Meenakshi Pandey, Vice Principal, The Manik Public School, Bidar, Karnataka, describes how a mentor-mentee program can work in schools.
I am passionate about the myriad ways we can make schools better places for all those who are involved in them. A mentor-mentee program in schools is a culture that nourishes trust, growth, and belonging, and it helps in viewing the school as more than a mere classroom and textbooks. It is a place where every student should feel supported and guided by teachers to get a sense of belonging there, right from day one. It is not a dream, but we are slowly getting into the stream to develop that culture in schools. It helps in personal and academic growth to face future challenges and to feel the school as their second home. There are plenty of stories of students who have proved very successful, though initially they were not confident about it. Teachers are reigniting their passion to help others and change the schools into places of inspiration.
We should know why mentoring is essential in schools today. The present-day curriculum requires all of us to rush behind high marks, graduation rates, and key metrics. We have to accept the fact that though academics are the foundation for all these, we can make the progress that is sustainable only by means of emotional and social guidance. When students feel that they are not supported or guided by the school and feel low, mentoring comes into the picture as a vital factor to help them achieve greater success. A well-planned mentor-mentee program does not trim the edges alone, but it helps students to get engaged in their studies and to develop very strong resilience. It makes everyone, students, teachers, or other staff members, feel truly valued as they can guide students. There is a shift in most of the schools. Students are gearing up to face the challenges rather than distancing themselves from them. We can smell the air of positivity. A student who is quite shy, when paired with a senior student mentor with similar interests, just becomes very friendly, finds out the leadership qualities in him, and finds the school a playground to nurture his potential. This is what mentoring does for students, for their benefit.
The system of mentor-mentee has seasoned individuals as mentors to provide the required guidance and support to motivate the mentees. The mentees do not belong to any particular group; they can be students who want to explore heights. This also helps the teachers to start liking their profession. The versatility of the system fits to fulfil any need. The teacher can help students with difficult homework or teach life lessons. Student-to-student mentorship happens when the senior students help the younger ones and share tips to be successful. Such group mentoring becomes a powerhouse which supports great ideas in the youngsters. But we must remember that the mentors can only be catalysts for growth and give encouragement by their advice. The mentor can bring out the mentee’s strengths that were hidden all these days and help them explore major roles in life.
When guidance and willingness come together
There should be some clear rules and responsibilities to be adhered to when we take up the mentoring system. The mentors who are also motivators should be willing to hear the mentees, give feedback that is soft and constructive, and give examples from their own lives to inspire the mentees. The personal touch can be the motivating factor. The mentees also should be active participants, curious enough to know things, learn how to achieve goals and apply what they have learned from the mentors. The whole session can be compared to a dance program where the choreography is perfect. When both are fully engrossed in the program, it encourages connectivity that is lifelong, making the program effective.
Foundations of successful mentoring
The whole program has many features, such as the pairing process. This feature brings together the varied interests and goals of mentor and mentee. The matching of the two should be perfect and benefit each other. It should create bonding and be meaningful. Next comes a clear meeting structure which paves the way for organisation, with regular sessions and feedback. The training offered by the mentor enables them to understand their role thoroughly, bring in conversations with grace, and keep up their motivation all through. The mentees need to set expectations on how to make use of the guidance, what to discuss, and have complete participation. These elements form a strong foundation for the session. Once these are decided, the program becomes a great success, withstands any challenge, and becomes impactful.
We have to analyse the strategies for success. We need to think practically and have plans to make the mentoring program a success. We should have regular meetings, be consistent in our mentoring, and dedicate time to building confidence and bonding. There should be effective communication, emails can be sent for quick feedback, and apps can be used for sharing ideas without much difficulty. The program should ensure confidentiality for the mentee and make them feel safe about what they say. There should be reviews at regular intervals to keep the program on track. I have seen in many schools where the program is run that there is a lot of positivity, fewer dropouts, high spirits among students, and the school’s culture is reshaped.
When the mentoring program helps build a culture full of trust, growth, and develops a sense of belonging, it changes the entire environment. Students will be ready to take risks in their lives and learning, and avoid any hindrances. There will be a reduction in the number of bullying cases as they understand each other, they get connected to each other better, which is deep, everybody starts feeling a sense of belonging, and the atmosphere is nothing but joyful. There is an increase of more than 25% in scores showing the academic excellence, lower dropout rates, more college enrolments, and the students find the doors to a better future widely open.
