Aspire to Inspire
Ms. Dhanashree was born in Hyderabad and brought up in Mumbai. Her father belongs to a farmer family who had to face many ordeals owing to the landlord system. He strongly believed that education was the only way to overcome the misery of life. Hence in 1970’s, he moved to Mumbai in search of livelihood and was fortunate enough to secure a job in BARC leading to his children availing free education in Central Government English Medium School. Along with my siblings, she was the first-generation English learners among her maternal and paternal family.
“Though my parents were able to provide me with education against all the odds, they were unable to overcome the practice of getting a girl child married at an early age. After completing SSC, I got married at the age of18. 10 years into my marriage and after having two kids I started looking for options to support my husband to run the family. Hence, I started taking tuition.”
In 2003, she got to know about Muktangan and its Teacher Training program. It was something that she was looking forward to and so she trudged forward on this journey. She joined Muktangan in 2004 after completion of the training, as a teacher of Muktangan’s English Language Program, where, she used to take Basic English grammar classes for the BMC vernacular medium students and English-speaking classes for parents. It was the fire in her belly that motivated her to pursue her studies and complete graduation simultaneously.
“During my school days I realized that my parents felt awkward in the parent teacher meetings as it was mostly conducted in English. It was heartbreaking and I felt miserable looking at their struggle to comprehend instructions. I always felt how comforting it would be for parents of any first-generation English learners to have an open communication with teachers to understand about their child’s progress.”
“This seed of thought that was lying deep in my system translated into reality during the Muktangan teacher training program. The initiative of providing quality education to the marginalized communities of society using dual language approach was simply path-breaking. I finally saw how comfortable parents and children both were while interacting with the teachers. These methods helped them understand and express themselves freely, boosting their confidence and self-esteem.”
It was all these wonderful teaching-learning practices that encouraged Ms.Dhanashree to shift her son from a reputed school to Muktangan in 2011. There was a remarkable change in his learning style. His focus switched from memorizing answers towards learning concepts. He received a space where he could ask questions in class to satisfy his curiosity.
Sitting beside a girl in the class was no longer considered a form of punishment and no question asked was a matter of being ridiculed. He is from the first batch of Muktangan who cleared SSC in 2013-14 and his journey only kept blossoming. He pursued his BE from VESIT, Chembur and secured a job in Accenture through campus recruitment. He is a proud Muktangan Alumnus.
“Initially when I started my job, I struggled to balance my duties as wife and a mother due to my commitments at the workplace. My family told me to quit the job and stay home as they felt a mere salary of Rs. 2000/- made no difference. But for me it was not the salary that mattered but the satisfaction that I used to get from my work mattered a lot, hence, I strived to balance my work and my household responsibilities. I started getting recognition in the community and gradually, my family acknowledged my abilities and they also started supporting me in my endeavors. Today I earn a decent salary and dare anyone say “my salary doesn’t make any difference!”
In her journey ‘from a teacher to schools’ leader’ she has evolved as a person who strongly believes that there is innate potential in every individual to improve themselves through studying, training, and practice, to reach the limit of their abilities and develop their aptitudes and skills. For her, Muktangan is her identity…. What she is today is because of Muktangan. At any event or any forum, her joy knows no bounds when her name is immediately followed by Muktangan.
Ms. Dhanashree Yeddandi, Schools Leader