The Birth of BCEF
It all began at their Teach for India Fellowship, wherein both the BCEF co-founders, Shaivya Rathore and Pratul Narayan Singh envisioned an India with an excellent level of education. They wished to expand their vision beyond the urban urban poor and as a part of his masters’ degree in social sciences, Pratul started conceptualising a pilot project in the form of Biyanli’s literacy program. After an initial formulation, he got Shaivya on board as the co-founder and leadership coach to take his formulation ahead.
Soon after, Shaivya and Pratul marketed their program to acquire 15 volunteers from across the globe to join their educational drive. The two also got shortlisted for the International Antarctic Expedition in 2016, which was headed by the iconic polar explorer Robert Swan. The Expedition comprised of a journey to Antarctica to gain leadership and as a result, Robert Swan and two other leadership coaches partnered with Shaivya and Pratul in order to provide the leadership resources for their volunteers. And hence, the BCEF was born.
BCEF: ‘A Class Apart’
What sets BCEF apart as a non-profit rural educational drive is the fact that it clubs the Teach for India-inspired leadership and education pair with rural remoteness and a global outreach. This composite mix has several implications.
I. Harnessing Rural Remoteness as an Asset Instead of a Limitation: Trekkiing & Community Engagement
To begin with, not only is education delivered to rural pockets of India through an aptly skilled and international pool of volunteers; but it is done so in a way that benefits thoroughly from its rural setup while also giving back to nature. In other words, while teaching and leadership might be known components to several educational drives worldwide, BCEF excels in its ideals of trekking and community engagement as a result of which, its participants and volunteers are made to conduct their teaching and learning activity in close synchronisation with the mountainous habitat in which BCEF operates.
To elaborate, Pratul highlights one of the shortcomings of a rural operation such as his: “student leadership is an emerging concept in India. Our curriculum does not offer much when it comes to building real skills of leadership. Private school education in tier 1 and tier 2 cities of India still offer enough exposure or activities in which students learn and demonstrate leadership. But rural set ups still lack that sort of exposure which the city schools offer.”
Hence, the specific activities of community engagement enable students and volunteers to experience home visits and village integration trips in order to understand the specific context of problems concerning the particular community and village that they are interacting with on a day-to-day basis. Through two-week community engagement assignments, volunteers are meant to establish community development plans and grasp the particular processes of execution. When context and local language becomes a problem for several international volunteers, it is tackled by their team members and collective scrutiny in order to avoid generalising the problem.
In close conjunction with active community engagement is the trekking segment, which occurs on a weekly-basis in day-long spans on a compulsory basis. “Trekking usually challenges the bodies of the volunteers, but we maintain a spirit of not giving up and built leadership programs through teamwork to ensure that all treks are completed within the given time”, says Pratul.
Therefore, by providing their students and volunteers uniquely differing situations of problem-solving at various levels- the community and nature, BCEF ensures the enhanced development of communication skills and teamwork in situations that cannot be practically created by their urban counterparts for obvious reasons.
II. Conceptualising Volunteering as Give and Take, as Opposed to Just Giving
Several scholars have developed a powerful critique to the patronising ethos that goes almost complimentarily with the act of volunteering, which acquires a patronising undertone with its entitlement to ‘empower’ the subjects that it targets. Not only does this evade the core principles of selflessness, but also creates an almost imperial power dynamic between the giver and taker by placing them on two subsequent moral planes. The BCEF operates through an alternative method altogether.
In encouraging international volunteers to contribute towards bridging the education inequity in poorly-accessible villages such as Biyanli, Pratul and Shaivya persevere a model of volunteering that is as giving as it is demanding of the volunteer. In Shaivya’s words, “Students from across the globe not only want to explore new places and countries but also immerse themselves in the local culture and communities. What better than tapping such students for the betterment of inaccessible villages where the quality of education is even lower than normal.” In other words, not only do BCEF volunteers help educate rural residence of Uttarakhand but also grasp teacher & leadership training as well as trekking experiences in the process. The active coupling of teacher-training with training compels BCEF volunteers to spend the first half of their day getting trained and the second half of the day delivering lessons.
