I encounter many challenges as I have been teaching Chinese students with diverse backgrounds.

The students I have been teaching here in China are from various diverse backgrounds around China. One of the challenges I face with my students in my classes is the language barrier. Teaching in English to Chinese students is one of the biggest challenges. They encounter difficulties in understanding the Mathematics and Science contents in English. So I have learned basic Chinese and translated all the technical terms in Mathematics and Science from Chinese to English. I have provided my students the printed translated materials to learn the English terms equivalent to the Chinese. I use the translator on my mobile phone to teach the exact pronunciation of English terms. Moreover, I teach English vocabulary and pronunciation as well. Moreover, I teach them various innovative activities to make them speak and interact in English as much as possible.

The second challenge I face is bringing diversity to a homogeneous society. The third challenge is miscommunication between the students and me, and the fourth one is health problems. Moreover, Chinese students navigate complex and unfamiliar systems, often without a clear understanding of their choices. Their parents struggle to articulate their desires and expectations. As a teacher counselor, I have been providing the required guidance to prospective students and their parents to achieve their goals which are helpful to them to make good decisions in their educational pursuits. Chinese students sometimes struggle in the area of critical thinking and independent learning. Critical thinking is separate from simply memorizing; it is about the application and asking unique questions. I have introduced many programs in the schools I work in order to make students come out of these barriers and make their learning easier. Some of the programs I have introduced are Critical and Lateral Thinking Club, Talk to Heart, Math Club, Cultural Club, and many more programs through which students can develop their various learning skills. Moreover, during Covid -19 pandemic, all of my students faced the great challenge of attending lessons. I taught them online lessons with the help of DinkTalk.

Currently, I am focusing on 17 Sustainable Development Goals provided by UNESCO and training my students on 21st-century skills in order to achieve SDGs. I have been teaching and training my students with many strategies to develop various skills and overcome these challenges. These strategies are very helpful to my students to develop their skills, meet their academic expectations, and eventually achieve their goals.

I have also encountered a lot of challenges while I was teaching in India.

1994 to 2014

While I was working as a part-time and full-time Mathematics teacher at Siddhartha Matriculation Higher Secondary School, Erode I faced lots of challenges in the school and with my students.

I had hundreds of north-Indian students at Siddhartha Matriculation Higher Secondary School, Erode from 1996 to 2010. As our town Erode is a business-oriented town, there were many north Indians in our school, especially from the states of Rajasthan, Bihar, and Uttar Pradesh, who used to settle down in our state Tamilnadu. But they failed to give importance to their girl children’s education and so many girls dropped out of school and early marriages were so common among them. I intended to stop this practice among those people. So, I used to meet their parents very frequently to insist them not to get their children married when they are so young. I also emphasized to them the importance of girls’ education. Because of my hard efforts, 100% of girls students’ early marriages were stopped and they all got a basic education.

There exists caste discrimination among the people of our state Tamilnadu and it impacts students as well. There are many controversies among the people of our state because of this caste discrimination. I took the initiative to eradicate this caste discrimination and caste differences among the students so that it might impact the community. So I decided to educate my students in my classes on this major issue. Being, a Mathematics teacher at Siddhartha Matriculation Higher Secondary School, I hardly got time to talk to my students on social issues. So I took some extra hours after school hours to talk and educate my students and to make awareness to ride off these practices. There were students in our school from different caste backgrounds and different religions. I taught all my students to have unity among themselves irrespective of caste, race, and religion. Moreover, I taught my students about national integration. I taught them that we are all human beings in the sight of God and so we should not differentiate people by their caste, creed, race, and religion. I emphasized that caste discrimination is a great disease and should be completely eradicated. So I encouraged all my students to get along among themselves without any caste differences. I also conducted many events that led my students to develop their unity. I have conducted lots of programs for our students that led them to live a caste-free life. As a result, all of my students were getting along with themselves without any caste difference, and they developed unity among themselves. To an extent, I was able to make a 100% caste-free environment within our Siddhartha school during my employment period. That was one of the great successes I feel I achieved at Siddhartha School. But I wouldn’t say that 100% caste discrimination has been eradicated in our whole state and our country. Still, 30% to 40% of caste discrimination is existing in our country. If I win the Global teacher prize 2021, I will pay more attention to this serious issue and try my best to eradicate this caste discrimination in our country.

