Pooja Joshi

Pooja Joshi started her career at the age of twenty one as a Humanities and Language (English, French) teacher across international and state board schools. She founded Mimaansa in 2012. It is a public trust and a non profit organisation that helps government schools create an integrated environment for students with learning disabilities (LD).

frankaffe sought out a conversation with Pooja in order to explore how the Indian society has understood learning disabilities, availability of state support through policies and educational institutions, intricacies of parent-child and teacher-student relationships, and her transformative personal growth while building a social enterprise ground up.

LD is a neurological disorder that affects a brain’s ability to receive, process, store and respond to information. Categories include dyslexia (disorder that affects reading), dysgraphia (disorder that affects writing) and dyscalculia (disorder that affects mathematical reasoning and calculation).

It is a condition that goes beyond ‘difficulty in learning’, and is unrelated to the level of intelligence in an individual. A patient, empathetic approach is crucial for diagnosis and educating students with special needs - with adequate sensitivity. “Empathy is not sympathy.”

Mimaansa has partnered with the ‘सर्व शिक्षा अभियान’ (SSA; English: Education for All) initiative by the Government of India, which mandates that every child with a learning disability must be accommodated with the necessary infrastructure in a normal school setup.

On the present curriculum of teacher education programs in India

“While there is a plethora of teaching courses available, the generalised teaching courses do not include special education in their curriculum. The pre-service teacher preparation is a part of the teacher training course i.e. the Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.) degree, as it is commonly known in India. It does not essentially focus on students with special needs.”

“When we started out eight years ago, there was ignorance coupled with resistance surrounding learning disabilities. When we first set foot on a government school campus, I remember being practically thrown out by the school teachers who mistakenly equated our inquiry into students experiencing LD as an inquiry against their quality of teaching. For some reason, a lack in a child was essentially looked at as a reflection of oneself, be it a teacher or a parent.”

“Parents were in absolute denial.”

“I remember an incident involving a daily wage worker parent, someone who sold vegetables on a cart right outside one of the government schools we have been associated with. She was once asked for a meeting and informed that her child has been struggling with numbers, thus effectively showing signs of dyscalculia. The mother turned around and vehemently questioned the diagnosis, refusing to believe how this could happen on a mainstream government school campus - especially when she herself is well versed with a daily hectic trade of money-related calculations.”

“There was also an incident in 2009, when I was teaching in an international school. A child was facing a potential learning problem, as identified by the counsellor, and parents (both doctors) were reluctant to understand the nature of the problem, viewing it instead as a weakness that can be ignored, refusing flat out to consider an easier learning environment for their child.”

“It is crucial to note that both sets of parents - be it daily wage workers or privileged medical professionals - had the same perspective. They had said the same things, and both were in absolute denial of the alternative learning needs that their child had.”

“Today, eight years later, our teachers on the government school campus are able to identify children who could potentially have learning problems. They are not only forthcoming with it, but are in agreement with the fact that there are children who need support irrespective of how good a teacher they have. Our parents often seek to enrol their second child into the program too, if required. We have realised that while there is still denial and ignorance (which can be dealt with through effective communication), there is also an innate need to see their child thriving, flourishing, and learning. That is what we choose to focus on.”

It is endearing to note how Pooja mentions the teachers she works with and parents of her students as our teachers and our parents - and also, my kids and our children.

Students with LD are but children conscious of and sensitive to an inability to fit in a ‘normal’ school environment. This may lead to unpredictable aggressive behaviour, or a tendency to withdraw to their shells. For parents, there would be concern about their child's ‘future’ and a ‘behaviour’ that is difficult to comprehend. Parental anxieties may lead to mishandling of the situation and their own health complications. Understanding this - how urgent and essential is the need to allay their anxieties and how do you address this through Mimaansa counselling programs?

“Mimaansa runs robust counselling programs for parents and teachers. We strive to make them understand that learning disability (though invisible) has many faces - poor scholastic performance being just one. Other faces may include low self esteem, aggression, anxiety, obsessive compulsive behaviour and even self mutilating or self harming behaviour. If not dealt with, these could lead to greater psychosomatic or psychological disorders amongst children.”

“We communicate that irrespective of how one performs in a school examination, no child deserves to come face to face with these uglier faces of the disability.”

“Therefore, it is of primary importance that our parenting and teaching techniques must encapsulate sensitivity and empathy. If we are able, there is nothing that will stop our children from soaring high.”

“Once a parent shared how her child can now go and buy bread, and come back with the exact change! It sounds like an insignificant story to us, only a small anecdote perhaps. However, in the lifecycle of a mother and a child relationship, it is a milestone they have hit. Often, children of ours who are termed as good-for-nothing are not even assigned these small odd jobs with the fear that they would goof up or make an error. The confidence displayed by the mother as she lets her child step out and buy some bread, meets with a child not making an error. This is a great testimony of how a simple change in attitude can help our kids grow.”

“Our counselling programs with caregivers focus on celebrating the difference in learning methods that our children exhibit. We have been successful in this vertical several times now.”

“While there are standardised psychological and educational assessments validated by the government for diagnosing students with learning disabilities, there are only a few validated testing centres across the country. For example, we only have four in my home province of Maharashtra, making it extremely difficult for students to even get diagnosed. If I have to get my child tested today, I would get an appointment only after four months, and the entire process of testing would take up almost one calendar year before we receive the results. The system further states that unless you have a written diagnosis of a child suffering of a certain learning disability, you cannot begin intervention.”

