15-teem meelat 06

12005 Goa, India

... for they havetheir own thoughts

Taleemnet and Abhivyakti, supported by UNESCO, organise a meeting in Goa onlearning in freedom

TALEEMNET(2005) GOA, INDIA

If you have anyquestions or commentsconcerning this document,please write to:

MULTIVERSITYG-8, St. Britto’s Apartments,Feira Alta,Mapusa - 403 507Goa, IndiaTel: 0832-2255913Fax: 0832-2263305Email: [email protected]: www.multiworld.org

*This material in this volume may be freely reproduced but pleaseacknowledge our existence

Back cover tree-poem by Manas Mukul Das

ABOUT THE ORGANISERS:

Taleemnet, a branch of Multiversity, is based inMapusa, Goa and functions as a support group topromote learning models that are non-compulsory,experienced and interest based, and protect theinherent right of children to work towards their ownaspirations and dreams. Taleemnet does publishingand networking. Website is at: www.multiworld.org.Abhivyakti uses media for community change and isbased in Nasik, India.The meeting was sponsored by UNESCO.

coming togetherPeople in India have been involved in exploringalternatives to formal schooling for severaldecades. We need to popularize their experi-ences and insights and exploit them as a basisfor moving forward, so that education onceagain becomes free, joyful and useful to theindividual and to society.Taleemnet and Abhivyakti invited path-break-ing educators working within learning communi-ties to a four day gathering at Thane village,Valpoi, Goa in February 2005. The group even-tually expanded to include 60 people from allover the country. Three teacher educatorsjoined us from Pakistan. There were also co-learners from Malaysia, England and France.The meeting and its objectives were part of alarger ‘search/research’ programme that hasrecently been underway in the educationschemes of UNESCO. The specific purpose ofthe on-going programme is to look intensivelyat what has already been achieved by educa-tional pioneers and learning centres workingoutside the framework of ‘factory education’and to support proposals to intensify and

1

Dra

win

g d

ee

p

spread knowledge of these experiences andinsights within mainstream educational areasthrough government, UNESCO and other learn-ing agencies.Earlier meetings in this connection were organ-ized by Shikshantar (Udaipur, 2000) and byAbhivyakti, Multiversity and Shikshantar (WorldSocial Forum, Mumbai 2004).Every one involved in this area within the coun-try was invited for the meeting. Some, however,could not attend for compelling reasons. Thatwould have made the deliberations poorer fortheir absence. However the network of educa-tors who believe in these ideals remains fairlylarge and interactive. Many of their ideas havebeen incorporated within the National Curricu-lum Review (NCR) document produced by theNCERT.The Goa encounter reveals that thinking andpractice about learning in India just got bettereven while the formal system of educationremains trapped in assumptions that treatchildren like morons. Welcome to learningwithout walls.

4 2005 Goa, India

Your children are not your children.They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.They come through you but not from you,And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you.You may give them your love but not your thoughts.For they have their own thoughts.You may house their bodies but not their souls,For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit,not even in your dreams.You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

KHALIL GIBRAN

52005 Goa, India

the settingFor the meeting, we selected a 100 acre prop-erty, ‘Rustic Plantation’, in village Thane, 50 kmsaway from the town of Mapusa. We wanted toreverse all the settings associated with conven-tional seminars or workshops.Thane is located in the extreme north easterntip of Goa, at the foothills of the Sahyadris(Western Ghats).The wilderness, perennial streams, and theinformal and leisurely pace of village life set thepace and tone of the meeting. The relaxedenvironment generated spontaneous laughter,stimulated interest, encouraged mutual interac-tions and created a wonderful group dynamics.Food and living arrangements were simple.

2

Thane village and environs

Participants lived in tents with basic but ad-equate amenities. The smell of mango,cashew, jackfruit and pepper kept the olfac-tory organs sensitized. The king crows, bulbuls,bee eaters, barbets, grazing cows and peckingherons provided company. Monkeys takinggallery seats in the tree canopy for the philoso-phy session seemed almost stage managed.We walked down one evening to the village ofHivrem to see how ordinary villagers in Goa live.We talked to the villagers, met children in thewards, had tea and water and thusmaintained contacted with realityas we find it outside large towns ormetropolises.

