If you are a first generation learner, then you may have gone through a journey of contradictions. You would have gone to school but would not have had parents teaching you the alphabets. Your parents may not have been able to guide you but they would have been supremely proud of you when you got your first job. You would have been the first person in the family to get an education and a job that merited that qualification. You would have been the person who also had to face a lot of self-esteem issues.
Looking back, Sadashiv Pol and Manish Yadav remember the tough paths they trod as first generation learners. They are the founders of Learning Lab, a venture started in 2012 to assist first generation learners in their academics and careers. These two young entrepreneurs were the first in their families to complete their schooling and graduate with college degrees. Their fathers worked as a driver and a factory worker respectively. Money was hard to come by and Sadashiv worked through his academic life as a caterer and a courier person.
“As a first generation learner, I understand the obstacles one has to face to change your life and the role education plays. Manish and I survived the hardships of a low income family and we are now employed with different corporate firms and living our dream. We want to make it possible for children and young adults like ourselves to have the same opportunities,” says Sadashiv.
Learning Lab is a 200 sq. ft. room located at Wagle Estate in Thane, an industrial area that hosts a few municipal schools. Commenting on the connection between literacy and income, Sadashiv draws attention to the number of daily wage earners who are seen at Wagle Estate. These are migrants from rural Maharashtra whose children attend the municipal schools in the area. However, as Sadashiv observes, their children’s education is largely ignored by them. But you can’t blame them either since earning a day-to-day living is important for them.
“When families do not have an adequate understanding of the benefits of education, there is no one to motivate children to finish their homework or even go to school. Raising awareness about education is an important step to break the cycle of poverty,” says Manish.
Having said this, if you thought Learning Lab was about providing books or stationery equipment, then that would be the simplest conclusion. The key to Learning Lab is in providing mentorship and guidance to first generation learners as this the area where they are most hard hit. “If you have a mother or a father who is literate, then it is a different story. I had no mentor for my professional life. The lack of positive mentors leads to an inability to understand options available in either academic or career opportunities. I believe your future can be different because of a mentor,” says Sadashiv.
“Learning Lab is a support space for first generation learners to get guidance on careers of their choice alongside soft skills required at workplaces,” says Manish. Challenging aimless education, inadequate teaching and disinterest in studies, Learning Lab is like parents who mentor the young adults who seek them out. Instead of letting careers be shaped by half-baked peer knowledge, Learning Lab gives their youngsters sound career advice.
“The mentors at Learning Lab are generally university graduates with secure jobs who are looking for an opportunity to contribute to their communities,” says Sadashiv. Before the mentors can share their worldly wisdom, they are interviewed and reviewed by Learning Lab. Thus, they have a pool of mentors for Accounts, Engineering, Hospitality and Business Management so far.
Among the 350 youngsters who attend this gurukul of guidance are sisters Sneha Gade and Sakhi Gade. The two sisters belong to a family of five and the sole breadwinner of their family was their father who ran a small paan shop. Their monthly income had been about Rs. 5000 and these sisters had to discontinue their education after junior college due to financial constraints. They were encouraged by the Learning Lab mentors to pursue a computer course and both sisters, who are in their early twenties, are now employed as computer teachers in a primary school in Thane. They earn about Rs. 4000 a month and support their own education.
The empowerment of these two sisters is important to Learning Lab where much importance is given to computer literacy. Sadashiv had learnt computer skills at his first job (where he earned Rs. 1500) and realised how indispensable a skill it was. “Those who are not computer literate are at the risk of falling behind as it minimizes their potential job prospects. The private tuitions that offer computer classes are too expensive for people living in the Thane slums,” he says.
At Learning Lab, computer classes are offered at a subsidized rate or, as in the cases of Gade sisters, lesson fees is waived off. Students are taught skills from DTP to Java, depending on their needs and professional goals, by Vrushali Pol, a computer teacher and Sadashiv’s wife. “She does not charge us anything for the lessons she teaches,” says Sadashiv, admiringly.
“We were self-motivated and realised the potential of education to change one’s circumstance,” says Manish. Sadashiv and Manish, both 28 year olds, have grown slowly but steadily and herald a new future for their families and mentees.
