Mantra4Change gets its Advisory Board

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “Our chief want in life is somebody who will make us do what we can” and he couldn’t be more right. 

We, at Mantra4Change, have a great team of enthusiastic people who share a common goal and constantly strive to provide quality education to children, but that is not enough for us. We believe that as humans or organization, we always need someone to guide us and constantly challenge our potential in order to keep improving. This is why, after a series of efforts, we have finally got our “Board of Advisors”.  And we are thrilled to have them officially on board with us. It will be a futile effort to rope in all their achievements and their support extended to us so far. So, here is a brief introduction to our “Board of Advisors” at Mantra4Change.

S D Shibulal is one of the co-founders of Infosys Pvt Ltd. He also served as CEO of Infosys from 2011 to 2014. After his retirement from Infosys, he co-founded Axilor Ventures, a venture capital service for young entrepreneurs. Axilor is currently supporting more than 50 startups. Mr. Shibulal is also interested in improving the quality of education at schools in India. Towards this, he started Advait Foundation to promote philanthropic ventures in the field of education and research. 

Kumari Shibulal established Sarojini DamodaranFoundation in 1999. The focus of the foundation is on education of the under privileged children from primary to college. One arm of the foundation (Advaith) focuses on K-10 education for poor kids through a school called Samhita Academy. The second arm of the foundation, Vidyadhan, focuses on kids through grade 11 up to college education through a need based full scholarship for the Children who come from families below the poverty line. It started in 1999 with two kids. Today the foundation supports close to 5000 kids.

Sanjay Purohit is the founder of ScaleChange network. He has 25+ years of work experience across domains of technology, quality, business strategy, consulting etc. He served at Infosys as Executive Vice President. Prior to joining Infosys, he worked at Tata Quality management Services as Senior Consultant.  He is currently advisor to EkStep Foundation and eGovernments Foundation. He is also leading the initiative to build platform to support organisations working in the area of systemic transformation in Education. He keenly supports and mentors organisations in social sector.

Janhvi Kanoria has a Masters in Education from Harvard Graduate school of Education. She worked as Supreme Education Council at Ministry of Education, Qatar. She was responsible for setting up the office in all strategic, operational and people aspects. Currently, she is working as Education portfolio Manager at Qatar Foundation. As a founding team member, she is helping CEO’s office with strategy and management support. 

We hope to keep enriching our panel of advisors. Meanwhile, with the guidance of such great personalities, we look forward to a great journey full of learning and explorations. This, indeed, opens up endless possibilities for us in our vision of "Education Transformation."

Lighting up the temple of knowledge on Diwali

Diwali is the celebration of good over evil. But it is more popularly the festival of joy and that of light. It is symbolic of fighting off darkness. What could be a better way to celebrate Diwali than by building a temple of knowledge that could fight off the darkness of ignorance and illiteracy..! What could be a better way to celebrate Diwali than by creating a space for the tiny human beings- the students of the Kindergarten section- of my school to learn by exploring in an 'adapted' Montessori Method..! 

This beautiful space would have only remained a dream, but for the Principal of the school. The Principal's belief in the changes that Mantra had been bringing into the school and his trust on the process of transformation made this possible. This huge shift of mindset from garnering the little profits earned from the school to spending most of it on development of school is very heart-warming and is an achievement worth being proud of.

Read our previous blog on how we introduced the ‘adapted’ Montessori to our pre-primary classrooms.  

Gradually as the principal of the school started realising how kids were excited about this new way of learning and how this is benefiting them, he went out of his way to ensure that his kids get the best environment he could offer. The dirty-looking corner that used to store all the junk and discarded materials suddenly got transformed into a shining and bright ‘Activity Room’.  At Mantra, we reached out to our partner, Let's Do Some Good Foundation (LDSG) for monetary support. They contributed part of the funds for building this space, and so did the extremely invested principal of the school. Now that is how magic happens..!  

Usually these kids in the pre-primary section are live wires, full of so much energy that they can't always seem to contain it. Turns out that the activity space is their Zen-zone, a place as envisioned by Maria Montessori; a place where the child is a dedicated worker and explorer.