6 2005 Goa, India

Deliberations

Aspi, Sujata, Subba

Jinan and Narasimhan

THE BAZAAR

Yasmin, Ragu Babu, Rama, Manju,Champa

Team Pakistan

72005 Goa, India

The bazaar saw the participants setting up‘shop’ to display and introduce their work in anambience of informality and leisure.The idea of a ‘bazaar’ to enable participants toexplain their experiences to others is aShikshantar innovation. Participants are pro-vided spaces on the campus and people movearound from stall to stall, talking to the personsmanning the stalls, looking at their ‘wares’including books, CDs, crafts, etc.At Thane, organically grown berries and fruit,exchanges of natural medicinal and beautytips, the design of methodologies for teaching

3the bazaar: ways of taleem

of languages for rural children, innovations inthe teaching of number, possibilities for physi-cally challenged learning, no schooling,deschooling proposals, child directed curricu-lum design, apprenticeships, post school pro-grammes, puppetry and theatre in education,workshops on bridging gaps, books and more,lay spread out in the bazaar for the sampling.It was a free flowing informal exchange ofideas, know how, tips and wisdom.In the pages that follow you can also accessthe people who ran the bazaar and what theyhad to offer.

8 2005 Goa, India

If the sense of beautyis colonized, thenwhat is the meaningof culture?

– Jinan K. B

JINAN’S WARES

I started by studying for an engineering degree. Ithen joined the National Institute of Design (NID),Ahmedabad, but was disgusted and disillusionedeven in such a premier institute. I ended up chal-lenging the system at NID. Everything was schooledand conditioned, even the way one appreciatesbeauty! In the ‘History of Art’ class at NID we weretaught concepts of western sense of aesthetics only.I felt that western art, design and technology asreference points were ill-suited for Indian diversitiesand contexts, and that text and intellect werebarriers to natural and intuitive learning. If aestheticsand one’s sense of beauty are going to be condi-tioned and the student is going to be re-colonized,then that kind of education did not appeal to me atall. In fact, history was the first subject I stoppedreading.From then onwards, I started thinking about funda-mental issues related to learning, creativity, original-ity, spontaneity, role of culture, etc. For a time I livedin rural and tribal areas, in Nagaland, rural Bengaland Orissa, working with the traditional crafts peo-ple, trying to imbibe whatever I could.I experimented with myself in order to understandmy conditioning process. For a decade, from 1991, Istopped reading everything, except letters. It was athorough cleansing. I was able to learn a lot in thatperiod of de-textualisation. Instead, I simply im-mersed myself in doing or making things, discardingall conditioning factors like fashion, theory, status,etc. I realized I had earlier been wasting my timelooking for wisdom in the wrong place. Only in living,there is wisdom to be found. Through this process Ievolved a method which I call ‘DO NOTHINGMETHOD’. It means, just let things happen. This is themethod I used while initiating craft revival work withtraditional craft communities.

I finally landed up in Aruvacode, a small potters’village in Nilambur, Kerala. It is in Aruvacode that, alittle over a decade ago, I initiated KhumbhamMurals (a potters’ collective), hopeful that it wouldwean the village away from its main economy –prostitution – and revive the hitherto neglected art ofpottery which was the erstwhile traditional occupa-tion of the villagers.Unbelievable, but true, when I set foot in Aruvacodein the early 1990s, the women were chiefly sexworkers, the menfolk, their pimps. Today, terracottamurals from this village take a pride of place inhotels, corporate guest houses, homes of film starsand tourist areas in southern India. The 4675 sq. ft.Tree Mural displayed at the Shilpavedika Art andCraft auditorium, Hi-tech city, Hyderabad, has thedistinction of being the world’s biggest singleterracotta mural!Living with the potters has been a symbiotic journeyfor the potters, their children and myself.

92005 Goa, India

RAVI GULATI’S MANZIL

Since 1996, over 2000 children and youth from aconsiderably wide range of 6 to 25 years of agehave benefited from the Manzil programme at KhanMarket, Delhi. They come from the lower middleclass – children of uneducated housemaids andcooks, electricians, barbers and drivers. Their familiesare typically large and stay in servant quarters/one-room tenements in slum-like areas near the affluentcolonies surrounding the up-market Khan Market.Most of these children go to, or have passed outfrom, nearby Government schools or have droppedout due to their inability to cope with studies and/orbeatings or humiliations at school.Manzil’s work is about attempting to create opportu-nities for children and youth to experience in theirformative years a space where learning can be fun,where fair and sensible rules tempered with compas-sion rather than a dictatorial, hierarchical setup runthe affairs of any community, where ‘learner’ and‘teacher’ are not fixed positions but roles that eachone of us takes at different times and where bothroles are equally respected, where questioning isencouraged, where action is valued, where there’stotal transparency in functioning, where openchannels of communication are emphasized, wheretaking initiative is encouraged, where independentthinking and honesty are important in actions andnot just good for preaching, etc. etc. Existing moreas an extension of the family than as an institution,with its underlying holism, friendship and trust, Manzilplays an important part in the lives of the neighbour-hood children and youth, providing mentorship,guidance, counselling, a space for open discussions,and an active involvement in useful, self-reflectivework.

