Adharshila Learning Centre
Annual Report 2013-14
Contents
- Introduction
- Roll Call
- Academic
- Student Projects
- Craft
- Library
- Computer Training
- Teacher Training
- Exposure tour
- Student Scholarship Program
- Organic Farming
- Other Activities
- Adharshila - A Democratic School
- Funding
- Participation
- Visitors
- Support
Introduction
The Adharshila Learning Centre situated
in Sakad village of Barwani district in the state of Madhya Pradesh was started
in 1996 under the Veer Khajya Naik Manav Vikas Pratishthan to work for the
education and all round development of adivasi children and youth. Since then it
has been working successfully and its area of work now encompasses primary and
middle school education, organic farming, theatre for a social cause,
propagating progressive, democratic and secular ideas in children and youth
through magazine, workshops social media and any other creative medium.
Through its various programs Adharshila
was able to reach out to about 3000 adivasi families of Badwani, Alirajpur and
Burhanpur districts.
Over the years Adharshila has become a
name to reckon with in the field of innovative education for children of
marginal communities and is helping in training teachers involved in this
difficult task.
Roll Call
Children
Life at Adharshila is made fun and hell
by 117 energetic children from more than 25 villages – 95 boys and 22 girls
-
107
are in the hostel and 10 are day scholars
-
61
are in the Primary Section comprising of the Beej, Yamuna, Kaveri, Krishna and
Brahmputra Groups
-
30
in the Middle Section consisting of the Amazon, Nile and Octopus
Groups
-
3 in
the High School of which Sunita helps the Beej Group children, and Anil and
Abhishek go to the Chatli High School and stay on the campus and help in running
the school.
Elders -Badri Bhai, Devika Behen, Majali,
Kesarsingh, Sunita, Deewan Singh, Shobharam Kanouje
facilitate the learning of children, take care of them and look after the daily
grind of the campus which is much more tiring – headachemaari - than the teaching
part.
Volunteers
Sai Pranav, a graduate from Hyderabad
who stayed for 15 days, came to explore his teaching abilities and realised he
was cut out for other things.
Sanjeevani an electrical engineer from
the US/living with parents from Indore/originally Kashmiri volunteered from
December to April. She engaged the children in science projects and also took a
dance workshop. She gave valuable company to Majali, one of the senior teachers
here.
Vibhore, a computer engineer from the US
who divides his time between Adharshila and Araria in Bihar has been spending
time here since the last two years. This year his main aim was to familiarize
children with computers and tablets, which he had brought. He is now enrolled in
a PhD program at Berkeley. He is also helping us propagate the idea of organic
farming in villages through mobiles.
Krunal, another engineer from Surat who left
his job after doing Engineering to do a course in Education, worked with the
children on an electricity project to find the total electric load of the
Adharshila campus.
Nargis, Nishith and stayed at Adharshila
for three days and painted the walls of the Beej Group classroom.
Direction
Jayashree and Amit, who have been
living and working amongst tribal people for the last 30 years. They started the
school with the help of Adivasi Mukti Sangathan, a local people’s
organisation.
Academic
This
section always worries us. What the hell ? We are not a
regular school. We are an alternative learning centre. But where does the
alternative lead to ? Huh! Parents want children to get
into sarkaari noukri and talking of
conditioning even a class 2 child, when asked why are you studying will say noukri judse ! So all
alternatives lead to the mainstream. (Actually there is a message for all
those trying to change the system by operating within the system). But the
Ambedkarite argument is that first let us get into the system then we will
critique it. The route seems to be - To get out of the system first you have to
get in! So be it. We are with this logic on a practical level. Let us assume
that if it is important for tribals or dalits then it must be important and
hence worth doing.
