Primary School Teacher

Neev the Foundation School

Two 4 year-old children are about to start their pre-school. Maya, a curious 4 year old in Alkapuri (Vadodara) will, fortunately, be able to attend a good school where competent teachers are motivated and adequate learning resources are available. Mayank, a boy of the same age who lives with his grandmother in a remote part of the Vadodara district in Gujarat, India will unfortunately not get the chance to go to a school that can promise an adequate standard of education.
Over the course of primary school, Maya will benefit from effective teaching practices. Her teachers will give examples to illustrate concepts, provide guided practice, and give her friendly and personalized feedback. She will have a wide array of books to choose from, feeding her creative mind and providing contextual knowledge to everything she learns. By the end of second grade, she will be reading and comprehending full sentences quickly and progressing to longer texts.
In contrast, Mayank will struggle to read single words, let alone sentences. His 1st grade teacher is not fluent in English, the medium of instruction. He cannot get extra help because there are more than 60 pupils in his class and there are no story books at school. Further, Mayank gets home from school tired because he walks two hours and fails to retain his learning and complete homework independently. His grandmother cant read and write, and they speak the local dialect (colloquial Gujarati) at home. Little Mayank finds it hard to learn and lessons are sometimes confusing and out of his reach. While his teachers will be doing their best to help him, soon enough, Mayank will start to lose motivation and dislike going to school. By the end of primary school, Maya will begin to reach novels while Mayank will struggle to read a simple short story.