Page 65 - EducationWorld March 2022

Gap year students: Western fad or enriching break?

time to give myself a break. There was a period of confusion terned with a wellness retreat. These involvements were
in my mind, which was amplified by the deadly second wave valuable learning as well as healing experiences. To have
of the Covid-19 pandemic. Online classes, lockdown restric- continued to undergrad education would have been stress-
tions, and inability to meet friends stressed me out. Taking ful,” says Mehta.
a gap year sounded like a great idea to calm and rejuvenate Undoubtedly, preparation for the all-important school-
myself,” says Bellani, who was admitted into the University leaving class X – and especially class XII – examinations
of British Columbia, Canada last year but opted for deferred in which rote learning and memorisation skills are given
admission. She will begin her term this September. high importance, drives children too hard. With admission
To take her mind off routine academics, Bellani volun- cut-offs demanded by the country’s few dozen high-quality
teered for two weeks with an NGO in Sri Lanka through colleges and universities having risen sky-high, the pres-
Plan my Gap Year, UK, an awards-winning voluntary ser- sure on students to score high grades in board and national
vices organisation. “I spent two weeks in Sri Lanka where competitive exams, is intense.
I worked for a renovation project of community buildings Inevitably, within the great majority of middle class
and as an English teacher. These were enriching learning households, the gap year is viewed as a Western fad and a
experiences which boosted my self-confidence. Now I feel wasteful break in the education continuum. “Taking a gap
like I can chase the clouds if I want to,” says Bellani. year may be common in the West but in India, even discus-
Ruhee Mehta, a science stream higher secondary stu- sion of the subject is taboo. When my son took a gap year,
dent of Sri Kumaran Children’s Home, Bengaluru, was en- there were so many people, including members of my own
couraged to take a gap year by her parents, both frontline family, who were highly critical. Barbed comments about
doctors during the pandemic. “As a science student, I was over-indulgence and my son wasting his life were common-
struggling with a packed schedule of online assignments place. To the extent that I became nervous about his friends
and tuitions, and pressure to excel. I was tired all the time. attending college, while my son was cooped in his room
Fortunately, my parents encouraged me to take a gap year. binge-watching Netflix. In such moments, I also wonder
At the same time, I realised that I could waste the gap year if supporting his gap year request was the right decision,”
if I didn’t quickly fall into a routine to make the most of comments a Delhi-based homemaker and mother of an
these precious months. I made a list of everything I wanted 18-year-old who two months into his gap year is yet to de-
to achieve and enrolled in a yoga teachers’ training course cide on his future course of action.
and later started conducting online yoga classes. I also in- In a society where detention of children for under-per-

MARCH 2022 EDUCATIONWORLD 65