The satisfaction of teaching for a small university

Thanks to Shyam Suryanarayanan (https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/scital/), I had the pleasure of visiting a university where Telugu is the medium of everything. English also they will talk in Telugu (reminds me of my childhood struggles with English). Challenge is to conduct an online session (No COVID-19 was there, it was 2017) for 2 days on a real-world case study. My friends in IISc, NCBS and in some of the best places were to coordinate. Shyam had put the Scital platform in great shape, we just had to execute. It was executed very well in Bangalore and some big cities where people can even sleep in English!

University had 40 laptops in boxes, we had the joy of opening so many new computers in a day! The library and IT staff were delighted that now these can be used. BSNL was there to rescue and help us connect to the internet and it took good 20 minutes for making the students understand that the entire conversation will be in English. Once the class session started they went so seamlessly, all the students were able to manage exceptionally well in answering, making a ppt, writing a short note and a very long discussion. One thing Shyam has done in these sessions is to Instruct Experts not to talk for more than a few minutes and engage students. Once students started talking (in English) and presenting - they had enjoyed it so much that they started talking to us in English!

Until that day - They had an inhibition to talk in English and never had a chance to project them as proficient in English, but that day they had the opportunity and they all rocked. One thing I learned that day is whether it is a metro or village - students are students. They can adapt, excel when there is a slightly challenging situation is faced. What Shyam/Scital has done is to allow them to express and they made very neat Posters and pitched their concepts very well. I wish every learning place - be it school or college or university - instead of only testing the students - allows them to express themselves. This could create a real learning experience. Despite so much exposure, many of us get confused - English for Knowledge, Stylish dressing for Culture, Urban living for a better life.... Proud to see some of these students working in Hyderabad and doing extremely well. Feedback is that they are very disciplined and these companies are looking forward to people from such places.

I still remember the emotional closing session. Its very satisfying when you hear such positive feedback.

When there was a chance to visit another town, university for Scital - I just went without any expectation and the joy of meeting such students who are innocent and eager to learn made the journey to such remote places truly rewarding and a memory to cherish. For Shyam and anyone - planning a project in a remote area - I would be happy to join to collect more joy. Please tag our friends who would be interested in such activity.