The
reading, writing and math skills of children in various classes are quite
compatible with the level required in that class. For primary classes, it is at
par for most children. Some children are much above the requirements. Some
children have problems as they come to Adharshila after two, three, even five
years of schooling in Govt. schools. They find it difficult, and it is difficult
for us too as due to RTE we cannot admit them in a lower class. Though they are
given extra classes, but it doesn’t happen regularly as it means another
teacher. Staying in a hostel they have the advantage of having a chance to do
extra study with friends. Topics like fractions, decimals, and difficult
division remain uncertain. English comprehension is difficult. With lot of
effort some achievement is made in reading. We emphasise on making a dictionary
for the lesson and try to translate. Linking the meanings of words through
prepositions to form a coherent thought is the main hurdle. But this year most
8th class students were able to translate the texts with the help of
a dictionary. Remembering meanings is difficult. Sentence construction in
English is very problematic.
At
the middle levels it is very difficult for children to be at par with the
expectations of the textbooks. There are many known reasons for this – the
language of the textbooks suddenly becomes very high level. Many technical words
are introduced in science and social science books. The level of math also jumps
to a different level. For us, there is the extra factor of non availability of
competent teachers.
Usually,
we have seen that by the time a child passes through 8th class, she
is confident of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Most can do
fractions, integers and linear equations. Solving reasoning questions of
geometry is difficult as they have no exposure to reasoning exercises before
this. English of course is very difficult for a child who has no speaking or
hearing back up.
Not
that these difficulties are insurmountable but our main problem is lack of
teachers who know the subject and know how to teach. Especially for 5th – 8th.
In
spite of this last year the local High School toppers were ex Adharshila
students. In an informal survey, we found that more than 95% children who have
studied in Adharshila till 8th class completed their 12th.
More than 75% have gone to colleges including engineering, diploma courses in
nursing, technical traits, homeopathy etc.
Some have got into jobs – agriculture extension, police, private. One or
two are even aspiring for the state/central civil service exam or a PhD. One has
got into active politics, two are looking for jobs in
the NGO sector.
There
are many who have taken up farming. Unfortunately their families see them as
failures. But we are very happy as we have a new project to take them forward in
farming.
Student
Projects
Children in Adharshila learn by doing
projects rather than just reading lessons from textbooks. But again this depends
on teachers as doing projects means more work for them.
Herbal
Plants
– The Brahmputra and Krishna Groups (primary) did a project of listing various
herbal plants on the campus. Each group listed about 20 plants and wrote their
uses based on the information gathered from the teachers, cooks, children and
some villagers. They made plots to plant them and in their enthusiasm killed one
of the very rare creepers.
Aloe
vera Medicine -
The
Krishna, Brahmaputra and Kaveri group children made aloe vera medicine for
anemia guided by Majali. Actually it was made for their mothers, who are almost
always anemic but they lapped it up before going home.
Biodiversity
record of Adharshila
-
The Amazon group children did a very difficult statistical project to find out
the number and variety of trees on the Adharshila campus. Difficult because for
6th graders managing data from different plots in a 6 acre campus,
categorising by tree type, putting data collected by 5 groups in one table is
quite a complex task. And this was done in copies not excel sheets. They
identified 102 varieties of trees and over 1000 trees. Though this is quite a
feat considering that we started with a barren piece of land but the number
could have been higher with more people and better
management.
One
of the aims of Adharshila was to converse the different types of plant diversity
of the area. In this sense this is a good start.
Water
Project
– Three groups
surveyed the Sakad village and created a data base of water sources and the
depth at which water was found. They realised that the water table is going down
each year. They transferred this data onto the tablet and some children learnt
to make graphs from the data.
In
the same project they did an experiment to understand the conditions in which
more water seeps in the ground. They were also shown the Satyamev Jayate episode
on water conservation and the issue was discussed. But much to our
dissappointment it didn’t seem to translate to not wasting water while washing
with the taps open!
Electricity
data
–
Two
electricity-related projects were undertaken. In one project the children
estimated the electricity load in the Adharshila Campus. They learnt about power
consumption, wattage, load, unit and other electricity related concepts. In the
process they also learnt about electricity generation, transmission etc. In the
other project they worked out the hours of electricity in their villages, while
on the winter vacation. The survey punctured the much hyped 24 hr electricity
supply propaganda of the Govt. under the Atal Jyoti scheme.
