Text Credits: Rheanna Mathews

Dr Kalyani Vallath’s Total English Solutions (TES) has become a pillar in the monument of learning, with students from almost every state in the country having graced its halls. Twenty years of teaching English literature, and Dr Vallath is still as enthusiastic as ever. “Teaching is my passion”, she declares, “my first and last love.” She considers each new day exciting and motivating because she loves to innovate and try out new ways to make learning interesting for her students.
However, when she says innovative teaching, Dr Vallath doesn’t just confine it to the classroom. Apart from trying to make a dry subject more interesting for the students, she draws her students into other environs with practical and hands-on activities specially designed to not only increase their love for the subject, but also their employability. In fact, she states that of the total number of students who passed UGC NET (the National Eligibility Test conducted by the University Grants Commission) in English in recent years, 10-30% attended classroom or postal coaching with TES. She largely follows what she terms the “Iceberg Method” to achieve these results, which means that though she provides comprehensive notes to students, it discourages rote learning since the matter contained in said notes is incomplete, provoking further research by the students.

A successful venture

Though Dr Vallath subscribes to “the universally accepted principles that education should be learner-centric, activity-oriented and involving vocational or professional training”, her focus on creativity outside the classroom is what truly makes TES a success story. Her teaching methodology, she says, is a “curious combination of traditional educational methods with entrepreneurial ventures”. She has established a publishing company, Bodhi Tree Books and Publications, which has produced over 40 books required for the study of English Literature as expected in the country that also follow an approach that boosts reader-participation and research, encouraging students to discover information themselves. Apart from this, she has developed something called the Q Shop (or The Qriosity Shop) which produces literature themed merchandise like t-shirts, coffee mugs, greeting cards and bags. Quizzes, games, workshops and other cross-disciplinary activities imbue the students with enthusiasm and make them pursue their studies in the discipline with renewed zeal. And students play an active role in the development of these products and other services offered by TES, giving them valuable experience and training in academic writing and editing, teacher training, research consultancy, communication and product development.

A driving passion

Dr Vallath says, “It has been my driving passion to revamp advanced English studies in India”, but through her institution, it seems she has managed to do this and become a successful businesswoman too, having developed a unique model of public relations that does not involve advertising and conventional marketing. TES’ fame has spread through word-of-mouth, with students from the far reaches of the country appearing at her doorstep. Quite unsurprising, if you look at the love and admiration past students have for her. A greater acknowledgement of her success came recently when she was invited to make a presentation on “Woman as Social Edupreneur: Opportunities, Challenges” at the Oxford Education Research Symposium at Merton College in March and at the Oxford Women’s Leadership Symposium at Somerville College in August.
It seems that Dr Vallath has truly vindicated her choice not to follow the beaten path and instead seek the road that, though “fraught with risks”, would grant her the “freedom to innovate”. She created TES and has shaped it into a “finishing school” for students of English literature and she is happy that its “pioneering educational and entrepreneurial innovations have become a transforming influence for the hundreds of students who pass out every year”. Through it all, apart from her love for teaching, it was the single-minded dedication to her role that brought her results, for “failure was not an option”.

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