One reason why weare sitting heretoday is because welove kids and are stillkids at heart.

– Ranjan De

RANJAN DE: BRIDGING GAPS AND HOW!‘Bridging Gaps’ is presently a one-person organisa-tion that roves all over India to any educationalinstitution that can host me and my unconventionalapproaches to bringing fun and learning into con-ventional education.I was getting stuck in one place. I wanted to see thiscountry and spend time with children. So I decidedthat I would do workshops for children. Presently, Iam working with mainstream schools to adapt theircurriculum to hands on learning as far as possible. Ibelieve a textbook is meant to be read only at nightto put one to sleep. I am against using computers asa major learning tool. Computers should be usedonly as a finishing tool. Learning happens best whenit is hands on. Learning happens by accident.I also conduct workshop for teachers in regularschools. It is called low cost multimedia computerpuppetry in education. My first task at these work-shops for teachers is to break down their inhibitionsand barriers. A child wants a teacher with whom heor she can talk. So, my workshops make friendlypeople out of teachers.

10 2005 Goa, India

ANISA ISSANI, FROM PAKISTAN, WITH LOVE

I have a long association with the Early ChildhoodDevelopment section of Sultan Mohamed Shah AgaKhan School, a unit of Aga Khan Education ServicePakistan. Currently I am working as a head teacherof the section with 1120 students, ranging from age3 to 7 years and 56 facilitators to provide children allthe facilities to help them learn.

I studied here and I am teaching in the sameschool. For the past few years we found that we arenot catering to the needs of the child in a holisticway. We need not give this education to the child.My section is not called early childhood educationsection but it is called early childhood developmentsection. All of us together are making a combinedeffort to provide to the child what really is requiredfor her/him to grow. This is another linkage why weare here. I am collecting all the ideas from thismeeting.

The best thing is that all are involved in theprogramme. It’s not that the people at the top dothe planning and direct us to implement but theyinvolve us also in the planning process.

I never wanted to become a teacher butended up with teaching profession. AKES was ableto know my potential. So the opportunity availablewas the motivating factor for me. If someone hasthe trust in me and tells me that I can do a task, thenit means that I have the potential to do it and I haveto prove it. I thought, if people have trust in me, thenI should also have trust in them and it was this thingthat was taking me forward. I learnt a lot, I was notgraduated when I joined, so I did my graduationalong with the service.

MUNIRA AMIRALI

Math is my favourite subject, I really love it and Iwant people to see math as fun. I have beenteaching mathematics in Aga Khan EducationService for 12 years. AKES sent us for the master’sdegree and I was the head of the math departmentworking with 6 to 7 teachers. All of us work as ateam.

When Wasif Rizvi joined us everything changed.Previously we were only helping teachers to teachtextbooks. Now we have started on a path ofhelping people create their own curriculum withinthe mainstream. We work closely with teachers inclass rooms and outside.

For the past fewyears we found thatwe are not cateringto the needs of thechild in a holisticway. We need notgive this educationto the child.

112005 Goa, India

Sujata, Tenzin, Siya Anisa, Claude, Munira, Amina Uma, Manish, Ravi, Nitin,Hema, ChampaYashodara Mona

The journey is still on and this is one of the reasonswe are here, to learn and gain from your experi-ence, go back to the context, and make thingsbetter there.

AKES has invested in the local teachers, so nowwe don’t call people from abroad. Previously wewere looking to the West to develop our pro-grammes. But now we feel that we have the poten-tial, and we are lucky and proud because AKESgives us opportunities to make meaningful contribu-tion to the education process in Pakistan.

AMINA KANJEE

Presently I am working with Aga Khan EducationService, Pakistan, as Assistant Program Officer. Beinga member of an educational team I work mainlywith schools supporting them in designing, imple-menting and evaluating learning programs for theirteachers and students. Research, publication anddissemination of collected learning experiences areother areas we focus on.

From experience I believe that one cannotmake people learn. At most one can provideopportunities for learning. Experiential learningseems a little challenging in the confined schoolsystem. However I really want to explore the possibili-ties of making school a place where meaningfuland authentic learning occurs.