Every day, we (adults) stand around the kids watching them in awe as they labour in pure bliss and concentration. The teachers look on proudly at the children and why should they not. It is their handiwork, indeed. They imbibed the training, meticulously implemented it and even created a few activities to add on to the already existing Montessori activities. Such was the dedication of the staff and the management of the school.

Nobody could have come up with a better way to celebrate Diwali. It was the day a dump yard in the school got transformed into a beautiful activity space for children.

- The blog piece has been written by Ms. Amrutha Krishnan, who works as the School Transformation lead at Mantra4Change.

What kind of Social Sciences is worth teaching?

We have a subject called social science taught in some form or the other in schools across the world. Sometimes it goes by the name of Environment Studies (like in the present primary schools in India), sometimes as separate subjects – History, Geography, Civics (or the more Contemporary Citizenship Education in many countries today or social and political Life as in India) until middle school and then as History, Geography, Economics, Political Science and Sociology in high school. In some countries and at sometimes there has been a subject called Social Studies and some kinds of thinking excludes History and Geography from the Social Sciences and treats them as separate subjects while including Economics, Political Science and Sociology in the social sciences. For the purpose of this type of writing (Blogs), I will not enter into that discourse, however relevant. By social sciences, I mean all subjects dealing with the analysis of some or all aspects of society and social life seen through some lens or the other. Thus History is part of social science as it analyses continuity and change in different aspects of society and their interrelationships over time, Geography as it does the same across regions, Economics as it develops and applies the concepts and method to analyse economic aspects, Sociology as it does the same for the social aspects and Political Science for political aspects. Till the elementary level of schooling, the latter three are not taught as separate subjects, but are in some way integrated through the subject of civics, citizenship education or social and political life as the case may be.

At MANTRA, we have been striving hard to provide subject-content support to our teachers in whichever we can. We are looking for extending support to our partner schools in this discipline because this is the most commonly feared among the teachers and students.

“How do I make it interesting? The content is just so dry! What is the content aiming — remembering dates?!”

These are some of the common statements that I have received and trust me, as a student of Social sciences I feel different now. However, I felt the same way when I was in school. So what kind of Social Sciences is worth teaching?

Irrespective of how we understand the social sciences, there is often a question in the minds of parents and society in general as to whether the social sciences are relevant at all to the lives of people in today’s technocratic world. The first question people ask is what will a child do if s/he takes up the study of any of the social sciences at the college level? What kind of ‘job prospects’ does s/he have- become a teacher in a school or college, a researcher or academic; join one of the services through the entrance exams? Take up a management field particularly Human Resource Management. All these options are open to a graduate of engineering or a medical student as well; so why take up social sciences if the option of the so called technical fields is open?

This attitude percolates to the primary and high school level as well where students (and parents) have the attitude of just wanting to pass in the social sciences. Seldom is it asked as to how the social sciences can contribute to make students better human beings or make them capable of contributing to the betterment of society or in fact, how can the teaching and learning of social sciences at school sustain and develop a democracy. Specialising in a social science at the college level needs to be looked at differently from the essential education in the social sciences at the school level.

Getting too much for one blog?

Stay tuned for the second part wherein I will write what according to me the aims of History and Social Science Education should be. You can agree and disagree, add or subtract, maybe implement it in your classrooms! For that, you have to read the second part :)

- The blog piece has been written by Ms. Vasundhara, who works as the School Transformation lead at Mantra4Change. 

"There is much to celebrate": An afternoon with Mr. Avinash Kumar

Have you ever stepped out of a meeting/session with a feeling of being liberated and thanking the stars and the people who helped you be in that place at that moment?!

That was exactly what transpired in my head when I came out from a meeting with Mr. Avinash Kumar, a software engineer turned educationist, currently heading the WIPRO Fellowship Program at WATIS. How and why?! Let’s find out!

There are usually two kinds of responses from people when they find out that I am a software engineer turned ‘person working in education sector with an NGO’. 

