The tradition associates knowledge with books.  Education has thereby become linked with an individual’s ability to read and write.  The more proficient a person is in these the more educated he is considered.  Thus an artificial world is created which is unrelated to the outside world; the acquired knowledge cannot be applied to real life situations. Such an education is a venture into a verbose wasteland.  The end product, the so called educated man, stands alienated from his environment.

Such an education system is creating literate people many of whom join the ranks of the educated unemployed, and at a primary stage, become functional illiterates. Broadly speaking, the educated unemployed are an urban feature, while functional illiterates are a rural characteristics.

Who are the functional illiterates?  In the village, the school drop-outs can be referred to as such.  Their literacy is of no value to them except for signing their names, and a few reach the level where they can read notices and other people’s letters.

Even those who may have passed middle or high school, eventually work on the fields, where they cannot apply what they have learnt at school.  Not suprisingly the villagers consider school to be an extravagant appendage, a city luxury, instead of a necessity.

We therefore require kind of education which (a) is related to a person’s life (b) is applicable to a person’s work and (c) proves to be largely indispensable for a person’s life and work.

Let us glance at the work being done by NGOs to determine whether they are able to fulfil these conditions through the alternative models of education they have been experimenting with.  As developed by the Tilonia (Rajasthan) based NGO, the Social Work Research Centre (SWRC), for instance, this model embraces not only curriculum, but school timing, training of school teachers…the works.

An experiment was carried out in the villages of Rajasthan when SWRC realised that children were the most eager pupils during the night classes held to impart adult education and literacy.  The regular teachers in these schools were transferred to other areas and young locals, primary school educated, were recruited.  The essence of this new approach was to see to it that teachers were provided with opportunities to share their experiences and problems with other people, the SWRC staff, various visiting experts, and fellow teachers.

Moreover, the school adapted to a time schedule which was convenient to the children.  The classes were conducted during the day and in the evenings to suit the needs of the older children who were engaged in various duties during the day.

The above experiment was financed by NCERT for three years.  Thereafter the SWRC took up the programme on its and introduced night schools in the villages.  The day schools were given up as majority of the children would not attend them.

The schools did not follow any pre-set curriculum, but a few books and charts were evolved during the process of starting up the schools to aid the teaching of literacy and numeracy (arithmetic)

Initially only boys attended night school.  The SWRC shifted its focus, emphasised their value for girls.  In 13 schools, with 400 students now as many as 150 are girls.

The early efforts at promoting night schools were confined to the three villages where SWRC’s health scheme was implemented.  Owing to the paucity of staff, and resources, the volunteers involved with SWRC’s other schemes, also helped out.

Now there are 50 night schools being run by SWRC with a couple of hundred part-time teachers.  As many as 30 schools are run on solar energy which is collected during the day and stored for use in the evenings, the school timings being from 7 pm to 9 pm.

Shiksha Karmis
Another novel feature of SWRC’s non formal education is the shiksha karmi scheme which aims at providing teachers in tune with the village ethos.

To begin with, because of the isolation of the villages, hardly any teachers made it to them.  Those that did, were the traditional netagiri  types who believed in the danda being the ideal instrument of education: beating the pupil if he failed to do his homework.

The scheme involved replacing the single teacher (from outside the area) with two teachers.  Both of them were to be from the same region if not from the same village as the pupils; they were required to have completed class eight, no more; they had to be between 18 years and 30 years old.

The teachers were selected by the SWRC in concert with block officials.  They underwent a month’s training with a Jaipur based NGO.

Though the shiksha karmi scheme was introduced in 1987 by the government in 15 villages of Ajmer, Jaipur and Udaipur districts, it was first experimented with by SWRC in the early eighties.

The following observations can be made regarding the two new schemes launched by the SWRC.
1. The night schools were introduced in 1975; the shiksha karmi scheme in 1980/81 by SWRC and 1987 by the government.

2. Night schools are operating in 50 villages; the shiksha karmi scheme of the government in 15 villages.

3. The shiksha karmi scheme is an offshoot of the night schools.  After having completed their training, it was expected that the night school teachers could run day schools managed by the shiksha karmis.  And that is what has happened in several cases.

4. The qualifications of the night school teachers and shiksha karmis are similar.  Whereas the former are trained by the SWRC, the latter by the government.
5. The night school teachers stress is on the informal course.  The shiksha karmis have to teach the formal course, the prescribed syllabus, in day schools.

6. The night school teachers do not neglect the formal course as some of their students are interested in joining the mainstream;several do.

