SUPRIYA

Back to school

Supriya is 15 years old and is in Class X at a government school in Arumpuliyur village. She had been out of school for three years when she was identified by a Hand in Hand field worker, who persuaded her family to allow her to join the Hand in Hand run residential school called Poongavanam that is run by Hand in Hand. From here, she was later mainstreamed to the government school.

Supriya lives with her parents and seven siblings, all except one of whom have attended school sometime or the other. Her father is a government representative for their village and her mother is a housewife. Supriya was in Class VI when her grandmother forced her out of school to lend a hand with the housework. Hand in Hand field mobilisers convinced her parents to let her to go back to school. It was an easier task now that her grandmother, who had so strongly opposed the idea, was no more.

At the residential school, the Alternative Innovative Education system, a new teaching methodology, brings students up to date with the basics of school using Activity Based Learning cards. The cards introduce concepts visually, to rekindle an interest in learning, so that children are able to catch up quickly with their lost schooling years and get back to the level at which they had discontinued.

“All children must attend fulltime, formal day schools.” This is one of Hand in Hand’s non-negotiable principles. We have to apply this especially vigorously to girl children in poor families who often are kept out of school to attend to domestic chores. They end up being pushed into early marriages, experience frequent childbirth, and go on to suffer from ill health and marginalisation. Hand in Hand volunteers track out-of-school girls and persuade their families to send them back to school.

Supriya cheerfully admits that she is very happy to be able to continue her schooling and thoroughly enjoys her lessons. She especially looks forward to English and Science classes. She hopes to continue her studies and dreams of becoming a nurse when she grows up.