There also exist religious differences among the people of our state Tamilnadu and it impacted our school students as well. I taught my students about unity in diversity. I taught students that religion is a personal belief of every single person in the world and we should not fight or make controversies among each other because of religion. To eradicate this religious discrimination, I encouraged our school to conduct the “Sarvodaya Prayer”, a common prayer for all religious students of our school. We conducted “Sarvodaya Prayer‘ every Monday morning during the school assembly. I made all teachers along with their students participate in that program. We offered three ways of worship for Hinduism, Christianity, and Muslims. Teachers took turns reading the passages from the respective religious scriptures and sang the three religion’s devotional songs together with students. Following is the Sarvodaya Prayer program agenda that we followed in our school:

Hinduism worship:

We used to read a passage from Bhagavath Geetha which is a Hinduism scripture and sing a Hinduism devotional song. We usually sang the very popular Indian devotional song “Ragupathy Ragava Raja Ram……”

Christianity worships:

We used to read a passage from the Holy Bible and sing a Christian devotional song.

Muslim worship:

We used to read a passage from the Quran and sing a Muslim devotional song.

The purpose of this prayer program is to make unity in diversity among students. India is a secular country where all religions are equally supported. In all 28 states and 8 Union territories of India, people speak different languages and they have different cultures and belong to different religions as well. Yet being divided by religion, culture, religion, and language, they all belong to one nation. In order to make students realize this truth, this program was conducted.

The other challenge that I faced was some girl students in our town whom I taught attempted suicide when they failed the exams. Those who lacked self-confidence and moral support usually attempted suicide. To prevent these kinds of suicide attempts, I provided them with valuable counseling and support through morals and scriptures. I taught them about how important and valuable a human’s soul is in God’s creation. Moreover, I provided them with many tips on how to pay more attention to their studies and how to achieve life goals in order to become a successful woman in life.

With all experience I gained in my Tuition Centre, I taught school students effectively and diligently with dedication. There is an ancient saying by the Chinese Philosopher Confucius about the importance of learning from experience. He wrote ” I hear and I forget, I see and I remember, I do and I understand “. I always follow this quote in my teaching. I don’t teach students subjects only from textbooks, but also, I teach them by doing. I always teach students with many strategies such as using hands-on equations, Blended learning, activity-based teaching, game-based teaching, PBL (Project Based Learning), inclusive education, and real-world applications. I teach with games, puzzles, activities, projects, and as well. I conducted Math exhibitions every year in order to bring out the students’ hidden skills. I use lots of teaching aids to teach subjects. My students always enjoy my classes as they are very much interested.

Not only did I teach students Mathematics but also taught them how to become good children to their parents, how to become good students to their teachers, how to become good human beings in society, how to become good citizens of their country, and many more life etiquettes. I taught my students many life morals, manners, and life skills in order to make them multi-skilled global citizens. I trained them with 21st-century skills as well. Because of my teaching, students were motivated and inspired and were able to score high grades in the examinations and became completely behavioral-changed students with high moral values. As a result of my teaching, the school got 100% results in 10th-grade final examinations, and students scored district-level ranks in Mathematics for which the Academic Council of Matriculation Schools, Erode District, Tamilnadu honored me with “The Certificate of Honor” for the years 1998 and 2000. And the school got the “100% result achievement award” from the same Academic Council of Matriculation schools.

By seeing my achievements in producing 100% results and the district-level ranks in the 10th-grade final examination, I was promoted to teach 11th and 12th grades in the following years. I achieved 100% results in the 12th-grade final examination also continuously for five years. For that, our school also got “100% result achievement awards”.

As most of the students I taught in the Siddhartha school and my coaching center scored 100% marks in Math, I was called by the students by the pet name ”Centum Deva”.( A teacher who makes students 100% marks). I really became very popular in our town by this name students called. So in due course, many parents brought their children and joined my coaching center in order to make their children score 100% marks in Math. On realizing my growth in teaching, I decided to extend my service to more underprivileged poor students of our town those who had no opportunities to pursue basic education at all. So I decided to render my service to the students of our town by teaching online through local Television channels.

