Aboli’s Study Group Kicks Off the New School Year

It’s easy to rote-memorise answers in school. What’s far more difficult is to truly understand what is being taught and apply that knowledge. Several months ago, Aboli Foundation started a study group after school spearheaded by volunteer Arvind Vartak to help rectify this. 

Students from ZP schools and alumni who study at the secondary school would come straight to Mr. Vartak’s home after school for an hour of teaching. Seated cross-legged on large mats and batting away mosquitoes, the students tackled their studies. This was put on hold over the summer holiday but was restarted for this current academic year.

While the students found the study sessions helpful, we realised that there was more emphasis on memory-inducing activities like prayer recitals and multiplication tables, which wasn’t the main goal we had set out to accomplish. Therefore, for the past week and a half, we have changed the format of the study group. Rather than teaching them miscellaneous content, we focus the sessions on what each student is learning at school.

We start by having the students show us whatever homework they have. Director Shubhada More and Mr. Vartak oversee their studies. They ensure the children truly understand how to solve math problems or read and write English rather than blindly memorising what their teachers say.

Volunteer Aabha Patil also taught the students English phonetics during her stay in Mahim. We hope to convert these into online sessions. One of the biggest hurdles to recruiting more volunteers is the difficulty in travelling great distances to Mahim. In addition, only a handful of ZP schools are provided with a smart TV, a wifi router or even a computer. This makes running online sessions tricky. If we are successful in running Aabha’s session online, it will open up a lot of doors for volunteer work.