A few days ago, there were a couple of emails that went back and forth between Ed, Ina and myself about two opposing ‘schools’ of thought regarding rural education in India, prompting this three part blog in which I’ll talk a little about formalised schooling, alternative education and some interesting schools Ina’s found to visit.

This is part 3. In the previous posts I talked a little about the failings of the formalised and alternative systems from my perspective. However, despite this, it seems there are a few places that are doing some exciting stuff that we’re thinking of visiting to learn from…below is an extract from an email Ina sent me regarding what she’s found so far.

1)      Sarang Hills (http://saranghills.org/):

-         Sarang is based in Kerala.

-         It works in a typical rural sector of India (more like a rural university!)

-         It does not follow any strict curriculum but functions on a truly experimental basis.

-         They can be helpful w..r.t. the topics that they cover at the campus, e.g. watershed management, natural farming, yoga, dance, martial arts, etc.

-         Besides this, their insight would definitely help us finding solutions to some of our recent problems. The founders of this school, Gopalkrishnan and Vijayalekshmi, themselves have been teachers and have struggled their way through immense difficulties to raise and run a school like Sarang J

2)      Sita school (no website available):

-         This school is based in Karnataka and is run by Jane Sahi for past 30 odd years!

-         It basically deals with the problem of drop-out children from the Government schools.

-         Though Jane and her family are more into art, the school follows the regular SSC curriculum upto 7th std.

-         It is a kannada medium school, which adopts innovative methods for teaching.

-         You can check the following links, which will give you some idea about the school:

http://www.learningnet-india.org/groups/karnataka/JaneSahi/index.php

http://www.sutradharindia.org/profilestore4/10784857138748

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# Both the above schools have the local language as the medium of instruction, which I see would be a point beneficial to us, especially to find out, how to deal with the problems of providing alternate education using the vernacular medium.

3)      Kanavu:

-         Though ‘Kanavu’ probably would be the best school to visit for our purpose, I have not been able to find any current contact details of it

-         Kanavu is also based in Kerala (Wayanad district) and it is a truly tribal school.

-         I read about it a few years back and know that their experiences could be really useful for Hunar Ghar considering it started and worked in the more or less the same setup.

-         Nevertheless, I will try to find out the details from one of my friends in Bangalore, who hails from Kerala

4)      Parikrama schools (http://www.parikrmafoundation.org/):

-         Parikrama learning centers are based in Bangalore and are actually more of ‘urban’ schools.

-         They basically work in the slum areas of Bangalore and follow ICSE curriculum as any other ‘normal’ school in India.

-         But what I think would prove to be helpful visiting these schools is that the socio-economic class that they are dealing with…

-         The children come from a typically compromised background and the education level of the parents is next to nil here.

-         Which means, the children at Parikrama aspiring to appear for the ICSE board examination at the end of 11^th std, must be facing the problems of non-conducive environment at home, non-exposure as well. I want to find out, how does Parikrama deal with these problems? What are the strategies they adopt to boost the moral of these children and keep motivating them to strive for a better and healthy education?

-         Parikrama also has community development on their agenda in addition to the education of the underprivileged sector.

-         It would be interesting to find out, how to do they integrate the innovative ways of teaching and learning at Parikrama.

5)      Grammangal (http://www.grammangal.org/):

-         I think, all of us are already  aware of Grammangal. They are based in Pune.

-         There are a couple of things wherein they could be useful to us.

-         I wish to find out more about their training programs for teachers, their education aids (material) and see, if we could make use of any of them.

-         In addition, Grammangal runs a Balwaadis as well a primary school at Aina village, which is a hardcore tribal area in Thane district of Maharshtra. I am planning to go to Dahanu to visit this.

-         It will also be interesting to find out more about their ‘Learning Home’ project in Pune city.

-         The founder of Grammangal, Ramesh Panse is considered to be a pioneer educationist of India :-0

6)      Aksharnandan:

-         It is based in Pune and was basically evolved from the concept of ‘home schooling’ for some of the children.

-         This school was founded by the interested parents, who did not want their children to go through the agonies of formal regular schooling.

-         Though the school still follows the normal curriculum of SSC board, they have come a long way adopting methods to make learning is truly enjoyable and valuable process for the children.

-         Of course, I have kept it on my list since it is easier for me to visit it (being in Pune!)

7)      Mahatma Gandhi Vidyamandir:

-         This school is based in Mumbai.

-         It is a regular SSC board school but I recently read an article about how innovatively they implement their curriculum and I found it quite astounding!

-         Even here, they believe in ‘Learning through experiments’ and use the textbooks only for providing guidelines.

-         I am sure, it would be worth visiting this school and documenting their methods for our benefit.

A few days ago, there were a couple of emails that went back and forth between Ed, Ina and myself about two opposing ‘schools’ of thought regarding rural education in India, prompting this three part blog in which I’ll talk a little about formalised schooling, alternative education and some interesting schools Ina’s found to visit.

This is part 2. The previous post introduced some of the problems with the formalised education system and suggested there was a void that may be filled by the alternative education movement.

This section offers my perspective on the alternative education movement and how it also seems to be failing the rural poor. Alternative schools are by definition more diverse in their methods & philosophy than the formalised education system, but I think there are some common(ish) characteristics that are worth being aware of:

-         Again most are based in urbanised and developed settings rather than the rural underdeveloped areas- the areas we believe the current system is failing most.

-         They can be quite elitist establishments designed for the upper & middle classes.

-         Often non-formal, means non-replicable as well, with limited sharing of what works, where and why- the emphasis seems to be on context to highlight the difference between themselves and conventional schooling.*

As can be seen from my slightly generalising list of characteristics, it doesn’t seem that the alternative education movement is making significant contributions for the benefit of rural education in developing countries either.

