We feel that schools have a lot more potential than they are currently given within development discourse and greater importance should be given to considering their role: We think they are critically important in enabling people to fulfill their potential and empowering communities to realise some of the changes they would like to see in their lives. Without an education system that promotes such a process or provides children and adults with the tools to effectively engage in the process, democratic, sustainable and self-motivated change within developing areas is not possible.

However, we do not believe that rural education in its current format is fit for the purpose described above. The educational content does not relate strongly enough to the day-to-day challenges the rural poor face and so, in many ways, has become irrelevant to their lives. Teaching methods continue to be archaic, with didactic, learn-by-rote and often physically or emotionally violent approaches being preferred to those which encourage inquiry, problem-solving skills and self-confidence in the children. The emphasis on learning from books makes concepts abstract and difficult to grasp for children, particularly when teaching happens outside of their first language, and at a low quality. It also gives the impression that ‘learning’, ‘knowledge’ and ‘to be educated’ comes almost exclusively from books, which simply isn’t true. In addition, schools and teachers are under-resourced and under-supported, resulting in poor attendance, low staff morale and almost unmanageably high teacher:student ratios.

Hunar Ghar is an experiment in addressing the aforementioned issues. We aim to promote, through demonstrative good practice and active research, a systematic reform in the approach to rural education, so that it more strongly reflects the role that we feel education has to play in broader personal and societal development.