“Hey akka! Enkooda vanthu ukkarunga. Namma padikalam.”

I haven’t gone to school a lot, I hadn’t even met the kids before this. Having worked with the research team for a while, I went to the school to see how our work gets implemented and how we are helping the kids. It is heartwarming watching the kids react in such a loving and welcoming way towards people who they only see once a week. Teaching ESL isn’t simple. It is so inherently different from Tamil that explaining simple things like conjunctions is an uphill task. Each kid in a class has different progress rates. Taking all of that into consideration, we have to come up with a syllabus that makes sure all the kids learn something new and also make sure that it stays with them forever. The Research Team has been working really hard to make sure this is possible. There are several versions of the syllabus, each more evolved than the previous one. The School Team is in charge of implementing it and giving feedback.

When you converse with the School Team volunteers, you’ll notice that sometimes they say that they underestimate the kids. I don’t think that’s true. I think they underestimate their potential to help. The thing that I love about VITeach is that we don’t simply focus on imparting knowledge. The organization has been working on ways to get the kids interested in a foreign language by incorporating fun activities to make sure they are always involved in the class. A good education isn’t just about scores and ranks. It is constructive in nature and it brings out healthy competition. It tries to inspire the student into being a better version of themselves. And the people at VITeach are trying their best to do that and I’m proud to be a part of it.