Tribal students in Bardoli taluka now have American teachers. Five teachers from New York, including an NRI, have been teaching English at Bajipura High School and Madhi School.

Many families from Bardoli are settled in the US, and they had formed the Nanubhai Foundation Trust in Philadelphia to provide education to the tribal students of their own villages back home. Their aim was to see Gujarati medium students become conversant in English. Earlier, four teachers from the US had come to Kadod High School to teach English to the tribal students. Two NRI teachers left, but two American teachers, Catherine Biddle and Mellisa Irvins, are still teaching.

Now, the Madhi and Bajipura high schools have also been covered by the Trust. The five new teachers have come on a yearlong contract and all their expenses and salary will be borne by the Nanubhai Foundation Trust. They have been given the job to teach both written and spoken English to the vernacular medium students in classes VIII, IX and X. While Milly Egawa, Krishna Pandya and Megan Cunningham have been teaching at Bajipura High School, Kirsten Milton and Leindy have been doing the same at Madhi High School.

Milly Egawa (19), who is of Japanese ancestry, was educated both in Japan and America. She spoke about the differences in the system of education in India and abroad. “There is a major difference in the education system in India as compared to the US and Japan. Here, students after Class X decide what field they want to go for. This is not so in the US or Japan. Here, even exams are strict and the teacher punishes those students who come to school without doing their homework. Over there, we don’t have the right to punish students. Great respect is given to teachers here, as many parents come to meet me and give me great respect. We are very much satisfied with our jobs. Earlier, we faced difficulty as the students were shocked to see us. But gradually, we got ourselves involved with them and put in the best of our effort.”

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