Solar
Light
– Adharshila
has many solar lights which are maintained by the senior students. This year
too, the children underwent on the job training about maintaining solar
equipment. But there is still scope for solar kit designers as we have yet to
find tamper proof solar equipment which children cannot destroy.
Solar
Clock
– The
Amazon group children made a simple solar clock on the ground with a stick and
markings to see the shadow at different hours. It worked well for one month.
They lost the enthu to rework the markings for other months.
Fertilizer
Use
–
The
Nile group of children did a survey in Sakad village to find the expenditure on
fertilizer. About 25 farmers were interviewed. This was part of the campaign to
promote organic farming. During the project children learn tabulation, work out
averages and learn to analyse data.
Learning on Tablets
-Two
tablets were donated to Adharshila this year. In addition to taking countless
pictures of themselves and watching educational videos, the children used them
to feed the data of water sources. The idea is that data from other villages and
over years can be added to the same data base and after few years we can do
comparative studies.
Methi
Plots
–
Every
winter the primary school children make their own plots and grow methi. This year some children tried
their skills at tomatoes and brinjals.
Flower
Beds
– Each class made a flower bed near its class room under the Classroom
Beautification Project.
Drip
with Saline Bottles
-
Every
year we bring at least 50 old saline bottles which disappear by the end of the
year. Children love to play with them usually making a drip for some plant or
small tree. Gradually it develops into a river, bridge, cars
etc.
Cycle
Repair
–
The
year started with some children taking up the repair of the old school cycles.
It was a nice exercise opening the cycle and re assembling the parts. One cycle
was brought to running condition.
Wall
Painting The
idea was to have syllabus topics painted on the walls of the school to increase
familiarity. Some children took this up as a project and painted the digestive
system, respiratory system and some single cell organisms.
Board
Writing
The children were encouraged to write inspiring quotes, puzzles etc. on the
common blackboard.
Craft
This
year the children did a lot of craft as we scheduled a regular class with Devika
Behen. The children made hand bands, woolen caps, ear caps, crochet mats, mobile
purses, mufflers, ladies cap etc.
Craft
is an important activity for many reasons. One is concentration and hand eye
coordination. We hope that they will also learn to be systematic, keeping things
properly and other related habits. The intricate weaving pattern is a good mind
bending exercise till one learns it. And lastly it gives great joy and a feeling
of accomplishment when one has made something with one’s own
hands.
Library
The
Adharshila Library has about 5000 books which children read happily. Each class
selects some books for the week and keeps the bag of books with them to read in
the free time. In the last summer vacations libraries were started in 10
villages in the homes of our students who became the librarians. This year too
we intend doing the same.
This
year two computers were gifted to Adharshila by Asha and Rahul, and were
deployed by Vibhore. At least 25 – 30 students got quite a lot of computer time.
Mainly they learnt MS Word and some children started using Excel. They are given
some school job for practice. For e.g. the children made stock lists of solar
and mess equipment.
Teacher
Training
For
Adharshila Teachers
·
A
4 day teacher training was held at the beginning of the session where 15
teachers from 4 schools participated.
·
The
Adharshila teachers went for exposure and training to the Nai Taleem School in
Wardha.
·
Kesarsingh,
Science teacher for the middle section, attended a 15
day training in Hoshangabad organised by Eklavya.
·
Sunita
undertook the primary teacher training while studying for her high
school.
For
Other Schools
·
A
two day teacher training was organised for teachers of the Rani Kajal Learning
Centre, Alirajpur.
·
In
house Activity Training for teachers of a school in Dewas district and schools run in Alirajpur district by the
Khedut Mazdoor Chetana Sangath was held towards the end of the
session.
Exposure
tour
We
strongly believe that travelling is a big learning experience. Like every year,
the children went on tours this year also. The great thing was that the longest
tour was partly funded by the Saklecha School who invited the Naatak India
Company to show the play Bhanai.
Senior
children -
Indore, Gandhi Sagar Dam, Mandsaur, Mandu Fort and Dinosaur
Museum
Juniors
– Shirpur, Barwani.