The responses being:

(a) “BUT WHY?!” (b) “Such a NOBLE THING! The country needs more youngsters like you”. While there’s absolutely nothing wrong with either of the responses, it is definitely overwhelming and not to mention confusing, when one is seen as a saviour, especially that of a wicked problem such as the state of education in our country.

So here comes a person who starts off the talk by saying that what we are all doing is honest work that might not be astoundingly successful (I could feel a brick being lifted off my chest at that point). He then goes on to talk about what is and can be perceived as success in an education intervention and how we are generally harsh on ourselves about such things.

He flips my thoughts on how probably nothing worthwhile has happened so far (exceptions being RTE, Rishi Valley and other widely known endeavours) by mentioning that the enrolment rate in schools was just ~12% in 1947, whereas now, it is almost 100%! It makes me realise that I and quite a few of us weren’t really appreciating the stupendous work that happened! The numbers written above indicate a cultural shift that took place and it isn’t a small thing by any measure! He goes on to talk about the status of gender disparity then and now. About how people who couldn’t think of sending their girls outside the four walls are now sending them to schools, and the way civil society played a major role in these phenomenal transformations.

We go onto speak about what Education means to each one of us and the tricky topic of expansion in this sector. He mentions how the experimentation at Hoshangabad (popular as HSPT), started in 1972 by Eklavya was the seed for Science Curriculum in NCF in the year of 2005. In the same breath, he tells us the story of David Horsburgh, a British-born educationist who first came to India in 1943 while serving with the Royal Air Force. This man eventually founded ‘Neel Bagh’, a school in Madanapalle district of Andhra Pradesh in 1972 and lived there till his death in 1984. During his years spent at this school, he trained far less than 100 people. Would you term it successful?

Probably no. But what if we tell you that out of those whom he trained were Malathi, Amrutha Mahapatra, Rohit Dhankar and many more who went on to contribute to education by setting up schools such as Digantar, Sumavanam, Vikasana and more importantly in helping state and central governments in programs such as Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan.

By mentioning how the direct impact of this school was probably not scalable and yet its long term impact is something that was mammoth, (Mr. Avinash Kumar) gave us food for thought about what exactly we are aiming at when we talk about scaling and expansion in this sector. Made me think of how even a number such as ten or five or even 1 school is meaningful, important and unignorable!

Before signing off, Mr. Avinash Kumar mentions how there’s a tipping point for visible change to happen and if we haven’t reached that tipping point yet, it doesn’t mean that there was no work done. Something to keep in mind and also something that leaves us free to experiment within reasonable limits, right?

By the end of this interaction, I felt visibly light- so light that I could feel a spring in my feet. It gave voice to my thoughts on how what I and many others are doing is not just about changing the current poor state, but also, and probably more about continuing the good work that has gone in so far.

It turned out to be one of those very rare interactions that showed me the possibility of how some simple observations when presented in the right way helps one look at things with a fresh lens even when he/she isn't ready for it. Something that I should be conscious of while working with my set of teachers.

P.S. Elisha, if you are reading this, please know that as soon as I stepped out, you were amongst the first who I thought led me to him. Thank you!

- The blog piece has been written by Ms. Veda Veeravalli, who works as the School Transformation lead at Mantra4Change.

Celebrating the teachers..!

It is almost a cliché that teaching happens to be one of the most thankless jobs in the world. Why would you thank a person who is trying to make the world a better place; why would you thank a person who is crazy to pull an all-nighter just to make a class of half-grown homo-sapiens make sense of something that could probably help them throughout their lives; why would you thank a person who smiles through all the chaos and has the patience to answer a million questions; and most importantly, why would you ever thank a person who never expects to be thanked..!

Turns out, Dr. Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan found a solution to this. When a group of individuals approached him to celebrate his birthday, he in turn requested them to celebrate his birthday as teachers’ day and thus, a day was born to celebrate those individuals who are never thanked enough - A day when teachers are showered with gratitude that they truly deserve and love from all the students.

The students at Citizens high school (a partner school with MANTRA) had been planning teachers’ day for a long time. They took it upon themselves to make this day a grand success (which it was). Past two weeks looked very normal to the teachers - they were teaching and the students were learning, but what they missed to notice were the secret hushes, the small group meetings and the hidden smiles among their students. As a spectator to all the happenings in the school, it gave me an immense sense of pride to witness the amount of energy, effort and enthusiasm that these tiny people were putting in to make their teachers feel special.

