HYDERABAD: Homeschooling her daughter for the past two years has taught actor, producer, and entrepreneur Lakshmi Manchu a lot about educating children. From realising the importance of play and interaction that help drill concepts deeper into her daughter’s mind, the Covid-19 pandemic had taught parents like her about the need to rethink education.
Lakshmi is gearing up for her organisation Teach For Change’s (TFC) annual fundraiser on Sunday. The seventh edition will have ace designer duo Shantanu and Nikhil showcase their collection and Lakshmi, along with Pragya Jaiswal, Vedhika, Sumanth Kumar, Shriya Saran, Nivetha Pethuraj, Manasa Varanasi and Navdeep, among others, walk the ramp for them.
Founded by her and Chaitanya MRSK, Lakshmi tells CE that post-pandemic, there has been a major change in the kind of responsibilities and goals TFC is seeing. “First and foremost, we have got to get all the kids back to school. This year is all the more crucial as they come back to school after a break of two years. While doing this, we also ought to ensure that through play and engagement, kids experience the joy of coming back to school,” she says.
On homeschooling
Sharing about how homeschooling her daughter has taught her the importance of a physical school, Lakshmi says, “Honestly, as a parent, having had Apple (her daughter) around me every day, it’s going to be a struggle to let her go to school. But, I saw how deprived she was of certain things in the past two years. I learnt how important it is for kids to be with those of their age — no matter what you do at home or what your child’s level of grasping and learning is, they need a school for holistic development.” She adds that one of the biggest challenges of TFC is to keep the kids in school, especially with government schools seeing a huge number of dropouts.
They are also looking for more volunteers from different walks of life to teach the children at government schools and help them get a better understanding of the world. “We recently opened something called a ‘literacy room’, where we brought painters from all over the country to unleash their art on the walls. We had many people donate books and magazines on all things under the sun. We’re also looking at skill development and teaching them the basics of Microsoft Word, Excel, etc. Digital literacy is a problem we hope to eradicate soon,” she says.
On a concluding note, she lauds the efforts of the government, sponsors and friends from cinema for agreeing to come together to put up a solid show to support the cause.