There is a sloganwhich says that theschool educationproduces parrots andthe education which isbased on experiencecreates humanbeings. – Sujata Babar

MANISH JAIN, SHIKSHANTAR

For the past 10 years, I have been very deeplyinvolved in unlearning the many lies I was taught atHarvard. Part of this experience involves reclaimingthe use of my hands and body. I am provoked dailyby my 3-year old daughter, Kanku, who is in theprocess of unschooling and my 80-year grand-mother who never went to school.

NEEMA VAISHNAVA – LAKSHMI ASHRAM, KAUSANI,UTTARANCHAL

I myself did not take academics seriously. I didcomplete my regular mainstream education uptopost graduation, but frankly none of it has anyrelevance to my life and work. My learning camefrom the arrangement that is Laxmi Ashram.

I have been associated with Laxmi Ashram forthe past 25 years. In a way my life was born there.Laxmi Ashram is a way of life and thinking. It is anarrangement for one to explore and understandrelationships: my relationship with myself, with myfamily, my community, my relation to people withwhom I am in close contact, my relation to nature.Laxmi Ashram provides an opportunity to under-stand myself juxtaposed against various situations.

Laxmi Ashram was created 58 years ago bySarlabehn who was influenced by Gandhiji and on

12 2005 Goa, India

his advice started the Kamala Ashram to explore hisphilosophy of life and learning.

Buniyadi taleem [Gandhiji’s philosophy of basiceducation] was the basis for creating Laxmi Ashram.It was a time of national upheaval when struggles atthe national level were the main focus throughoutthe country. Laxmi Ashram is an ongoing endeavourto understand who we are and how we are con-nected to everything around us. Otherwise till theend there is discord (ashanti), a sense of non-ac-complishment (atrupti), and sadness (dukh). Living inhappiness is possible if this basic understanding is putin place.

I joined Laxmi Ashram as a 11 year old. My familythought that Buniyadi Taleem would benefit me.Laxmi Ashram has a kind of cyclical routine whichhelps one understand relationships. There is a cow-shed, a place for weaving, knitting, spinning, akitchen garden, and a community space. Apartfrom these it is a place where people from eightyears to seventy live together. What is the kind ofrelationship one can have with persons of differentage, experience, interest, inclinations, responsibilitiesand duties? What is one’s relation to this in thecontext of one’s self? I saw a connectedness to lifeand the living. This was the education that thearrangement provided.

If this arrangement was not available to me Iwould consider my education to be incomplete.

Roll no. 1,2,3Neema Aspi Bhuvan

ShivajiGurveen

School education is not education at all. From whatI have understood, education is an arrangement fora person to understand herself and our endeavoursshould be a medium towards meeting this end. Thisarrangement is already available in nature. Our realunderstanding does not come from school but fromthis natural arrangement

Laxmi Ashram trains one to be a strong, compe-tent, skillful and confident human being, able totackle all aspects of life and carry out a greatercontributory role in the larger society wherever oneis placed.

Laxmi Ashram is not an ashram nor a school noran NGO. It is an arrangement to get to know one-self.

NITIN PARANJAPE

My personal interest is in developing a rural-basedlearning centre which will promote community-based livelihoods through innovative application ofself-learning, exchange and apprenticeship so thatrural livelihoods become viable for the members ofrural communities.

YASHODARA KUNDAJI

I’m based in Pune since the last one year and aminvolved in many small projects: One is with khelghar, a project of the Palaknithi Parivar. Khel ghar isa children’s activity centre, where children from a

132005 Goa, India

basti/slum area come after school hours and get avariety of inputs. I’m trying to put together material,activities and an approach to teaching English as asecond language to these children for whom English(and Maths) are big bogies both in school and inreal life.

The other is with Kalpavriksh, an environmentgroup in Pune, helping to prepare a localized,relevant environmental information package for atribal school in BR Hills, Karnataka. The EE manual willcontain information, maps, pictures, charts andactivity ideas for primary, middle and high school.

Another ongoing project is bringing up my sonwho is five and a half years old; this includes teach-ing him at home and providing many other thingsneeded to bring up a child. Actually, both myhusband and I try very hard to generate/replace/simulate the variety of inputs required… in lieu of alarge family, community, land and village!

TENZIN RIGZIN

For almost a decade now I have been interested inalternative education. My particular areas of interestare: value education and ideological and philo-sophical issues related to education.

My focus has so far been somewhat more onhigher education, since I have professionally been

Tanvi Subha Rachel, Claude, RaguAakash, Stephen,

PrakashNyla

involved in that sector (I have taught at variousColleges/Universities for the last eight years). Rightnow I (pretend to) teach English at the CentralInstitute of Higher Tibetan Studies, in Sarnath,Varanasi. At the Institute I attempt to work in theinterstices of the system and ensure that my classdoes offer an alternative learning experiencedespite being situated in a mainstream setup.