The plan was skilfully crafted out, the tasks were divided equally and everyone held each other accountable for their jobs. It surprised me to see the amount of maturity and professionalism with which these children took up their jobs. There was a decoration committee, an arts and craft committee, a logistics committee a performance committee and obviously, the fun committee. I was also given a task to take pictures of their teachers in class as they wanted to create a photo gallery of their teachers as part of the surprise package.

As the “D-day” started approaching, the intensity of their work also started increasing; of course, there were many glitches in the way, but this did not dampen the spirit of these children. They planned and they rehearsed until it was perfect. They ran, they jumped, they skipped and they danced but not once did they run out of energy. They happily did their jobs and kept nagging for more.

Finally the day had arrived and you could sense a weird mix of nervousness and pride in the air. The school ground got a makeover with a splash of colours in the form of balloons and streamers and the beautiful teacher gallery. Students were busy making the day perfect. The teachers started entering one by one and each one of them had a big wide smile on their faces. They stared in disbelief at the work their children had put up. The program they had put up was splendid and the teachers participated with a lot of enthusiasm. The school vibrated with fun and energy.

This day made me realize something - teaching might not be the most rewarding job in the world but it is definitely the most satisfying one.

- The blog piece has been written by Ms. Revathi Menon, who works as the School Transformation lead at Mantra4Change. It captures the moments from teachers' day preparations and celebrations at a partner school.

Meet the Power Couple..!

‘Power couple’ was the first phrase that came to my mind as I read the brief about them - Janhvi Maheshwari Kanoria and Samvit Kanoria.

Janhvi is currently serving the Ministry of Qatar as their education expert. Samvit, on the other hand, is a partner to Mckinsey. Did anyone let out a low whistle like I did? They were here in Bangalore to volunteer for MANTRA. Wow.

My current hurdle was to make small talk and engage people who were clearly extremely knowledgeable and sensible. For someone who has feared conversations with strangers in the past, you can only imagine the thoughts flitting past my mind. However, the car ride with Janhvi and Samvit turned out to be pleasant as opposed to the hard work I had thought it would be. As we traversed the Bangalore traffic to reach our partner school in Goripalya, they were visiting, I was humbled by the kind of work Janhvi had done and the perspective that Samvit brought to our conversations.

Just to let you in on a bit of our conversation, this July, Janhvi worked with a low income school in Kolkata where she discovered that a kindergarten class room had close to sixty students, one teacher and a helper (a very typical scenario in our partner schools as well). This often resulted in an extremely tired teacher, an agitated helper and a bunch of chaotic kids with little or no learning happening in the classrooms. A visibly excited Janhvi gushed about how she created various domains in the classrooms and divided the kids into each domain/ group while each of the adults handled the domain that they were comfortable with. The domains ranged from developing motor skills in children to literacy and math. Her logic was, and I completely agree, that why should the teacher handle all the kids alone, when there are so many skills to be taught to these early learners and some of it can be delegated to low-skilled people as well.

Samvit opined that certain corporate practices may help people in the social sector to be more organised and that his interaction with MANTRA would be fruitful only if he can show us structures and systems that can be put in place for a budding organisation to work smoothly.

Well, it's true what they say, everyday you learn a little something. That day I learned more than just a 'little' and little did I know that I would be learning a lot more the next day.

Janhvi and Samvit, during their stay with us at MANTRA, conducted an interesting workshop for the team on topics relevant to our work, e.g. feedback, problem-solving, time management, Mindset & Behaviors etc.

We will ensure that we share the nuggets of wisdom with all of you out there. So make sure that you grab your note pad, pen and a bottle of water to wash it all down as you read our next blog in this series.

- The blog piece has been written by Ms. Amrutha Krishnan, who works as the School Transformation lead at Mantra4Change. 

And I witnessed the unfolding of transformation this summer.