7. The informal course taught at night schools reflects the village reality; awareness is sought to be developed, among other issues, about shoshan (the exploitation of the rural poor by the money lenders, the patel, the patwari), and how it can be tackled

Teaching Skills To Adivasis
Educational programmes either precede economic programmes or are implemented simultaneously along with them.  Rarely do NGOs decide to introduce them a while after the economic programmes have been well underway.

The National Institute of Rural Integrated Development (Thane district, Maharashtra) found that its afforestation and agriculture programmes were being confined to a limited number of adivasis.   It has hit upon non formal education as a means of reaching more of them.  Conscientisation (awareness building), is one aspect of NIRID’s non formal education programme; skills development is the other.

The conscientisation component is expected to motivate the tribals to become strong supporters of NIRID’s activities, afforestation in particular, as well as take to new crops. The objective is to transform the afforestation scheme into a movement among tribals.

The skills development is expected to provide impetus by training the adivasis in the technical aspect of sapling selection, preparation of nurseries, protection of trees and the introduction of suitable intercrops.

The non formal education will continue so as to take care of the next stage of the development process.  Once the tribals design to derive an income through trees and new crops, NIRID believes, their response to them will be greater. This will not only (a) strengthen the tribal traditions but (b) further develop the tribal economy.

A part of the income, no doubt, will go into higher consumption but a part will be set aside to improve the quality of life.  Non formal education will encourage them to ensure:

1. education and better health care for their children and
2. involve them in community affairs so that they cooperate in developing their village.

Jeevan Shala

The Anand Niketan Ashram manages school within its premises which provides an alternative model of education.  Whereas if found it difficult to attract any students in the initial stages, now it has 120, who apart from attending classes participate in all its activities.

The Jeevan Shala, set up  in 1949, was recognized by the state (Gujrat) in 1966.  Its students appear for the common examination or the state on completing class seven, after which they take to the following:
1. Post basic school which aims at providing some kind of secondary education.  

2. Adhoc courses of which the objective is to make new knowledge available to all members of the community.  These include: (a) modern methods of farming (b) technical skills such as production of cement pipes, erection of gobar gas plants, carpentry etc. (c) literacy classes for illiterates, semi-literates and neo-literates (d) training in village planning and social work (e) knowledge of democracy, Sarvodaya movement, non-violent revolution, and so on.

The aim of the Jeevan Shala or Life Education School, a residential school, is not to turn out clerks but better farmers and community workers.  This is the basic difference between the Jeevan Shala and the mainstream schools.

The striking thing is that the students trained at the Jeevan Shala have not migrated to towns but become useful members of rural society.  Thus they are providing skills in areas sorely lacking them.  Many Jeevan Shala students have also emerged as leaders.

Night Schools

In the initial stages most NGOs suffer from paucity of funds.  Gram Bharti (Bihar) was no exception.  Introducing economic programmes at that stage, to tackle the problem of poverty, was this not possible.  But education required no major investment.  Gram Bharti volunteers used to land up at a village and hold classes at the house of anyone willing to let them do so; no teaching aids were used.

In 1965, a night school was organized at Salkhodia, a Santhal village, and another at Gopalamaran, which has a mixed harijan and Santhal population, both in Jhajha block.  The classes were held in the nights because by then the villagers, young and old, had finished work in the fields and were free to attend. Gram Bharti volunteers took along petromax lanters with them as the villages did not have electricity.  The students, those who could, brought books, slates, pencils.

The emphasis was on basic literacy to enable the villagers pick up the rudiments of reading and writing. Along with that, they were made aware of the problems created by liquor consumption, the basis of their exploitation by outsiders, and the cause of their bondage.

After operating the education scheme for a few years, Gram Bharti pressured the government it has created, the Gram Sabhas, put in their demand for them.  Ever since, over 50 primary schools have come up in the area; some have been converted to middle and high schools.

By 1977-78 the government was keen that Gram Bharti introduce adult education.  It took the responsibility of doing so in 60 centres; it initiated another 30 through the Gram Sabhas for which they were paid directly by the government.

The programme lasted a year since Gram Bharti developed differences with the government on the manner of its implementation.  It was against teaching villagers in classrooms during the agricultural season: the classes were held on the fields near their place of work. The government did not care for such an informal approach.

At present, Gram Bharati is content to maintain a watch over the schools in its area of operation to ensure that they perform the role they have been set up for.

We have glanced through the alternative education programmes of five NGOs: SWRC (Rajasthan), NIRID (Maharashtra), Anand Niketan Ashram (Gujrat), Gram Bharti (Bihar) and BCT (Andhra Pradesh).  There is no denying that they have made education much more relevant to the needs of the people.  Will the government have the courage to follow their example? q

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