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Magazine
When school is fun
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Tribal communities in rural Karnataka have found joy in learning thanks to the efforts of the Swami Vivekananda Youth Movement. R. KRISHNA KUMAR looks at how the change came about.
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A student carrying out an experiment in physics.
PLACID Kabini is seeing a silent revolution ushering in sweeping changes among tribal communities. Sequestered in the jungles with little or no interaction with the world outside, the Jenukurubas, Kadukurubas, Yeravas and the Soligas in Heggadadevanakote taluk in Mysore district of Karnataka are a close-knit society. Victims of frequent displacement thanks to the development drama taking place in their name, education was never a catalyst for change until recently.
Today, at the Viveka Tribal Centre For Learning (VTCL), located at Hosahalli in H.D.Kote, and reserved for tribal children, learning is suddenly a joyful mechanism opening up new vistas, and education a meaningful process.
What explains this attitudinal shift in people resistant to change? The answer is the inspiring work initiated by a group of students from the Mysore Medical College who conceptualised the Swami Vivekananda Youth Movement (SVYM) in 1984 to work with the dispossessed and displaced tribals in H.D.Kote. A small intervention in the healthcare of the tribals soon became a full-fledged movement that reached out to the deprived section of an entire society. The basis was that without contextually relevant education, all development initiatives for the "betterment" of the tribals would not work.
As Dr. R. Balasubramaniam, CEO and President, SVYM explained, "the present education system is urban-centric and is irrelevant to tribals and the rural community. First-standard students were being taught to cross roads and reading traffic signals, which is inconsistent in a rural milieu.
The classroom at the Viveka Tribal Centre for Learning.
"The turning point came when I was taking a Kannada class on the topic `Jenukurubas' and the textbook showed a semi-naked boy and gave a wrong picture of the community. We found that many topics were irrelevant from a child's point of view. The Education Act provides for innovation and does not insist that textbooks should be strictly followed. It only prescribes certain minimum levels of learning for an age.'' Thus began efforts in innovation entailing assistance from child psychologists to devise relevant and culturally appropriate material and methodologies. And it is the novel methodologies evolved at VTCL, which has ignited a zeal for education among the first generation tribal learners.
The VTCL campus at Hosahalli is a workshop that develops novel concepts in teaching. In mathematics, children are not told to just memorise numerals. Instead, teachers ask the students to bring a specific quantity of any available material from their surroundings.
"A few students collect leaves, while others pick up pebbles or stones. Over time, the child recognises the value of that quantity. Later the child is taught to write the number,'' says Shashidhar, a mathematics teacher.
To enhance comprehension, workbooks contain lessons but not headings or titles. Students do the exercises and then give the title. When teachers ask for the reason, the student's answer reinforces their understanding. In history, the emphasis is on local events. Geography includes the natural world around H.D.Kote, classification of forests, tree-types in the adjoining forests, identification of birds and animals and their classification.
Students in the school library.
It is non-structured curriculum from Std. I-VI with no textbooks, only workbooks developed by teachers. From Std. VII, a mix of workbooks, games and textbooks is used to integrate students to the "mainstream" as they enter high school.
According to H.D. Malathi, Associate Chief of the Education Programme, "From Std. VIII, the emphasis is on texts but the methodologies are unique. Children are never passive learners but active participants where emphasis is on creativity, observation and problem solving. Children are also exposed to computers to acquire skills on par with their counterparts elsewhere".
Eighteen year-old Manjula, the first girl from the Jenukurubas in H.D.Kote to have completed SSLC is an example of the social impact of the VTCL intervention. She is the only girl in her community to be unmarried at 18, something unheard off in tribal families, and prefers to pursue her studies.
Maari and Thayamma complete the trio who are popularising the non-formal education programme "Vidya Vahini" to increase literacy levels among the tribals. This is mobile education programme with a difference. Children are picked from their hamlets and brought to one of the five study centres. A vehicle equipped with audio-visual educational material creates educational awareness among the village elders. School dropouts enhance their learning skills while children raise their minimum literary levels and train for formal schooling. For children in the pre-school age, there are six non-formal education centres.
A non-formal class for Jenkurubas.
The fact that a community reticent towards strangers is supportive of such a novel concept indicates openness to the winds of change. And the SVYM's methods are another indication that a "participatory approach" in education, which is also contextually relevant, is the only viable solution for socio-economic development of tribal communities.
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