- Ms. Aishwarya Suresh - a high-school student from the US who spent the summer with us at MANTRA as an intern, shares her experience in this blog piece.

"It seemed as if the students, teachers, and parents were becoming more invested and were collaborating together to enhance the learning experience for the children. One parent even approached us and asked how she should help her son learn outside of school. This was incredible to witness, and warmed my heart."

 In the Spring of 2016, I found out about Mantra4Change. The organization focuses on School Transformation and Empowerment (STEP), and works strategically and tirelessly to achieve its goals of improving the education system in the low-income areas of Bangalore. Three months later, the loud chatters and giggles of children filled my ears as Megha, Naina, and I pulled into Padarayanapura, Bangalore for a three-week internship with Mantra4Change in one of their partner schools.

About our internship

Our placement school is a low income private school located in Padarayanapura in Bangalore. With the help of Mantra, this school now practices a more effective and forward curriculum, which uses aspects of the Montessori and Creative Curriculum. During our month long internship period, Megha, Naina, and I focused on transforming the curriculum in the Lower Kindergarten class, by teaching the students, explaining our curriculum to the teachers, and training the teachers on how to teach with it. Prior to collaborating with Mantra, the school followed a curriculum that focused mostly on memorisation, writing, and repeating after the teacher. Though some aspects of this curriculum were helpful, we felt that a majority of the syllabus made it difficult for the students to understand and process the classroom content. To enhance the learning system, Mantra introduced visual aids, collaboration, creativity, cleanliness, and encouraged enthusiasm in teachers, helping form strong bonds between students and teachers.

Problem with rote-based curriculum?

As the students are around the age of three, they have not yet developed their fine motor skills or the muscles in their hands. This makes it difficult for the children to hold a pencil, which prevents them from being able to write. The children were also unable to understand the concepts of the lesson through memorisation, and were just simply repeating after the teacher. Do not get me wrong, repetition is very helpful and the teachers were very smart about their approach. However, given the students were not fully familiar with English, repetition activities in english did not allow them to use their memory as a way of learning the concept and instead was a chance for them to repeat after the teacher while zoning out. To explain it more clearly, envision yourself repeating a pattern of sounds which have little or no meaning to you. In this time, it is likely your mind is elsewhere, though you may still be repeating the pattern. When the student was asked a conceptual question based on what was taught that day, he/she was unable to answer it.

Solution:

Prior to leaving for India, through intense research, visits to local schools in the US and communication with teachers there and study of the Creative Curriculum helped us find a solution for some of these problems. We incorporated more motor skill tasks to strengthen the hand muscles of the students, changed the classroom layout  to support the new structure and curriculum, introduced play time to encourage physical activity, and introduced Circle Time. Circle Time is a daily interactive learning session when the students are asked to sit in a circle for about thirty minutes. In this time the teacher can use different activities, games, audio, and visual aids to teach the concept, while capturing the attention of the students. This new curriculum helps the students build social skills, confidence, creativity, and discipline while thoroughly understanding the concept of the day.

Challenges: Resistance

The internship opportunity proved a great learning experience for us, and was a truly one-of-a-kind opportunity where we had fun while meeting amazing people and having a chance to help the community. However, throughout the process, we encountered some challenges which were somewhat difficult to overcome. One challenge we faced was resistance from the community for adapting our new curriculum. As many teachers were new to our curriculum, they were ambivalent about the positive effects of some aspects of our new syllabus. This caused them to initially to be apprehensive of practising it, which therefore made the curriculum ineffective. To overcome this challenge, we decided to begin teaching our curriculum and hope that the positive effects causes the teachers to be more enthusiastic. This proved to be a success, as by the end of the internship period, the teachers were actively suggesting ideas and new aspects for the new curriculum, and added their ideas and flavour to the overall form.

