Jaipur: Right below the 70-metre-high steep rock surrounded by a dingy Kundabasti Slum, the din from a loud English-alphabet pronunciation drill at a shed, is a regular phenomenon for the residents, every Sunday morning. The lyrical sound of English alphabets — ka, ka, ka…ma, ma, ma, breaking down of tough words, difference in pronouncing ‘Sha’ and Saa’ by the 40-60 students in the area, fills the air. Some kids sat under a tree, while others under a shed, bracing the bright sun on Sunday.The fun-filled activity-based session was moderated by 10-12 engineering students of Malaviya National Institute of Technology ( MNIT ). The drill lasted for an hour, followed by a session on solving questions of Maths and Science for students of all age groups.These engineering students are trying to bring about a change by improving the learning outcomes of the kids at Kundabasti Slum. They teach at an existing learning centre every Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Kartik Modi, a final year mechanical engineering student at MNIT, had started teaching Maths and Science alone, at the learning centre four years ago.It all stared while exploring the Jhalana forest. He could see some kids in a shed near the piles of garbage, studying in the evening. “I inquired about it and found that they were being given free coaching in all subjects upto primary level. I was told that the slum which has 1000 families stuffed in a small area, has a very high dropout rate of 60%-80% after class VIII,” said Modi, who hails from Jharkhand.Modi shared the idea with his friends in 2016 and a few of them agreed to teach Maths, Science and English once or twice in a month. “The challenge was that most of the children were supporting their families, leaving them disinterested in studies. In order to engage them, we started activity-based learning, so that they get some time to play as well,” said Modi. The group held several sittings to make learning fun. They recalled all tricks learnt during their school days to remember theories, formulae and equations, and made them simpler for these children to understand.The biggest challenge the group has taken up is preparing a girl student for JEE-main exam. Aarti, a class XII student of government school in Bajaj Nagar, is among the few students at Kundabasti who is studying science in class XII. “She was our student and is very intelligent. It took us several sessions to convince her that she can become an engineer and can study in the MNIT campus,” said Rohan Sawas, another student from MNIT.Three to four students are dedicatedly focusing on Aarti, by teaching her in the campus. She was also provided books by them. Back in school, the students also realized that high dropout among these children is also due to poor health. The open drainage and unsanitised roads makes these children prone to several diseases.

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