About a week back Bindu and I had gone to the senior secondary school in Bhali, near Shahpur in Himachal Pradesh. The school was located just off the Kangra Pathankot highway in a beautiful but not an easy to access location. After our initial conversation with some of the teachers of the school, we were invited to address a gathering of the students of plus two and a few parents. 

Bindu began the interactive session by asking a simple question ‘what do you want to do after your plus two?’. Most of the students especially the girl students answered that they would like to pursue a program in ITI in cutting, sewing and embroidery. Fewer answered that they would pursue courses in nursing, fashion design and technology, teaching etc. On the boys side, most preferred again to pursue ITI courses such as electrical, automobile, computer science etc. Just one student when prodded by Bindu said that he will pursue singing and music.  

What struck me as the interaction was going on, was the limitation of options the students had when it came to the question of what they wanted to pursue after their plus two. Not one of them said that they wanted to become a doctor or a banker or an insurance agent or a hotel management graduate or an engineer or a lawyer or a pilot or an astronaut or a photographer or a social activist or a writer or a movie star or a politician or a DJ or any of the several other options available to them today. 

Sitting there in that room with the students, watching them share their plans after plus two, I felt sad that these students had very limited exposure, and that their parents could not do much to help their children to go beyond ITIs to create a brighter future for themselves and their families. Upon interacting with the teachers post the session we realised that many of the parents were uneducated and the very fact that these students were getting educated was a big leap forward for the families.    

Post our visit to the school we decided to do our bit for the students. We spoke to the Dean of the Central University of Himachal Pradesh and requested his help to reach out to the students of the school through his MBA students. We will persist in our endeavour to make students of the Bhali senior secondary school and other such rural, semi-urban school students expand their perspectives to create a better future. Limited exposure limits perspectives and options and each one of us who has had greater exposure must share our learnings with those that have limited exposure, help expand perspectives. This is the non-monetary giving and true “ShikshaDaan”.   

As this quote says, help expanding these children’s minds and sky will not be the limit of what they can achieve.