Challenges: Discipline

Another challenge we encountered was the lack of discipline among many of the students. There would be constant talking, screaming, misbehaviour, and disobeying of directions. To overcome this challenge, Megha, Naina, and I practiced some discipline activities with the class. We initially established a set of classroom rules, and asked the teacher to repeat and explain this to the class on a daily basis in both English and Urdu. We also established a list of consequences for misbehaviour, such as not being allowed to participate in the activity, or time outs. This also helped to promote discipline. Another idea was to enforce behaviour logs, where the teacher gives the student a daily behaviour report which gets sent to the parents. We also played space recognition games, and discipline activities, such as “Simon Says”. Megha, Naina, and I also brainstormed with the teacher on effective ways to handle misbehaviour, and encouraged talking to the students, giving them appropriate consequences, and allowing them to think about their actions rather than being punished forcefully, which was used prior. Research shows that forceful punishment deters the students’ confidence and social skills and establishes fear between the students and the teachers. However, as the students lacked discipline, many teachers felt as if it was their only resort. We hope the teachers take our suggestions and eventually stop this form of punishment as it is truly detrimental to the students’ development. Altogether, enforcing rules, discipline activities, and allowing the student to think about his/her actions helped enforce classroom discipline and etiquette while maintaining a safe and happy environment for the students.

Personal Highlight:

I loved interacting and getting to know the students. Every day we would learn a little more about each child, and over time we were able to communicate with them more, which was truly incredible. We formed so many bonds with many students and teachers. The high point of my trip was seeing the curriculum work for the students and teachers. We saw the teachers leading circle time on their own, using visual aids, and encouraging the students. The students slowly began to speak more English, collaborate with one another, and become more confident and disciplined. It seemed as if the students, teachers, and parents were becoming more invested and were collaborating together to enhance the learning experience for the children. One parent even approached us and asked how she should help her son learn outside of school. This was incredible to witness, and warmed my heart.

This curriculum transformation proved to be effective on a whole, as we observed more communication, confidence, and understanding among the students. A parent even approached us and said she observed changes in her son’s understanding and saw him count on his own while they were walking. I am very grateful for the help and cooperation from the teachers and administration of the school. Though we faced multiple challenges through the journey, this internship was one of the most amazing, valuable, and unforgettable experiences of my life, and I am very thankful for Santosh, Khushboo, Amrutha, and the Mantra team for giving me this opportunity.

Tryst with an icon

Leadership interaction with Mr. S.D. Shibulal, ex-CEO and Co-founder, Infosys

"S. D. Shibulal better known as Shibulal was the chief executive officer and Managing Director of Infosys."

..boasted the Wikipedia page about the founder of the company whose representatives had flown down to our college for recruiting the best of us into their team. It was the placement season and being a fourth year student, I was trying to feed my tired brain with as much information as possible about the companies that were arriving for recruitment. Infosys was one of the first ones. It was the mother of all companies who caught the fantasy of many a youngster like me. The story of the company that took the IT sector in India by storm and its seven founders was the fairy tale that my generation and the generation before us grew up hearing.

Fast forward three years, life had taken a different trajectory and I chose to be in the education space. During the first few weeks at Mantra4Change, the NGO I work for currently, I discovered the very man I had googled three years ago is the man who is funding the organisation I work with. He however still remained a mysterious figure in the shadows that I could never approach. I mean, how could a twenty something nobody meet a man who led a blue-chip company. 

This was until I saw a Google invite pop up in my mail asking me to either accept or ignore dinner with Mr. S. D. Shibulal & family and Mr. Murali Krishna (ex-CIO, Infosys). "Ignore? Are you joking", I asked out loud to my innocent laptop! I was beyond excited and the several text messages on our team’s Whatsapp group confirmed that, so were my team mates.

Mr. John Prakash and Mr Ansal Scarria, principals of two of our partner schools waited graciously along with us to meet the team. As we trooped our tired yet excited selves into the brightly lit conference room, it was clear that we were at loss for words. I remember Khushboo's voice ringing through the room as she made the initial introduction and a pealing silence that followed. This however lasted for a just a few seconds and then, when Mr. Shibulal had broken the ice himself, Team Mantra (including the school principals) couldn't stop reeling question after question at the man.

The discussion started with challenges in scaling an organisation like Mantra, moving onto policy changes in education and eventually closing off with setting up organisational culture. The man was crisp and to the point, typical characteristics of a CEO.