Moreover, the highly-selective recruitment of volunteers from a vast talent pool through various levels of expertise give the volunteering program a more professional feel while demanding constant hard work from the volunteers in terms of a rigorous training and teaching curriculum for them as well.
III. A Unique Dimension to Leadership
When asked to elaborate on her perception of leadership, Shaivya elaborates: “Leadership to us (BCEF) is self reflection. The more one knows about their authentic self, skills, weaknesses and strengths, the better s/he operates on their strengths and makes weaknesses irrelevant. Leadership also means getting out of your comfort zone while still operating from an area of interest. Hence, at BCEF, we focus on getting people to reflect on themselves, in order for them to realise their innate potential. ” At a personal level too, Pratul admits that his interaction with a diverse pool of individuals through BCEF is one of the most rewarding part of being an educationist. “It helps me to cross-learn and get to understand different perspectives whch help me grow as an individual and a professional.”
Hence, with a unique formulation that comprised of ‘teach, learn and explore’, the program entails a two-way exchange between volunteers and the villagers whereby the former were made to function in unique teaching settings while the latter were exposed to a different curriculum and skill sets. The phenomenon that commonly stirred both- the teacher and the students was that of leadership. “Our agenda at the learning centre is to not only equip the children with desired skills that necessitate success but we also work on the life skills component, which covers integral values and mindsets. This key component also covers the value system with which an individual should have to grow holistically in the society”, adds Pratul. BCEF inducts a substantial amount of Indian traditions and culture as reference points while educating children.
IV. Hollistic: Teaching, Learning & Impact
As a team, Pratul acts a mentor on community empowerment & engagement while Shaivya heads the leadership module. In an all-encompassing effort, Shaivya and Pratul masterfully juggle between several levels of educational proficiency and nature, as it is reflected through a typical BCSE schedule, as provided by Shaivya : -
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6-630: Freshen up
630-730: Yoga
7.30 to 8.30: Breakfast
8.30 to 9: lesson planning
9 to 11: Anganvadi kids(toddlers)
11 to 12: community visit and engagement
12 to 1: Leadership Session
1 to 2: Lunch
2 to 3: Lesson planning
3 to 615: learning centre
630 to 8: Nature trail
8 to 9: Dinner
10: Lights out
Weekends:
Sat: 8am to 7Pm full day trek with group activities and team building
Sun: First half- cleaning, second half- movie screening, teacher training, extra classes for weak children.
First two weeks the emphasis was on teacher training and leadership
Next three weeks the focus was on community engagement and development project.
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While dealing with the rural education sector of India, Shaivya and Pratul do not practice any discrimination in their educational practices. Their outlook is not limited to the basic education and skill-development of children but that of all the residents amongst which the BCEF thrives. This makes them extend to Biyanli’s youth and women populace as well, as a matter of which women are extended with communication and computer skills; whereas literacy and life skills are delivered to the youth sections. In all. the duo strives to provide lessons for their volunteers and residents to be “great teachers, volunteers and visionaries” in Shaivya’s words.
The Road Ahead
For a first-timer, Shaivya and Pratul’s story with the BCEF is nothing short of being an awe-inspiring one. Not only did both of them entertain a passionately philanthropic vision, but followed it through by means of intense skill-development and learning at a primary level before dispersing it to the volunteers and students at Biyanli. Their proactive participation in BCEF’s day-to-day activities has produced noteworthy responses and impact that far exceeded their imagination.
When asked what lies ahead, their future plans are as spirited as their initial vision. Shaivya articulates BCEF’s forthcoming plans: “Our vision is to run such programs in different inaccessible villages across India. Our vision is to make each village that we impact self-running and sustainable.”
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