I teach because I care
Transcriber: Mohamed Ragab
Reviewer: Lucas Kaimaras
Hello! My grandfather
was a freedom fighter
and I was very attached
to my grandparents.
I remember that I was seven years old
in grade two and I was literate.
My grandmother would always depend
on me if she had to read something.
That’s what I observed.
She became my first student
and -in a couple of months- a literate.
That was the real independence
for my grandmother.
I was in grade two, so obviously
I did not know a lot of things.
But what I knew
at that point in time instinctively
was that I had this power
to free people from illiteracy.
The experience was able
to let me pause and think
that education was powerful
and liberating.
What if I told you in the 21st century
-I’m quite sure most of you
are going to be quite shocked by this-
in the 21st century I believe we get
a lot more about the society these days.
We have the power of technology.
But what if I told you that
773 million people today are illiterate?
To put that into perspective,
that’s the population of Saudi Arabia
and the entire Europe combined.
What if I told you that in Afghanistan,
only 17 percent of women are literate?
I think you’ll be quick
to blame the Taliban
and the 40 years of war for the shame.
And I agree with you, but then
what about our own country, India?
What if I told you that
the Muslim community in India
that has produced icons
like Dashrath Manjhi,
the mountain man of India,
has a literacy and overall literacy
of just three percent?
Needless to say, the pandemic
has pushed the gaps further,
the gaps that absolutely
hurt me as an educator.
The gaps that exist across the world,
it’s not just India, but across the world.
The gaps that exist
between students living in cities
and the ones living in villages.
When it comes to resources,
the gaps that exist between students
in high income schools
and the ones in low income schools.
One point six billion students
have been affected by the pandemic,
dropped out of school
when the pandemic began.
A majority of them are never
going to return to school.
And sadly, a big percentage
of them are going to be girls.
The pandemic has crushed our dream
of excellent education access
to every single child.
We need to pause and rethink
if there could be a way out.
Imagine a student in any part
or country of the world
who doesn’t have a device
during the pandemic.
Or a situation that’s very common
in developing countries like ours,
where the entire family
is dependent on one device.
The student wants to learn,
but then cannot - just cannot.
We need to pause and rethink
more than ever now
as to how can these gaps be bridged?
As in my views, education is more than
a basic fundamental human right.
And every single kid should have access
to an excellent education
for a skilled world
and for a transformed world.
Talking about refugees,
I have been asked this question
a number of times
by my students, by my friends,
that why do I care so much
about the refugee cause anyway?
Well, what do I do if that one community,
the refugee community,
is one of the hardest hit communities
in the world during the pandemic?
What if I told you that today one
out of every hundred of us on this planet
is a refugee?
The other data, which will again
shock you or astonish you,
is that if refugees were to form
a country of their own,
it would be the 22nd most populous
country in the world.
The population is going to probably be
equal to or surpass that of Thailand.
That’s the number of refugees we have.
So -
Anyone who’s listening to me right now,
if I ask you this question,
will you ever -and I mean, ever,
under any circumstance-
leave your home just like that?
No one becomes a refugee by choice.
And therefore,
I was very proud as an Indian
to teach at the Malala Yousafzai
Girls School in Lebanon.
Now hear me out when I say this.
I am a very proud and patriotic Indian.
So this Indian teacher
was teaching Syrian refugee girls
in a Lebanese school that was started
by a Pakistani Nobel laureate.
Why?
Because we all were fighting
for one common cause,
and that is education for all,
no matter what.
And the value that was driving me to be
a part of this change was an Indian value.
The ancient Indian value of [illegible],
which means that the entire world is one
community and that community is mine.
‘It takes a village to raise a child’
is an African proverb.
What if students feel scared?
In my personal opinion
-let me make it very clear-
I strongly believe that India
is a very, very tolerant country.
There’s no doubt about that.
But if violence threatens a teenager,
as a teacher, what can one do to ensure
that every single child who’s being taught
their minds are without fear
and that their head is held high?
After one of the community
classes reported,
one of my Muslim students came up
to me and asked me if he was safe.
He was quite terrified
and I could understand
what was probably going on in his mind
that made him ask his teacher
that question.
I had a long conversation with him
and I decided to let my actions
speak louder than my words.
I paused and I began to rethink
of what could pull this child out
of any thought that troubled him.
I am a proud Hindu and I fast
during Navratri every single year.
That year during Ramadan, the holy month
of Ramadan, when my students were fasting,
I, too would not eat. I would not feast
when my students were fasting.
And this little action had an impact,
an impact that I just
could have never imagined.
My classroom had had students
from all different faiths.
We had Hindus, Muslims, Christians,
Buddhists - in one classroom.
We all learned and worked
as one big family.
Celebrating each other’s festivals,
following our own traditions,
but respecting everyone else’s as well.
I teach first generation college students
because they need to be taught,
they need to be made a part
of the mainstream.
I teach refugee children
because I think they have suffered
for no fault of their own.
I teach kids with special needs to tell
the world that they’re damn smart.
All they need is one chance,
a little belief and lots of encouragement
to shine and discover their potential.
I teach adult women resuming studies
because there’s no age limit to learning.
Well, coming back to the story,
a year and a half later,
when the board exam results
were supposed to be declared,
I was in Mumbai teaching
another group of children.
I get a call from the same boy
who was scared a couple of years back,
one and a half years back,
he felt really scared.
He wanted to be in Mumbai
and pray at the Hajari Durga
on the day of the disaster.
That was what what he wanted to do.
But in 2017, the results were
delayed a couple of times,
so he couldn’t be in Mumbai
on the day of the result
as he would have liked it to be.
I still remember the date
of the board exam result.
I think it was 13th June 2017.
I get a call from him
and he wanted me to pray
at the Haji Ali Dargah
on his behalf.
As a teacher and as an Indian, I had won.
This probably was one of the greatest
moments of my teaching career.
That when a boy
who was scared a couple of years back
now trusted me with his prayers.
I pray that the Shri Siddhivinayak Mandir
and Haji Ali Dargah for all my students.
Well, if you ask me, we need to teach
our students about STEM,
you know,
about how to excel in STEM.
We need to teach our students
to learn new languages
to be prepared
for the skills of the future.
But what we need
to ensure for a better world
is that every single student
who we are teaching in our classrooms
they turn out to be
wonderful human beings.
I agree that teaching is a very tough job.
I agree that there are 69 million vacant
positions for teaching across the world.
It is a tough job. It’s a demanding job.
But when my grandmother
doesn’t need my help to read
or when my student
trusts me with his prayers,
when another wonderful student of mine
calls my classes
‘the mitochondria of school life’,
a term she has recently learned
in her biology lessons.
Or Insana -
Even I’m not that ambitious, you know.
I’ve never given it a thought,
but Insana is quite confident
that her teacher is going
to probably win the Nobel Prize.
I hope the Nobel Committee
is listening to Insana.
Well, when Jamaluddin,
who was a non-teaching staff
with me at the same school,
now aspires to be a teacher
because she has seen
the transformation of stories around.
When kids in Nipon give me a beautiful
present towards the end of my contract,
or when kids in South Africa
thank me by a loud ‘namaste’
towards the end
of my last class with them.
I think it’s all justified.
It is because of these reasons precisely
that I wake up every morning
looking forward to teach and empower.
I must conclude by saying
that I teach because I care.
Thank you so much.