Teachers
- Organic Farm of Vandana and Vasant Phutane
Student Scholarship Program
SRUTI, Delhi gave scholarships to 10
students of High School/Hr. Secondary. All the students have been affiliated to
Adharshila in the past and take part in the programs even
now.
Organic Farming
In
Adharshila
The
Organic Farm is a major learning activity for children at Adharshila. Like every
year this year too organic farming was one of the main activities. The farm
produced about 21 quintals of veggies providing for almost 6 months (many times
mixed with daal, kadhi). This is the official figure. Unofficially, children
treat themselves to tomatoes, radish and even brinjals and ladyfingers. Also the
vegetables taken by the staff are not weighed.
This
year we structured the learning a little by making sure that each group has
learnt to make some basic ingredients like Jeevamrut, Organic pesticide, growth
promoting mixture. They wrote down the method of preparation after making these.
Some of them even tried it at home.
Outside
Adharshila
Another
effort this year was of promotion of organic farming in surrounding villages by
showing films, talking to parents and ex students, and by way of the Adharhila
Radio messaging which reached out to almost 400 farmers in the area. Two
meetings with app. 60 parents and ex students were held in this
regard.
Many
children prepared the organic pesticide at home and showed other techniques to
their parents. We plan to go to the surrounding villages this summer to appeal
to farmers to adopt organic farming techniques.
Other
Activities
Publication
A
book based on an earlier student project on famines was published by Eklavya,
Bhopal. The book called Rookhi-Sukhi was released at the International Book
Fair, Delhi in February 2014.
Workshops
Theater
Workshop
About
30 children and two teachers participated in a 15 day theater workshop led by
Girish an aspiring Bollywood actor from Indore. More than acting it was a great
exercise in confidence building, development of team spirit and taking
responsibility.
Communal
Harmony Workshop
Two
day workshop by Chintan Girish Modi.
Children were shown a film on the theme and discussed. The children were asked
to draw their impressions and the middle school group wrote letters to make new
friends in Pakistan.
Gender
Workshop
Majali
and Sanjeevani took a gender workshop for Adharshila Students. The gender
project was done with the Krishna, Brahmputra groups. In the project the
stereotypical images of women are challenged in the minds of
children.
Organic
Farming
A
workshop to promote organic farming was held for the ex students of
Adharshila.
Internet
Workshop
A
small discussion was held with adivasi college students to ask them to help in
searching and downloading videos related to organic farming.
Painting
Workshop
A
group of five young artists came to Adharshila for two days and painted the
walls of the Beej Group (1st Class) depicting words starting with all
the Hindi alphabets.
Music
and Dance
Four
children learnt to play the Casio on their own. We just made it available to
them. classes in the last session.
Media
Theater The
Naatak India Company was invited by Kamla Saklecha Public School in Bhanpura,
Mandsaur district to perform on their annual function. The Company performed the
play Bhanai. On the side they also had a nice trip as they visited various
places in Indore and saw the power house in the Gandhi Sagar Dam on the Chambal
river, a windmill farm and yellow sarson
fields.
Calendar
Enthused
by last year’s response, this year we printed 3000 copies of a regular calendar
with photographs from award winning photographers on the theme of ‘Tribal
Heritage’. We raised about Rs. 50,000/- for the school
through the calendar. We are happy that this year the calendar reached in about
17 states and not just in the capitals but also rural areas through NGOs. About
100 calendars reached the US too !
About
500 calendars were distributed free of cost in villages.
For
the next year we will print only if we are able to get orders beforehand as it
is a painful job selling them.
Adharshila
Radio
This year we started a new experiment to
propagate messages through mobile to promote organic farming. Messages regarding
various aspects of organic farming were recorded in the local language and
broadcast at a fixed time to about 400 farmers. Many people called back. During
the summer we will be following up on the people who showed interest. Listen to one -
https://soundcloud.com/
https://soundcloud.com/
Functions and Important Days
Special Days- Sports Day, Annual Function, Painting
Competition and Important Days like Environment Day, Literacy Day, Hiroshima Day etc. were celebrated. Special Assemblies are
held on these days and children are told about the important people and events.