I am also closely involved with Vidya Ashram,which is a new initiative that seeks to explore funda-mental philosophical and ideological issues relatedto education. Vidya Ashram seeks to initiate de-bates on ‘Knowledge in Society’ and bring about adialogue between different knowledge traditions. Itis envisaged as a place for exploration and innova-tion, but always able to submit to the benchmark of‘ordinary life’; a place where the farmer and theartisan stand on equal terms with the professor andthe scientist.

I am also beginning to get interested in policyissues related to education, because I feel these aregoing to have an unprecedented impact on edu-cation, as a manifestation of globalised systems ofdominance and control.

My work as a language teacher has repeatedlybrought me face to face with issues of methodologyand curriculum.

14 2005 Goa, India

Sanjoy Anita, SakhiBhoomika Jitendra

Ultimately my quest related to alternative edu-cation is part of a larger quest for alternative andharmonious ways of living.

TANUSHREE BORUNDIA

I am a student of the Krishnamurti Foundation’s PostSchool programme, Bangalore. I joined the Founda-tion Programme at Valley School, Bangalore aftercompleting A Levels at Centre for Learning. I spentthe year pursuing my interests in working with youngchildren, assisting teachers in class and a number ofother areas. Now in my second year, enrolled withthe degree programme, I am studying psychologyby distance education through Madras University. Ialso work as an assistant teacher in the JuniorSchool. I plan to do a Masters degree in Psychology

and Child Development, and then come back toteaching.

RAGHU BABU

I spend most of my time in meditation. Iread books on philosophy and painters.

Presently I am engaged in writing essays on‘symbolism in painting’ and docu-menting the work of a few NGOs. Offand on I also conduct trainings forteachers and volunteers of a fewNGOs on alternative methods ofteaching slow learners.

Two of my books have been published recently.One is on watersheds and the other is on empower-ment of dalit women. Two more will be publishedone is on the bridge course camps of M V Founda-tion and another is on migration of people. All thebooks are in Telugu.

I am also trying to exhibit my paintings atMumbai. I have started a new series of paintings inoils.

GURVEEN KAUR

My interests lie in discovering how learning can bemade personally meaningful and socially responsi-ble and in initiating people into learning that is self-realizing, self-determined and self-disciplined.

I am passionately interested in reconnectingwith our philosophical, cultural and spiritual traditionto discover what could constitute an alternativetheoretical frame.

There were two things that started my journey.One was the negative experiences in schools. But Iwas very fortunate to have had several positiveexperiences as well.

We started Centre for Learning by rejecting setmethods and tried to make a place where there isno fear and fewer rules. But what we rejected wasnot enough for us to go on. People opened up

Lilatai

152005 Goa, India

windows for me. I met friends who would help mefind answers. This made rebellion not a necessity. Ididn’t have to waste time rebelling and rejecting.The relationship which I had with co-teachers,books, nature was not foisted or imposed on me butopened new worlds. They gave me guidance,provoked me, left me alone at times. They didn’t atany time stop my growth in the areas in which I wasinterested.

We started CFL with 3 children and in 3 years thenumber rose to 200. The children who came to CFLare either working in the morning or throughout theday, so when they come to school they actually geta break. They are allowed time to engage in mean-ingful activities. Other children include some whowere left on the streets. Some of them were sent byschools to tuition centres or extra curricula activities,they never got a break and they never had spaceto think or to do anything in life.

GERARD D’SILVA, E MATS, BELGAUM

I have been a resident of Belgaum, Karnataka, forthe past thirty odd years. I am a writer of mathtutorial and text books for high school. In my sparetime, I trek and play music. My latest production isthe Spark-Math books for classes 6, 7 and 8, pub-lished by Macmillan.

JITENDRA, SIDH, MUSSOORIE

I am Jitendra Sharma, a member of SIDH (Society forIntegrated Development of the Himalayas). I havebeen mainly associated with our youth pro-grammes. These are week-long and one-yearresidential courses called Sanmati and Sanjeevani. Ialso work with the school, classes 6-10 that are heldat our Bodhigram campus in Kempty, Mussoorie. Ithink/reflect on education/ life and try to apply myunderstanding to my own life. I feel life long commit-ment to education and am working towards givingconcrete shape to what we understand by shiksha. Iam 33 year old, married with two little sons.

