School Leader Speaks: Shri Padmashree High School, Bangalore

As a young child, Ms. Raji, stirred by a famous Tamil movie, decided she wanted to become a lawyer. ‘Vidhi’ inspired notions of fighting injustice in society for the young girl, who was the first from her family to receive a formal education. A few years later, she discovered the power and influence a politician wields. She’d have the ability to change rules and regulations in society.”Wouldn’t that be even better?” she thought. Amidst these aspirations, life took different paths, and at 18, she found herself teaching at a school in the neighborhood.

Today, almost 18 years later, Ms. Raji still marvels at the turn of events that pushed her towards a profession she never imagined she’d pursue. “Honestly, I was not fond of my own teachers and had a challenging school experience, so I’d never thought I’d be an educator,” she said candidly over a phone call.

“The three years I spent as a teacher in my local school became the turning point in my life,” she continues. During her experience there, she soon realized that as a teacher, she could still pursue her fight against injustice by teaching students morals and values. She recognized the real value of an educator and knew she was where she needed to be.

But being just a teacher wasn’t enough for Ms. Raji; she wanted to do more. At 22 years old, she found herself at a crossroads while taking time away to care for her newborn child. Neighbors began asking about her ‘new school,’ and soon it became apparent that there was a rumor going around Ms. Raji was starting her school. It was far from her mind at the time, but the questions and conversations planted the idea of ‘Shri Padmashree High School.’

The Genesis of Shri Padmashree

Encouraged by the belief of the community in her ability to start an independent school, Ms. Raji decided to turn a neighborhood rumor into reality. “I decided in one moment that I’m going to do it! I was imagining a play home initially, but went ahead and took the risk of launching the school from pre-nursery to Grade 5.” she shares.

On January 19th, 2005, Ms. Raji inaugurated the administrative office on her father’s empty land amidst threats from local goons. Despite the rocky start, a strong-willed Ms. Raji geared up to start the new academic year on June 1st. From carrying her month old baby to the Registrar office to travelling across cities to acquire new books, many challenges came in the way. Still, she knew that her passion for being an educator would help her surpass these trials.

She was also determined to provide a good learning experience to the young children in her locality, many of whom were first-generation learners in their families. Knowing the challenges of the lack of support and appropriate guidance at home, she believed her school would provide a space to propel students out of their circumstances and equip them with the confidence to achieve the goals and ambitions.

School operations began with eight faculty members from the community, and eight students enrolled in the highest grade. “It’s been an exciting and thrilling journey with many surprises and adventures along the way. You can almost call it a thriller movie, with many twists and turns,’ Ms.Raji reminisces.

At a crossroads once again

Over the last 15 years, Shri Padmashree High School has grown to be a strong pillar in the community. However, amidst the global pandemic, Ms. Raji finds herself at another crossroads, one where so much is out of her control.

“It’s been a testing time for us as a budget private school,” she says. “This crisis has shaken our existence, we’re pondering over our purpose as educators. What is our role in society? We’re a book full of knowledge with no readers at the moment.”

While the financial implication of the crisis has left the school able only to pay salaries of 10 teachers, Ms. Raji is particularly disturbed by the narrative created about affordable private schools.

“Just because I own a school does not mean I have the money to support my teachers and provide state of the art facilities to my students during such a time,” she says. “The income of the school is dependent on the fees paid and when there are no fees, we’re helpless in such a situation.”

Like many school leaders, Ms. Raji is left in a peculiar situation, one where she wants to ensure that the quality of education is not compromised but must also deal with the realities brought on by the lack of financial assistance and expertise for support.

Way Ahead

Since March 2020, Shri Padmashree has been trying to roll out different initiatives to support their students through these difficult times. In collaboration with multiple organizations, the school has been working on engaging students through football coaching, coding classes, solving community problems, and to some extent, hosting online classes. The school has also begun the ‘Daily School Radio,’ where students and parents are engaged on Whatsapp groups. “At the moment, I am pretty much single-handedly managing the conversations between students and parents,” says Ms. Raji.

“The situation has highlighted many problems in our system. COVID-19 has brought its own challenges but also showed our unpreparedness.” she shares while bringing to the forefront the lack of skills to adopt technology that has impacted schools everywhere. “The issue is not only about students not having access to technology, it’s also about teachers and schools lacking the knowledge to support such alternative forms of learning. As schools, we do not have a culture of creating contingency plans, especially when it comes to our source of funding.” she emphasizes.

Ms. Raji also throws light upon the mental health crisis amongst educators as an impact of the COVID crisis. “The negative media coverage and being forced to take up odd jobs has left many educators battling low self-esteem and lack of confidence,” she says. “I sometimes feel this crisis is severely going to impact our children’s perspectives on careers in education. The lack of job security and benefits has been reinforced during this time and will dissuade young people from seeing this as a feasible career.”

“We need the support of the government right now!” Ms. Raji urges. The current crisis has highlighted the lack of schemes and initiatives to support schools like Ms Raji’s, even drawing attention to the lack of welfare benefits for teachers who are employed by private schools.

Another unfortunate reality is the lack of distinction between private schools in the country. “We need to categorize budget private schools differently and not generalise the guidelines for schools across the income spectrum. Moreover, we have been contributing to RTE funds and Teacher Welfare Funds over the years, are we not eligible to have access to that money now?”

“The lack of support from the government and misinformed media coverage has left us feeling even more upset. We are already facing so many challenges and our existence is threatened. It’s truly a difficult time as an educator in this country.” Ms. Raji sighs.

A message of hope

“Nevertheless, we’ve always had a positive attitude towards adversity, geared to take on new challenges. We don’t ever miss an opportunity to prove our capabilities.” Ms. Raji shares as she recounts these last few months. “I’ve been playing a game of snakes and ladders these last couple of years, sometimes I move up a few steps up a ladder, other times it’s a huge leap and then fall down and move further away from success. We can’t just quit the game, then, but have to look up at all the opportunities that await us again. And that’s how I’m choosing to deal with this situation. Yes, the challenges are immense and it’s going to be hard to pick up the pieces but I will continue to fight injustice and urge everyone to come together as a community to rebuild.”

If you want to support or reach out to Ms. Raji and her community, follow Shri Padmashree High School on Facebook to learn more.