The picture I am trying to paint is one of systemic problems within formalised education as we know it, but a lack of systemic solutions coming from advocates, pedagogues and schools. If anything the alternative schools seem to shy away from these activities in order to create an alternative for the privileged, not those that need it.

This isn’t to say that there aren’t organisations working well in rural development and education to find small solutions, however they are rare, under-resourced and fragmented meaning what they have learned is often not shared or replicated elsewhere.

It’s not all bad new and failures though…In the next post I’ll share a little document written by Ina about some of the alternative education organisations we have found around India that we feel there is something to learn from…

*One quite separate part of the ‘alternative’ education movement believe the entire idea of educating people is defunct and that the education system is a hegemonic tool for manufacturing and manipulating people. This again we feel is something that is easy for the privileged to talk about, having already benefited from the same education system they complain about.

Yesterday there were a couple of emails that went back and forth between Ed, Ina and myself about two opposing ‘schools’ of thought regarding rural education in India, prompting this three part blog in which I’ll talk a little about formalised schooling, alternative education and some interesting schools Ina’s found to visit.

This is part one discussing formalised schooling in the rural under-developed environment- our criticisms of this system are well documented in previous posts:

- It’s a victorian system designed around the priorities of urbanising societies, not those of the rural poor.

- Children’s learning is compartmentalised into abstract subjects, rather than being based around their experiences, the society they live in and the application of knowledge.

- The methods applied, particular in places like India, over-emphasise knowledge, instead of understanding- they treat kids as though they are things that need to be disciplined and moulded (vacuums to be filled) rather than with the understanding that children are programmed to develop into functioning adults and it’s our role to facilitate that process, not rigidly control it.

The predominant education system is so ubiquitously applied, despite these problems, that it creates a sort of path dependency in society. By this I mean that almost all of us are products of such a system; when we think education, we think kids sitting in lines at tables, learning from books, a blackboard and a teacher. Our own experiences set the boundaries for what education will be like in the future; most of us for whom this system has worked in ways (including those in charge of development and education policy) would then go on to enforce the same system on others, including those in developing countries and rural environments, who perhaps need something quite different.

When asked to rethink what education could be like, these same people (who pull the strings or do the teaching) are unable to draw on many of their own experiences, but rather have to rely on their imagination. Unfortunately, especially in India, imagination and individuality aren’t things that are fostered, but rather beaten out of people through their schooling, creating an unfortunate perpetuation of a system that is clearly failing the people it claims to serve.

I think of this death of the imagination as one of the biggest crisis facing rural education and development generally, but despite the obvious and massive need (and the worrying downstream effects of these failures), a pitiful level of thought or investment goes into rethinking these systems, when you compare it to the level of investment going into educational processes and resources for the well-off in the developed world…

A void which the alternative education community could serve to fill, perhaps? Which leads me on to part 2 of my spiel…

Here is a sample of the responsibilities Deepak has at Hunar Ghar….

1) General manager- making sure staff turn up, work etc.

2) Planning lessons for 8 classes (110 kids) with the teachers.

3) Training teachers on Saturdays & organising external training.

4) Liaising with community and sorting out any issues they raise.

5) Supply teacher

6) Purchaser of firewood to cook with (more difficult than it sounds)

7) Purchaser of food

8 ) Purchaser of teaching materials for kids

9) The face of Educate for Life in India- networking with some of our friends in the country.

10) Accountant

11) Volunteer co-ordinator

12) Building work supervisor

13) Payment officer

I think a few things are apparent from this list (which, I should point out doesn’t include his responsibilities toward himself, his family or friends)…

1) He has more work than is humanly possible to do well.

2) He works ridiculously hard and needs support.

3) He’s good at taking on responsibilities but not delegating them.

4) Related to the above, perhaps the rest of the staff aren’t taking enough ownership of the project.

We’ve been trying incredibly hard to find people to support Deepak over the past few years, but up till now haven’t had much sustainable success. Over the coming weeks we’ll be working with two staff members who are already familiar to the area and our work- Preeti & Gopal.

Preeti is one of the teachers who we see a lot of potential in. She’s just had a baby, so it seems like a good opportunity to shift her role a little on her return. As she’s very organised and quite reliable we feel she could be in charge of account keeping, making sure all the rooms & kitchen are tidy and fully stocked, as well as helping with the teaching.

Gopal has been a staff member of RBKS for many years in the area, but due to a restructuring of some of RBKS’s projects is now available to shift over to us. We know that he’s capable and hard working, and Deepak already has a strong relationship and friendship with him as they worked together before Deepak joined Educate for Life- so hopefully the move will be positive. We’re hoping that he’s another who can take on a significant proportion of what Deepak does- purchasing food, wood, classroom materials etc. Going on home visits, helping support Deepak in managing the teachers, overseeing building work etc…

This means that hopefully Deepak, along with Ina and Ruhani who are joining over the coming weeks, will be freed up to focus their attention on the educational side of things- this is what Deepak’s good at and enjoys & it’s about time he gets to focus more fully on that.

In the next few days there are going to be a lot of different people descending on Hunar Ghar. As well as Deepak and the team, Teddy and Paritha are already there doing a fab job improving the classrooms, building new ones and getting rainwater harvesting systems working. Ed, Ina & I (train reservations allowing) will be there on Saturday and Ruhani, a new member of the team, will join us a few days later.

All this means there’s the potential to begin thinking about some big changes at Hunar Ghar. Until now, Deepak’s been struggling just to keep his head above water, having to almost single handedly manage everything at the school; hopefully with a little more support everyone will have more freedom to innovate & get even more creative in the way they work with the children.

Of course, with so many people, there’s also the potential for things to be disorganised and slightly chaotic for a while, but hopefully that will be something we can manage & move with.