SANJOY AND DAMYANTI

I have been a student of Gandhian thought andDamyanti is an artist. We keep an open house forchildren of the neighbourhood and are experiment-ing with organic learning.

After working with different organizations andindividuals with different age groups around thecountry we have developed invincible faith thatthere is lot more learning outside the four walls ofschool. We realized that if children are given anopen space, they naturally develop skills andcreativity. We are convinced that organic living isone of the innate paths that lead towards harmonyof self, society, surroundings and is the most naturalway for learning.

MOHAN SURVE

I work with Vikas Sahyog Pratishthan (VSP), a collec-tive of voluntary organizations in Maharashtra Statethat nurtures diversity of existence and approaches.VSP is interested in developing innovative interven-tions and has evolved a learning forum calledShodh.

ASPI AND YASMIN SHROFF

‘Possibilities’ is a process of feeling, experiencing,and understanding the principle that each one ofus has immense inner strength, natural wisdom andan inborn nature of happiness and love.

Possibilities Unlimited Foundation works with allage groups, rural and urban communities throughworkshops, dialogue and action; events such as

16 2005 Goa, India

melas and community events, and through media,books, games, internet, etc.

The process is physical, mental, emotional, socialand spiritual.

MONA PATRAO

The combination of working a small organic farm forabout three decades, facilitating the land as a hubfor learning along with initiating an experimentalgurukul/home school, has propelled and strength-ened my conviction and interest in experientiallearning.

Besides the above initiative, I continue to offerfarm life as an integral part of learning: runningresidential camps and workshops on ecology andsustainable living for schools; mapping and facilitat-ing existing school curriculum to move to experien-tial and holistic learning; for example, the EVS(Environmental Science) course for Std. 10 (ICSEBoard). Internships for post school/college studentsare also offered.

I collate video footage of the experimentalhome school/Gurukul and experiential learningprogramme with Bhose village School, for a docu-mentary on holistic learning is woven as and whentime permits.

I try to practise yoga as a way of life. Recently Ihave started learning classical Hindustani (vocal)music.

Most importantly I love spending time with andlearning from nature.

At Timbaktu we seethe capacity of thecommon people tolive, the capacity tocelebrate life. Theseare the goals of oureducation in all theactivities that we aredoing with children

– Subba Raju

T. M. NARASIMHAN – SUMAVANAM, MADANAPALLE,ANDHRA PRADESH

I thought it is nice to stay in a village to be withchildren and live in a quiet peaceful environment.This primarily is the reason for starting Sumavanam.Usha was a teacher with David Horsburgh’s NeelBagh. Valli Seshan was conducting search meetingin those days. I happened to meet David Horsburghat one of these meetings. David was influenced byJ.K Krishnamurti. Sumavanam was started in 1982.

The rational is quite simple.David Horsburgh used to give an example of two

children: one tall and one short. Can one say thatbecause the child is tall he is intelligent and becausethe child is short he is not? He was trying to conveythat these are individual traits and comparison isfutile. Like trying to compare apples and oranges.Sumavanam has no competition and no exams.

SUMAN, MANJU, RAMA AND CHAMPA: UTTARAKHANDSEVA NIDHI PARYAVARAN SHIKSHA SANSTHAN (USNPSS),ALMORA

For the past decade and a half, USNPSS has beenexperimenting with and documenting alternatives toexisting education and development. Our endeav-our is to provide meaningful learning to children andhelp people to improve their life in villages.

172005 Goa, India

The EE school programme is a separate and self-contained course for classes 6 to 8. It has beendesigned and tested with the collaboration of theState Government for 15 years and revised threetimes. It has been placed in the regular schoolcurriculum for all government schools from 2002. It isthe only experiment in the country of a separate EEcourse in the school curriculum.

Pre-primary centres are run by village communi-ties and in some instances with the assistance oflocal volunteer groups. Village communities providea room, meals and land for the centre. The Sansthanprovides financial support and training for thesebalwadis, which number about 350. Children in the2-6 age groups are enrolled in it. Nature relatedactivities are given prominent place in the curricu-lum. The State government’s early childhood careand education (ECCE) programme has nowadopted the USNPSS pre-primary model.

Our overall strategy is to develop and main-stream new ideas/programmes on education anddevelopment in partnership with government andjoint learning among teachers, students, communitymembers, local NGOs and USNPSS staff.

SHEELA PIMPARE, CONSULTANT, UNESCOWorking with international organisations, I have beenengaged with the NGO and Education scene forthe last 13 years, particularly in India and marginallyin other parts of the world. The first half of these long

Are we really speakingon behalf of our child?Or are we speaking asadults? Should not weinclude children insuch theseconferences?

