran Dandapani, Vice Chancellor, Zoho University. The panel discussion started with a light note with the panelists confessing that like the audience they also have not gone through the entire 484 pages of the draft but did read up on relevant sections that spoke on skilling using a word search. This being the high note of the discussion, it was quite vibrant and touched upon various aspects of skilling as discussed in the policy and currently existing in the industry. Main highlights included:

1. The mindset change (to not look down upon) that was needed towards vocational studies as they are no less than the “professional studies”.
2. The need for internship exposure to enhance the knowledge on the practice of the profession rather than textbook-based learning.

In fact, Mr. Rajendran went on record stating that if this policy was implemented a few years ago, then he would not have taken the decision to home school his child! The panel discussion ended with a wishlist of the policy to include about Maker mindset, talk about 'collaborate & co-operate' rather than compete, focus on the mindset change towards Industrial Training Institute (ITI) education.

Next on stage was Mr. Saikrishnan, Managing Trustee - Nidharsanam Charitable Trust. A school dropout himself, he spoke on what he expected from school education and why he was a dropout. He insisted that he has not read the policy and his main aim to come to this dialogue was with the hope to understand the policy better (just like most of the participants) from the experts and practitioners. From what he had heard on the news and from people around him, he said he welcomes the census exams (3, 5, & 8) as he thinks that this would give a gauge on the capabilities and understanding levels of the child and if needed, a necessary intervention to course correct the learning path of that child (to avoid/reduce dropouts). He also urged the need to inculcate problem-solving outlook and a liking towards education.

We broke for lunch but the dialogues continued even at the lunch table. I was humbled to share the table with 5 other eminent personalities. With so much of food going in for my intellect, my actual hunger pangs were almost negligible. I ate because I did not want to feel hungry during the second half of the marathon.

Post Lunch Sessions continued in Part 2.