Baal
Sabha – once a week a Baal Sabha is held for
half a day where children show their talents. For each Baal Sabha a class is
assigned the responsibility to prepare events for the Baal Sabha.
Baal
Mela – A Baal Mela was organised for the
school going and non school going children of Sakad. About 400 children/youth/adults participated and had fun. There were 25- 30 different
types of activities and games.
Adharshila
- A Democratic School
As an institution we have been concerned
about making Adharshila a democratic place as far as possible. There are many
limits to this democratic experimentation. Finance is a constraint. Lack of
exposure or experience is another. The most trying limitation is our habit of
living in a non democratic environment – family, village and in general all
market and Govt. interactions.
So it is not just about creating
structures or a set of practices. The idea is that over time children and adults
develop a habit of expressing their opinions, listening to others without
fighting and treating everybody as equals across caste, gender or age, not just
top down but from below too.
Weekly
Meetings - This year we insisted that
decisions for the week be taken in weekly staff meetings where senior students
also take part. On much pursuing, this happened at least 50% of the times.
Mainly the decisions were managerial about listing
tasks. Who/when types. But at least there was something. Basically, we felt
there is a resistance for talking and sitting for too long for something.
Gossiping can be endless. The middle class has made a fine art of gossiping
incessantly on any topic. In the absence of a boss there is one upmanship,
non-cooperation, who the hell do you think you are?..
and many such attitudes. But this all
the more reason to develop these skills. Basically,
developing the ideas of social democracy.
There are two aspects of Democracy. One
is participating in decision making and the second is taking responsibility. It
is not possible that decisions are taken by one group and implemented by someone
else and getting things done needs a strong person. There is an implicit
hierarchy in this of thinkers and doers. In the school context it would
translate to teachers and senior students as opposed to rest of the children.
Student
Karyakartas – Every 6 months or term student
karyakartas are made to look after different aspects of running the place. Some
of these karyakartas have to do something every day like overseeing the
cleaning, taking out mess rations. In some cases the Karyakarta becomes a boss
especially the cleaning one. There are others to welcome guests, look after sick
students, electricity, water, etc… Somehow they insist on calling themselves
Mantris (which they were named earlier without giving much thought). It’s a
tough job making them karyakartas.
Swashaasan
Meetings
These
meetings are students meetings held twice in a month where students speak up
their problems. Either they speak directly or they ask the concerned karyakarta
to talk about it. The problems mainly relate to the school administration, mess,
and rules. Sometimes they also relate to problems with other children. The
teachers note the problems and try and take action or give explanations. Some
meetings see loud confrontations between the children and the
teachers.
Senior
students meeting with teachers
Senior students sit in the weekly meetings and
separately with the teachers also to talk about their problems. Mainly the
teachers have to convince them to get things done.
Weekly
Newspaper
Every
week a group of 4-5 children, one from each class spend the whole day making the
newspaper. All the important events and fights are covered in this. Digs are
taken at teachers. Burnt rotis are headlines. To make it more appealing photos
from newspapers are pasted. This is read in the assembly the next day. We wanted
to graduate to a children’s monthly magazine but the teachers couldn’t gather
the stamina. Maybe next year.
Boycotts
As
children share a lot of daily work, many times they just boycott. Especially
mess duty when the mess workers are absent for long durations.
Funding
Adharshila is running for the last 16
years with the support of friends and parents of children. Almost 40% - 50% come
from the parents. The rest comes through donations from friends. The total
annual budget of running Adharshila was between Rs. 6 – 7 lakh. Next year it
will go up to Rs 10 lakh due to increase in salaries and staff. Also we have
started subsidising girl students which means it will increase the share of
donations. We use different strategies for fund raising -Adharshila is running for the last 16
years with the support of friends and parents of children. Almost 40% - 50% come
from the parents. The rest comes through donations from friends. The total
annual budget of running Adharshila was between Rs. 6 – 7 lakh. Next year it
will go up to Rs 10 lakh due to increase in salaries and staff. Also we have
started subsidising girl students which means it will increase the share of
donations. We use different strategies for fund raising -Calendar on the theme of Tribal Heritage
– raised app. Rs. 50,000/-
Naatak India Company – Sponsored the
students exposure trip. App. worth Rs.