– Aspi Shroff

years were devoted to promoting mainstreamschooling through the supplementary interventionsof NGOs and the second and better half to under-standing alternative paradigms for education andcreating spaces at my place of work to engage indialogues with those who embody these visionsthrough their lifestyles and activities.

I am today engaged with the Non-formalEducation and Literacy section of UNESCO in Pariswhere I continue in my endeavour to identifybridges for dialogue with learning communities thatyou all represent. I do hope to unfold new percep-tions around long-standing concepts and notionslike ‘development’, ‘literacy’ or ‘education for all’.On a personal front, I do wish, in the short term, tobe able to get back to India (where I come from),do some farming, learn music, live some of the ideasthat have inspired me in the last few years andplunge into the diverse challenges that they repre-sent, the major one being my 3 year old daughter’seducation.

TANVI PATEL

Centre for Education and Documentation is pres-ently undertaking a documentation project on thestatus of education in India. We are presently mak-ing dossiers on various issues in the field of educa-tion. Presently a dossier had been made on theFundamental Right to Education and Free andCompulsory Education. Soon we shall be compiling

18 2005 Goa, India

dossiers on The Quality of Education in GovernmentSchools and Alternatives in Education. The uniquefeature about these dossiers is that they containmaterial from a range of sources such as back issuesof journals, books, newspaper and magazine arti-cles, the internet and transcriptions of meetings andseminars. We hope that these dossiers give theresearcher an overview of the main issues and alsoan idea of the major debates and viewpoints.

CED has documentation on 750 categories ofinformation. This information is collected from news-papers, magazines and other published material. Allpublished information in each category is availablefrom the period 1986-2004. CED also makes thismaterial available for access over the net. We haveour resource centre in Mumbai and Bangalore. Onecan get details from our site: www.doccentre.org

RAJANI GARUD

I moved into the field of education from theatre.Initially the work involved training anganvadi (Gov-ernment supported community crèches) teachers. Itwas while working with the teachers that I beganthinking about using theatre as a medium for learn-ing and education. The thrust was on includingcultural themes, body movements, song, dance,puppetry etc. in early childhood learning. Wedeveloped activities through which the entirecurriculum could be introduced to the child throughtheatre.

I had no regular job then and was freelancingfor plays and at the same time looking for a suitableplace to make my base and settle down with thework that I had in mind.

I wanted to work with children from the middleclass families. People from lower economic back-ground sent their children to Government schools.

And there were facilities to cater to the needs ofchildren from sound economic backgrounds. It wasthe people from middle class that had a lot of worryin choosing a quality and affordable place for theirchildren’s education.

Dr. Sanjeev Kulkarni and I started a small school(Balabaliga) at Dharwad in Karnataka to experi-ment with my ideas.

RACHEL KELLETT

I came to teaching 20 years ago with a stammer -learning to be a teacher of drama, thinking this willmask my vulnerability: I can act out life! I went adifferent path. I came to India eight years ago as abudding environmental activist, helping to establishGreenpeace in Delhi, and ending up co-writing Lifein Plastic, (the impact of plastic waste in India)published by Other India Press. I quit activism as Ifound more questions than answers, and returned toteaching in part as a forum for exploring thesequestions, and in part to work with the less condi-tioned minds of children, that forced me to makeshorter sentences and find simpler, purer concepts.

For the last four years I’ve been teaching as avolunteer at Alice Project School in Sarnath (aresearch project based on the integration of ourinner and outer worlds, founded by an Italian Bud-dhist) (http://www.aliceproject.org/englishindex.htm). However, after reading in theUttar Pradesh State English Reader V: ‘The WorldHealth Organisation came to our country and gaveus a miracle medicine: it was called DDT’, my oldactivism was stirred, and I began developing anenvironmental curriculum, incorporating my activistknowledge with some new Buddhist philosophy (forexample interconnectivity and non-separation).

192005 Goa, India

AKASH AND MANAS MUKUL DAS

We had an offer from the Krishnamurti FoundationRajghat, Banaras to do something in their villageschools for 9 months. So we came to the school inAugust 2002. The dialogue started with 18 teachersfrom the school. Can we have a school where nochild will fail? Can we have a school where eachchild will be taught upwards from the level of effi-ciency he or she has in whatever subject?

Ten days later, I felt that the old teachers wereresisting the idea. They said you tell us how to do itwe will do it. In university the subject is important. Butin the school the child is important and not thesubject. I told them that I can show you the path ifyou are ready to go through the jungles but if youare not then I will not impose anything on you.However, it will be difficult for you to teach a class offailed and passed students. So I told them to takethe students who had been promoted and I will takethe children who have failed and that is how aschool came into existence out of the deadwood,deadwood because these children were not part ofany tree.