Here is the wisdom chronicled for the aspirant entrepreneur who happens to read this piece, go ahead the world is at you feet when armed with knowledge and wisdom. Mr. Shibulal spoke about the three hurdles any organisation would face when scaling namely, finding the right talent with commitment to the cause, maintaining consistent quality throughout (Standardise, he said) and finding the right leadership group that can take the organisation forward. To paraphrase Mr. Shibulal,

"For any organisation, especially the one like yours that focus on social impact, three points are of immense significance:

·       Practice your idea. Go to the ground and work damn hard to show the feasibility and impact of your idea.

·      Policy changes can take your idea to every place in the country and make it sustainable. Once you have the proof points, influence the policy makers, get the policy amended.

·       Papers will help you spread your idea. Spread it. Let others use it as a model, for now you have proof and there is policy backing. Nothing stops you now except yourself."

The discussion moved onto various challenges faced by the education sector and the lustre and romance that the field, once held in high regard, has lost. It was rightly pointed out by the team of mentors before us that the respect needs to be brought back to the teaching profession. Once called "the backbone of the country", the typical teacher of this era has to survive a rather thankless society.

As we touched upon the topic of setting up organisational culture, Mr Shibulal was again crisp and short. Here I am, again, quoting the man who brought an entire organisation of thousand odd employees into the company on time every single time.

"The culture has to be penned down and articulated, the leader has to lead by example and finally appreciate the rule advocates and penalise the rule breakers. This induces the network effect which capitalises on the mob mentality of human beings. Nobody would want to be the black sheep and be singled out for being the culture wrecker."

As we took our places at the dinner table, the glutton in me took a break when Mr. Shibulal elaborated on the various endeavours his family had ventured into and how much the family has contributed and continues to contribute to the society at large. On being asked what keeps him going, Mr. Shibulal answered, "When you gain from the society, you need to balance the equation and give as much as you can. When you consume more resources, the bigger is your responsibility to serve the society."

Memorable, indeed that night was with great food, a warm company and wisdom beyond my age and of course the tryst with an icon.

- The blog piece has been written by Ms. Amrutha Krishnan, who works as the School Transformation lead at Mantra4Change.

Why go far to seek inspiration..!

- The blog piece has been written by Ms. Amrutha Krishnan, who works as the School Transformation lead at Mantra4Change.

My thoughts strayed and for a minute or two I was completely unaware of the scene unfolding in front of my eyes. I felt like I was back in Chennai, in my classroom amidst my children. The topic I had thrown at my kids chalked hastily on the black board and I would be armed with a chalk piece in one hand and a white board marker in another, ready to be used once the black board gets filled with their thoughts and ideas. During one of those sessions with my kids I had strayed just as I had now, thinking back to those initial few months when these kids, who were now confidently opining their views, had met my questions with blank stares and shy smiles.

I am sharply tugged back to reality, to that brightly painted room, as Nadiya and Saba – 20 years old girls from the conventional Muslim community- stare at me expectantly. They were waiting for me to throw them the next guiding question that would help them lead the session to conclusion. The evening sun glowed dimly on the faces turned up towards me- the faces of teachers for whom I had been conducting a session on planning and execution of a lesson. Yes, as a project lead at MANTRA, a large part of my work involves teachers’ professional development in schools that cater to low income communities. I remember Khushboo (a colleague) explaining to us, the newly recruited team, about MANTRA's project TARGET (Talent Recognition, Engagement and Training Program) with much excitement. "We train youth from the community to go back into classrooms and teach the children". The excitement was palpable and all of us were pumped up.

The extent of impact that TARGET had on the 'community youth' became evident to me only after I met the vivacious, energetic power houses Saba, Nadiya and Arshiya. These young girls, in their own ways, are challenging the status quo and are proving their mettle against all odds. TARGET had meant that after their morning college classes (or as fresh graduates), they rush down to the school to teach children of their own community. This funds their own higher education and takes a huge burden off the school management's shoulder because finding dedicated teachers in these communities had always been a problem that has eluded solution. In spite of their packed schedule, these girls religiously plan for the lessons to be taught the next day and prepare for their college classes.  The amount of grit and courage in these girls amaze me every single day. And now when they stand up and talk to other teachers on how to plan their daily lessons, I stand looking on like an awe struck bystander.