“This alarmed me back when Mimaansa was initially taking shape. We currently use tests that have been validated across every education board in India. Since these are not conventional tests, we do not have to abide by the rules set by the system. Our model allows us to immediately identify the areas of improvement and enable the intervention without wasting precious time.”

On research concerning learning disabilities in schools

“Learning disabilities in India are only beginning to get their due attention. There are institutions focused on research of learning disabilities and its prevalence, along with its impact on society. Several books have been written in this regard. However, there is an ever growing scope to study since learning disabilities are dynamic in nature, and often come coupled with comorbidities.”

“At Mimaansa, we work to ensure that our intervention ultimately leads to a policy level reform! Our partnership with SSA is a step towards advocacy, thus training and building the capacity of numerous government school teachers.”

on expanding and optimising operations

“Mimaansa today is a replicable, well-documented model. It is ripe enough to scale. Our journey from one school to eleven has helped us understand our weaknesses enough to work on them, to harness on our strengths and move forward. What we would need to scale or expand is funding support along with appropriate team members, considering this is a human intensive program. Also, for smooth execution, we would need to onboard special educators, psychologists, psychotherapists, and mental health workers. It is not easy to find them. We collaborate with several institutions that offer courses in either special education or mental health, namely: TISS, SIES College Of Integrated Education, and SIES College Of Management.”

“Since its inception, Mimaansa has been associated with social incubators and capacity building organisations, leading to a strong network of strategic partners and donors within the sector. We diligently prepare and follow an annual implementation plan for both - programs and fundraising -  which gets reviewed on a quarterly basis. We have been fortunate enough to have been able to sail through so far, thanks to an exploration of multiple fundraising mediums and development of a valuable donor database which includes grant-making bodies, corporate social responsibility (CSR) funds and high net-worth individuals (HNIs). We are grateful for their support.”

Students learning to identify days of the week using Mimaansa-made resource tools in a remedial session.

next steps

“In addition to contributing to policy-level reform, Mimaansa is keen to work on creating enough vocational opportunities for people with learning disabilities. I see us strongly moving in this direction in the coming decade.”

“One day, we want to wake up to a morning where nobody needs an external agency (like ours) to build capacity of a government school, or to ensure that children with special needs on government school campuses are taken care of. Once we inch closer to this scenario, we will be able to design our exit strategy, moving a little closer to our vision.”

“We also seek to be self sustaining, considering we are a non profit organisation surviving through donations. This may involve setting up our own remedial centre for private school students. While discussions had reached advanced stages regarding this move, COVID-19 forced us to take a step back. We might not be able to pull up our sleeves and dive into it this year, but it should be a possibility next year.”

“Lastly, one thing that is dear to us is the question of expanding our reach. How are we going to spread across more geographies? The answer lies in training and development. Mimaansa sees itself blooming into a training institution.”

on experiencing personal growth through Mimaansa

“In the beginning - while I was familiar with special education and mental health, I did not know the ‘S’ of ‘social entrepreneurship’. The term did not exist for me. I remember sharing with my father a deep desire to do social work. Association with social enterprise incubators (namely, Atma and UnLtd India) and pursuing a course on the topic at the SP Jain Institute of Management proved supremely helpful.”

“I have had moments where I felt that the world was going to come crashing down. Things do not always look promising. Mimaansa has made me aware of how fortunate I have been to have been born in this setup, to have received this upbringing and learning.”

“Had it not been for Mimaansa, I would not have been able to bounce back from failures as easily. Not allowing failure to impact me, taking things in my stride and not giving up has been a crucial learning. There have been valuable lessons in patience (ref: government red-tapeism) and business management. I’m grateful to the Universe for this opportunity.”

“Mimaansa has given me a purpose. It is the one thing I wake up to in the morning.”

Pooja Joshi, seen in an interaction with six planets from our solar system.

“One of the values of our organisation is ‘Celebrate Differences’. When I see my little kids struggling for something (as basic as reading) that we take for granted, when I see the ridicule that comes their way, the humiliation that comes their way - I have learned to celebrate them, and their quest - their quest to learn, their quest to fit in. We need to understand that their defence mechanism is a pre-emptive reaction, stemming from a fear of a potentially offensive environment, that is so only because they are different, and not necessarily difficult.”

“Today, I dream fearlessly of greater heights because I know I am not alone. With so many of us working together, there isn't anything that could stop all of us from collectively reaching our goal of ‘continued learning’ for my little different learners.”

“The most valuable lesson I have learnt from my children is getting up and asking for help. They do it so effortlessly! One of my biggest personal struggles was to state I needed help, state that I didn’t know, and to articulate my fears! (You know how your ego plays games?) There is so much goodness, there is so much goodness in this whole wide world, that when you ask, you shall receive. I have learnt that it is fine to not know, and it is okay to not be okay! There are going to be best days and some bad days sprinkled all around - you get up and shout and say ‘I am fine, I am okay, I am happy’, but it is also okay to not be so. That's exactly what we are teaching our children at the end of the day.”

“I know I have a long, long journey ahead. But the Universe, my kids, my Aai-Baba’s (parents’) values and a whole lot of love and laughter are my companions on this journey - and hence, this is going to be one enriching ride!

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Words: Pooja Joshi, in conversation with Sushrut Munje