Thought for Food

On an exhausted evening, a hot tea served along with a few biscuits accomplished our idea of refreshing our teachers!

Vidhya Vidhai team organized an event called Karka kasadara where teachers were encouraged to find a solution for the problems that are existing in the school. This post is a sharing by a group of teachers who efficiently solved a simple yet significant issue.

We were three teachers in the group and we started our discussion for identifying the problems in our school. I initiated the discussion about absence of playground in our school, one of the most common concerns of our teachers and students. I also thought about the concern of library improvement in our school.

One teacher in our group had taken the discussion to another perspective saying ‘Why not we figure out problems which we individually face as teachers?’ Silence prevailed for some time and after a while a teacher said ‘I don’t know why, my teaching performance in classes during the evening is very low’. ‘May be I am getting old!’, she kiddingly added. Another teacher in our group backed this argument and mentioned she had this issue some time back and she started bringing some eatables to keep her energy up. But she gradually left this routine as she thought it doesn’t seem good to eat alone.

Yes, 12’ noon being the lunch time of our school, we teachers get very much exhausted during our late afternoon classes. We sometimes have to take extra classes in the evening. We don’t have the sufficient energy to keep up our energy level. Though this issue initially started as an individual concern, it gained momentum through our discussion with other teachers and it seemed to be a significant issue which affects our teaching performance.

We planned to provide snacks for all the teachers in the evening. But we understood that this could significantly escalate the cost of management. So we had a discussion with our teachers about the idea of self sharing that if all the teachers can contribute a monthly amount of Rs. 50, then the idea can be implemented. Most of the teachers agreed to contribute except a very few who had some hesitation initially whom we could convince gradually.

We presented this report to the management and explained that this small initiative will go a long way in keeping our teachers refreshed for their late afternoon and evening classes. Our group felt very happy when our Correspondence, Principal and joined hands to implement this solution and finally the idea was executed.

And so we say, \”On an exhausted evening, a hot tea served along with a few biscuits accomplished our idea of refreshing our teachers!\”

– Kalaimani, Puspalatha & Ramah (Partner school Vidhya Vidhai)