From plan to practice
There is a difference between the system guide and the system guide program. While the guide is a blueprint manual detailing the best practices, the system guide program is all about day-to-day execution, training, pairings, and follow-ups important for the transition. The relationships grow well. Both of them are important. The guide shows the framework, and the program shows the results that change lives. We need to resort to the guide in the initial stages when the program is launched, and orientation is conducted to start setting the tone and aligning the participants. The program comes into play when there is daily or weekly monitoring to track the progress. This will help in understanding the impact and improvements. Both of these make the program long-lasting in any school setting.
Only after a thorough assessment of goals and requirements can the program be started. We should understand the challenges and strengths, and then have training mentors and orienting mentors to improve the involvement. We need to start on a small scale to get the insight and then follow the approach that fits the school’s culture, which will be different between schools. There are lots of challenges for this program, and there are solutions too to keep the program moving forward. Some of them include timer scarcity, which requires flexibility and adjustment of schedules to fit in the program amidst busy schedules. Often, we find mismatches in the pairing of mentor and mentee. In such a case, we have to give importance to interests, goals, and personalities to have a smooth connectivity for better results. The program can benefit better with incentives for the mutual gains of everyone involved. We should be able to appreciate the success when we give feedback for betterment by using each experience as a stepping stone towards improvement. These steps convert the roadblocks into pathways of improvement and success. The mentor-mentee program helps develop school cultures with trust, a sense of belonging, and growth. By making use of it to suit our requirements and improve performance, to get more positivity, the program will bring us great laurels.
Peer mentoring success
In a middle school where I was working, they brought in a student-to-student program for sixth graders. Just within one year, the classroom, which had a high percentage of isolation and division, turned into a closely knit community. There was a drastic reduction in bullying incidents, an increase in the sense of belonging among students, and all these started with the proper pairing of mentor and mentee based on their interest in sports, arts, and events, where both of them worked together and collaborated on projects. The children who felt strange in the school became leaders, and they started feeling like a family.
Inclusive mentoring strategies
It is a common challenge in urban settings. Mentoring gives emotional support by creating small groups in large classes. Mentors can act as a safe place to let out stress or anxieties within the mentees to build resilience. This effort can reduce absenteeism, improve focus, and make the mentees feel more valued when they are paired with peers or teachers who can understand them better.
The group mentoring ensures a balance of these two categories – quieter students and outgoing ones – is essential. To avoid the quieter students from being sidelined, there are intentional activities such as a round robin, where everyone is given a chance to speak and come out of their shells. Mentors assign roles to them as a note taker or idea summarizer to bring them out to participate. When we train mentors to facilitate such inclusion, we can cover the versatility of the program, keeping everyone engaged and making the program beneficial.
The partnership dynamics play a role here. Mentors should be empathetic to the mentees, as the stress could be anything. We need to find out the reason for it, and without putting any pressure, make them connected. We need to encourage them and not criticise. When the mentee takes a step forward, we need to appreciate that. This will help bring in growth opportunities for both.
This is very important as students are from diverse backgrounds. We need to use easy methods such as Google Forms to understand their likes, strengths, and goals. Their expectations and hobbies should be known. We can have one-on-one group discussions to bring in better matches. We can try personality quizzes and other programs for mentoring. A simple chart maintained in the school can help the mentors to check and adjust to make the program work well.
A busy schedule is a big concern, and we can be flexible by organising meetings during lunch hours or after class hours. We can contact via apps, and it can be bi-weekly initially and schedule the same based on the schedule. Pairing with peer mentors will reduce the burden on the teachers. We need to give importance to quality. We cannot specify the time it will take to find the change as it depends on the school size and commitment. Usually, we can notice the change in 3 to 6 months with consistent implementation of the program. It takes at least 2 years to get the benefits of the program. Patience is needed.
The initial hesitation from students and staff due to scepticism is the major challenge. We can start the program and share the success stories via assemblies and incentives for the achievements. The benefits can be seen within a few months if communicating value, adapting solutions, flexibility, and celebration of success are done.
This is a summary of the talk given by the author on schoolreformer.com