'Twinkling Stars' – ASER experience at SIBM-Bangalore

It was the cool Sunday morning on 1^st November. One call woke me up from the deep sleep (I was too tired doing nothing the previous day). It was Abhishek, to remind me about the Social Responsibility Club event I had volunteered for (ASER), few days before. While rising from bed I was calculating the opportunity cost – the first Sunday at SIBM as an official holiday!!!! My roomie, Ankit was still sleeping. But it was my pleasure to wake the chap up from his sound sleep. He had also volunteered for the event. After the quick breakfast our team- myself, Ankit and Sumit left for Bagaluru village in shivajinagar. We reached at Bagaluru at around 10 am, met with the ASER volunteers and the delegate from Deutsche bank.

Bagaluru is a small village, around 70 km far from our college. Our aim was to take part in the ASER (Assessment Survey Evaluation Research) to evaluate the learning level of students between age 6–14 in the village. We had to cover a total of 20 households having school going children. The ASER volunteers were planning to cover the 20 houses with the entire team together. But we applied our managerial skills, came up with the suggestion of ‘Division of Labour’ and divided ourselves in to 2 teams so as to finish the work soon.

I would like to introduce 2 children whom we met with, during the event – Navas(8) and his brother Sameer (13). One reason why they caught our attention was that they knew Hindi (our inability to speak Kannada was a constraint throughout the survey). We met with Navas on his bicycle in midst of the survey. Very smart child; he accompanied as to the next households, watched the survey and took part in it. He knew Kannada and Hindi; did extremely well in Maths. He wants to become a pilot in future.

Here comes his elder brother Sameer, who was eager to take part in the survey. But he couldn’t...... The survey was meant only for school going children. Sameer is not a student; he is an employee working in the nearby workshop to earn his share for the family.  He stopped studies 2 years back in 6^th. He remained with us for a long time, reading those survey books and trying to answer all the questions in the books. It was wonderful to see the twinkle in his eyes, when I congratulated him for solving one tough question. I asked him if he wanted to study further. He looked down, without saying anything. I knew, what he meant..........poor chap.

We went along with the 2 brothers to their house made of clay. Their sisters were there. They also took part in the survey. The ‘future pilot’ was still cycling as we were returning.

Now, I am thinking....... I am doing my higher studies after 2-3 years of work experience. Still my family is there to support me. A boy with half of my age, perhaps a brighter student than what I was in his age, quitted his studies to earn meals for his family. It’s neither his mistake nor his family’s. But it is pointing to the bottlenecks of our country’s system. As a future manager, I am worried about the recession, interest rates, BSE and NSE indices.........yes, I have to. But, it’s also my responsibility to look around myself to identify those who need help. It’s the responsibility of our state to concentrate uplifting these ‘diamonds in the rough’ rather to raising the stock market index.

“The ten most important Indians are the education ministers of the country's ten largest states. The next ten are the secretaries to these ministers. Alas, they do not realize their historic mission. The United States, the European Union and East Asia are all embarked on massive plans to accelerate the development of their human capital.......and we Indians are in a race with them” - argues Gurcharan Das in this excerpt from his book "India Unbound".

So need of the hour is firm forward steps by the government, you and me. Our contribution can be small – a few hours in a month to teach tose child, some books they need or a pair of uniforms. These small drops might turn into a flow of river one day. Then only the dreams of thousands like our little ‘future pilot’ will come true.