In hindsight, I learnt a valuable lesson.

You don't have to go far to seek inspiration. There is always a Saba or a Nadiya to show that people with determination and passion still exist in this topsy-turvy world of ours. When, during one of those days, I feel low thinking about the state of education, waste management, moral situations and the million other problems that boldly parade down our streets, I think of these girls. They don't have a fancy schooling or money to boast of. But their work is rooted in their reality and their determination to make it in this world in spite of their grim circumstances blows my mind away and I know that the world has a few safe hands that shall guard it.

Taking responsibility to reinstate parents' faith in education

- The blog piece has been written by Ms. Amrutha Krishnan, who works as the School Transformation lead at Mantra4Change.

Aisha ma'am comes forth to practice her welcome address; teachers, the HM (head mistress ) and I wait patiently often coming up with words of encouragement when she fumbled with her piece of paper with the welcome address on it.

Let me introduce you, my friends, to the setting. 

The setting is a classroom around late afternoon. Teachers and the head mistress have come to the room and are enthusiastic about what was happening. 

The context: a parent-teachers meeting to be held three days after. This mind you, is the holy month of Ramzan. Everyone, with an exception of myself, are undergoing the rigorous fast that Muslims keep in order to feel the hunger pangs of the poor so that they are more empathetic to them in the coming months. For most teachers, it is the first time that they had to speak in English in front of an adult crowd. But they were willing to, to reinstate the parents' faith in education.

You know that there is a slow but steady metamorphosis happening when the staff at your partner school stays back after school hours, instead of waiting to bolt, just to practice their part for a parent -teachers meeting. 

You know priorities have shifted from questions over breakfast menu to questions about their child's education when parents turn up in tens at a time to attend the meeting. 

You know the focus has shifted from taking offence at statements to improving the delivery of education to kids when the entire staff cocks their ears and listens intently to the concerns of the parents.

You just know that you work in an organisation that works with a passion to change when the head mistress of the school delivers a powerful speech on how education can't be bought, but has to be shared; and you have goose bumps on your hands. 

The icing on the cake is when the founder of the school does not talk about money, but patiently explains to the parents that recruitment of teachers is not based on caste, creed or colour, rather on their ability to impart wisdom to "our children". OUR CHILDREN. That was one of the highlights of the meeting. That is a power packed phrase.

For, to take responsibility is the first indication that the plan is working!

Scholarships for bright minds: Baby steps to a brighter future

- The blog piece has been written by Ms. Amrutha Krishnan, who works as the School Transformation lead at Mantra4Change.

"Help others achieve their dreams and you will achieve yours." - Les Brown

I am not sure if this is what Gautam (or Gautam bhaiyya as he is being called by a select few students in our school) thought of, sitting miles away in Middle East when he decided to support and fund higher secondary education of 10 girls. But his generous donation to the cause, along with that of Altimetrik India Pvt Ltd, has just lifted that financial hurdle that had hindered academic progress for many a 15 and 16 year old girls - those girls who would have, had it not been for this act, gotten married at a tender age instead of challenging their bright young minds further; the minds that fought all odds to get the right numbers on their mark sheets..!

The scholarship event was held at one of our partner schools in Goripalya area. We awarded the certificates and the scholarship amount to 10 young girls in presence of their parents, who committed that they won't compromise on continuing higher education of their girls.

At MANTRA, we try to do what we can to bring sustainable change in the education landscape; and the scholarship function at Goripalya was one such attempt that we hope to sustain and to continue to hold the lamp aloft for children with the will to pursue higher education.

Donations and funds help us a great deal, but only till the school threshold; for if they don't make their way to the students then all is awry. Sometimes, it takes a conscious good deed and at times, a random gesture of goodwill or a helpful contact that may change lives forever.

If you would like to contribute towards children from under-privileged sections of our society get access to better education, please write to us.

Let's join hands to make quality education available to all kids, no matter where they come from..!