My son inspired me to study

“When I entered the examination hall, I was stopped by the supervisor who refused to
believe that I had come to write my exams”, Krishna begins the conversation with
friendly laughter. We met Krishna Sharma at her Aanganwadi in the Amrod village, on
the outskirts of Bhopal. She is one of the beneficiaries of Pratham’s ‘Second Chance’
Program and probably the oldest of them all!

Krishna’s son was a faculty of the Second Chance Program and taught Mathematics to
girls who had enrolled themselves with the aim of completing their 10 th  grade. Little did
she realise that this would be a trigger for her to seriously think of restarting her school
education and completing her 10 th  grade! It was the year 2015 and Krishna became a
student after 18 long years. She had passed her 7 th  grade way back in 1984, but an
early marriage forced her to abandon any further plans of study. While she attempted to
get back to studies and passed her 8 th  grade in 1997, family responsibilities made her
again discontinue the studies, and her dream of passing the 10 th  grade was still elusive!
Meanwhile, Krishna began working in the village Aanganwadi, and the job kept her busy
during the day. Despite this, the thought of not completing the 10 th  grade was deeply
ingrained in her subconscious mind, and it bothered her quite often. However, the
biggest motivation came from her son! “If others can complete their education after a
gap, why can’t you”, he used to ask her.

Krishna smiles as she recalls her days in Pratham’s classrooms. “The best thing about
the program is the teachers”, she says. “They start teaching you from the basics, and it
is very helpful for someone like me who has resumed studies after a long break”, she
adds. “During the night, my son used to teach me, and this was the revision of all that
was taught during the day.”

With these efforts, Krishna passed her 10th-grade examination in 2016, and thus her
long-cherished dream became a reality. She shared her joy with all her classmates,
who, like her strove for the completion of this common academic goal.

We asked her how it felt after holding the passing certificate in her hands. “The first
thing I did was to submit its photocopy to my Aanganwadi supervisor. I made her
change my records from ‘8th-grade pass’ to ‘10th-grade pass’. This was very important
to me”, she replied immediately. “I also feel more secure about my job”, she further
added. 

However, among everything else, it is the increase in knowledge that she values the
most. The classroom has made her know many more things than she knew before
getting enrolled. Education has indeed transformed her, and she is keen to pursue the
next goal of her life – completing the 12 th  grade.