TIRUCHI: Could taking a year off from the school schedule be the best way to prepare for the real world? Sixteen-year-old Sagarikka Sivakumar and her parents surely think so. The Tiruchi-based family decided to embark on an unusual experiment after Sagarikka passed out of Class 10 with average marks last year – they decided to give the student a break and let the child take over.
“I was never very serious about studying,” Sagarikka says. “I had somehow managed to pass all the exams, but when I came to Class 10, everyone started saying that marks were very important, so I started studying seriously.” Though she got 78 per cent in her board exams, she still didn’t know what to do next. “I was really confused, and I asked my parents for advice. They suggested that if I took a break, I could learn a lot, but I would have to be disciplined about it.”
Setting aside initial doubts about their experiment, the teenager’s parents, S. Sivakumar and Savitri, who run the management education centre Trichy Plus in Thillai Nagar, drew up a timetable for their daughter to follow. “I have advised many parents to give their children space to study and understand subjects at their own pace, but finally, realised that instead of just talking about it, I should put in practice myself,” says Sivakumar.
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“It is very easy to slide into laziness when you take a break from studies,” said Savitri. “That is why we gave Sagarikka a timetable for Monday to Friday, and a separate one for the weekends.”
The routine included an early morning start with gym workouts, followed by separate time slots for reading newspapers and books, a trip to the Stock Holding Corporation of India Ltd in Woraiyur, short internships at private companies, and even a spell of door-to-door sales of cosmetics, besides computer classes. “I would come back by 4 p.m. for lunch and a power nap. Then I’d spend five hours with my father, studying school subjects from the basics,” says Sagarikka.
While her school-going contemporaries were writing exams based on text-book knowledge, she was spending time visiting science fairs, and filming documentaries (using her mother’s mobile phone) on Mount Kailash and Leh. “I realised that I knew much more about subjects than my friends because I had experienced them differently,” she says.
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She is helping her parents develop a mobile application on ‘Pictalktionary’, a visual vocabulary tool for those attempting competitive exams. Compiling her blog posts on her ‘unschooled year’ into a book form is the next item on her checklist.
Sagarikka has rejoined a mainstream school in Class 11 this year, on the understanding that she will be given a flexible schedule to retain some of her earlier activities.
“Today’s schools do not really cater to all children equally,” says Savitri. “Children need to look at life beyond marks. There is so much more opportunity for them today compared to a generation ago.”