In India (2005 to 2009)

I had 50% of the students in my class at SPK Matric. Higher Secondary School from 2005 to 2009 who were from rich and wealthy family backgrounds. But their parents were illiterates and were unable to guide their children to better careers. They wanted their children to get a quality education with English fluency. I contributed with all my skills, talents, handwork, and efforts to help my students get a quality education.

In China (2015 until this date)

I have been teaching in China for the past eight years and have a great deal of experience working with students of diverse backgrounds. In my eight years of teaching experience in China working with Chinese students, I have learned to communicate across barriers of dissimilar experiences and contexts. One of the challenges I face in our school currently is the language barrier. Teaching in English to Chinese kids is one of the biggest challenges I face. The second challenge I face is bringing diversity to a homogeneous society and the third challenge is miscommunication. Chinese students sometimes struggle in the area of critical thinking and independent learning. Critical thinking is separate from simply memorizing; it is about the application and asking unique questions. I have introduced many programs in our school so that students might come out of these barriers and make their learning easier. One of these programs that I have introduced was the Critical and Lateral thinking club in which I involved our students to take part and develop their skills. I trained them on how to develop critical and lateral thinking skills. I taught them many more innovative ways in terms of puzzles, riddles, and many interesting strategies to make them develop 21st-century skills. This method is very helpful to the students to develop their skills and to score good grades in the exams. As Chinese culture is unique and different from other cultures, I teach them from a cross-culture perspective so that students might learn about the diversity of other cultures and ways of learning. I apply principles of cross-cultural communication in all interactions with my students and staff. I am patient and methodical in my interactions with students with unique difficulties. My experience and methods help me to be a better communicator and better educator in every student interaction. Being a professional teacher, I am as helpful and empathetic as possible. The Chinese students in our school navigate complex and unfamiliar systems, often without a clear understanding of their choices. The parents of my Chinese students struggle to articulate their desires and expectations. As a teacher counselor, I have been providing guidance to prospective students to achieve their goals which is really helpful to the parents and students to make good decisions in students’ educational pursuits.

Moreover, many foreign websites are blocked in mainland China and my students are unable to access many online study materials. Many popular online platforms including Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and some Google functions are largely inaccessible to teachers and students in mainland China. So, in order to help my students in their higher studies and job opportunities, I have created and launched a website for them namely www.reachthehigh.com for the benefit of my students. This site is totally free to everyone. This website would lead students to choose the right colleges and universities as per their interests. I have uploaded contact details of thousands of educational institutions country vice around the world. Students can choose the best Institutions to continue their higher studies. Moreover, I have uploaded the contact details of thousands of companies and Institutions on the site so that students can search and apply for jobs after completing of their studies. I have also uploaded many placement training videos on the site so that students can get the training before they apply for jobs. This site is totally free for teachers and students. My goal is to educate 2 million students and help 1 million students get jobs by the end of 2021.

The Chinese educational system consists of a 9-year compulsory education that has been broken down into 6 years of primary education, starting at age 6, and followed by 3 years of junior middle education. On completion of junior middle education, students have the option to continue for 3 more years of senior middle school to complete their secondary education. Even though this system has a great reputation, it is very challenging and competitive. Relatively Chinese students spend more time in school attending classes. School days are longer while their holidays are shorter. Chinese students have roughly four weeks off in the winter, and seven weeks off in the summer, plus weekends and traditional holidays as usual. As their entire day is spent learning in the classroom and finishing their homework for the next day. Often leaving no time to enjoy socializing with their friends or practicing hobbies outside of academia. As a result of a lack of participation in non-academic subjects, they have poor communication skills and lack real-life problem-solving abilities and skills. Most of the Chinese students are good only when it comes to theory. When it comes to the actual application of a skill they memorize the subject contents, and they cannot compete against Western students. Since they have got heavy study content, they end up memorizing rather than learning anything. They don’t enjoy studying, or understand the true meaning of what they are learning. After taking their exams, most of them completely forget what they’ve learned as they have not connected with the content. In order to help my students come out of these challenges, I teach my students with many more strategies and methodologies.