30,000/-
Personal friends
Some friends donate royalties of their
books and CDs
One friend of a friend donated the cash
received as gift in her wedding.
Seriously engaged in organic farming
which saved us more than Rs. 40,000/- taking Rs.20/kg as the average cost of
vegetables.
Some friends sponsor the education of children @ Rs. 8000/year. This includes hostel fees.
Some friends sponsor the education of children @ Rs. 8000/year. This includes hostel fees.
You can pitch in For
the next year
Getting uniforms from students in
Indore.
(Revali’s effort)
Raddi money from friends in
Indore. A
volunteer is helping us do this.
Getting the stationery sponsored.
A Jeep to intervene in Govt. schools of the area.
Donation for cow for
milk
Raise funds for construction of two
classrooms sand semi covered eating space.
Teachers for middle school.
Teachers for middle school.
Participation
International
Indigenous Day, Sendhwa
Organic
Farming Training, Wardha
Teacher
Training, Nai Talim Vidyalaya, Wardha
Land
Rights Seminar, Delhi
SRUTI
Saathi Milan, Delhi
Chhaatra
Yuva Sangharsh Vahini Shivir, Delhi
Adivasi
Ekta Parishad, National Convention, Silvasa, Panji
Dasha
aur Disha, BRTS seminar, Indore
Women’s
Day Function, Indore
Adivasi
Youth Facebook Sammelan
Visitors
Azim Premji Foundation office staff from
Bhopal.
Sangharsh Vahini Rashtriya Adhyaksh and
member from Allahabad
UNICEF consultants from
Bhopal
Nargis Sheikh, Illustrator from
Eklavya
Pallav, Photographer,
Bhopal
Vikram Achhaliya, Adivasi Yuva
Shakti
Rajesh Kanouje, Adivasi Mukti
Sangathan
Support
Many
individuals and organisations supported the efforts of Adharshila. Some
financially and some by providing material help. Please point out if we have
missed anyone. We will be happy to edit.
SRUTI,
Ms. Varsha Bhatia, Shri Lolichen, Ms. Sriparna, Shri Aman Madan, Dr. Sneh Raj,
Dr. Pankaj Bhatnagar, Dr. Holkar, Indore, Shilpa Kamat, Karishma Desai, Sanjay
Singhal, S. Srinivasan, Dr. Hem Bhatnagar, Urvashi, Gaurav, Natasha Badwar,
Rajesh Khindri, Pallav, Payal Sampat, Madhulika Aggarwal, Rahul and Asha Brown,
Noyana Chowdhary, Ruchi Kashyap, Shomali Johri, Clifton, Karuna, Jiten Nandi,
Sushant, Ashutosh Jani, Roshan Nair, Neeta
Bijoor, Anke Hegmann, Emily Baker, Priya Kamat, Heidi Branz, Ben Sibrack,
Michael Paine, Manju and Om Mandhana, Kshitij
Mishra, Tutul Chatterjee, Usha Ravi, Bhavani Venkat, Preeti Rakesh, Bibha Singh,
Neha Singh, Sheera
Duerigen, Yukendra Harris, Bill, Emily Janssen/Praxis, Deborah Riverbend, Shuchi
Anand, Vibhor, Sanjeevani, Vinod Bhargava, Christian, Jose Enciso, Aubrie Maze,
Bill Lebon, Jayasree Subramaniam, Bhupen, Swati ...
Manju and
Om Mandhana, Vibhor, Asha and Rahul provided stationery, laptops and tablets to
Adharshila. Eklavya, Bhopal printed a book by Adharshila children,
Many
institutions bought the calendars in bulk – Azim Premji Foundation, Lokmitra,
Madhya Pradesh Sangharsh Lok Sajha Manch, People Tree, Spandan, AKRSP, Pat and
OXFAM Raipur.