On the first day the ‘failed’ children were weep-ing, demanding, why are we not with our friends?But the teachers responded saying – Can’t we beyour friends? And by the third day the children werehappy and were saying that it was a good thingthey had failed. From this started the experimentconducted by Akash. For nine months we hadprofound relations with these children.

SHRUJAL ANAND VIDYALAYA, KOLHAPUR

We are a team of 22 teachers who commit our time,skills, talents as per our convenience. Every weekteachers meet to evaluate, review the happeningsof the week and plan for the next. In educationcircles everybody talks about motivating the child.What does this mean? – Does it mean: to encour-age, to stimulate? Some one said that one shouldallow the world to enter the classroom and the childwould learn on its own.

Our school stands for a lot of joy, lot of creativity.‘Vidya - aale’ means ‘learning comes’. In a way theschool is a vision of a new world. Children learn inthe mother tongue because language is an indica-tion of freedom, thought and expression. If one losesone’s language, in a way freedom is lost. Childrenhere see the sense of equality and confront usadults all the time. The school allows a lot of scopefor this. We believe that as adults tomorrow, they willlearn to discern, question and confront and notaccept everything that comes their way.

The most serious problem of all is competition.What our children do or are persuaded to do in itsname is so very contradictory to what I have read ina small booklet on the rights of the child publishedby UNICEF.

20 2005 Goa, India

CHANDRASEKHAR DEVANA

My association with the formal education systemgoes back 18 years in time. It began with me start-ing a school for the children in my village. I closed itafter a year and moved on to teach in conven-tional schools, tuition centres, elite public schools,school for tribals etc. Parallel to this journey was myown personal learning journey through books onand about education. There were serious conflictsand unpleasant experiences all along. All theseexperiences fell short of the real thing. Finally in 2004I quit looking for answers outside. So did my twosons. They quit school at std. IX and VII levels. Theentire family is in the process of deschooling now.

My older son tried to escape schooling severaltimes and it was I who always tried to push him backinto school. He finally quit in class IX. It is three yearssince he has given up schooling. My elder son lovesrepairing automobiles, is interested in electricalscience and electronics, has got leadership qualitiesand is very helpful to families in the neighbourhood

My younger boy quit after class VII from a gov-ernment school. Actually, he quite enjoyed school-ing because in the government school there was nomuch control over his life from teachers.

The younger boy has varied interests: cooking,studying insects, recycling paper, alternative energyprojects. He has quit school for the past 1 year now.

We would like to start a learning centre in ourvillage.

Dalits aremarginalized andseparated communityin our country. Whathave we done for thedalit community? –T. M. Narasimhan

SHIVAJI KAGANIKAR

Shivaji Kaganikar hails from a shepherd community.A staunch practitioner of Gandhian principles offrugal living and simplicity, Shivaji is easily mistakenby city folk for a rustic vagrant.

The first generation of literate women in thesevillages are all students of his night school. It is heart-ening to see several young men and women followin his path. Young women today run small balwadisfor a token remuneration arranged by well-wishers oron a voluntary basis in these villages.

Belgaum, the border town in NorthernKarnataka, in the last few decades has come to beknown as one of the leading capitation orientedprivate education centres in the country, withstudents flocking from all over. The city boasts ofseveral medical colleges: one allopathy, threedental colleges, five homeopathy, three ayurvedic.Apart from these, there are also two engineering,five polytechnics, twenty eight undergraduatecolleges, forty five high schools, a university exten-sion centre, the national distance educationagency (IGNOU) and any number of sporadicallymushrooming deemed university affiliated institu-tions.

And yet, a challenging experiment in communitylearning carries on unnoticed, untouched andunimpressed by all the mainstream jiggery-pokery.

The Community Learning Movement (CLM) is anaction oriented capacity building program for ruralyouth. The participants are volunteers who collec-tively learn, understand and follow it up with actionat personal and community levels.

The learning is rooted in their immediate sur-roundings. The topics concern their life in the village.Since it is a voluntary commitment, the basiccommonality in these youth is a deep sense of

212005 Goa, India

belonging, accountability, self imposed values, acooperative spirit and self motivation.

The whole process of learning is participatory innature with group discussions, role plays, games andstories. Each session (held once a month) has threevital components viz. feedback on the previoussession, future plan of action and the input sessionwhich is conducted as an interactive dialogue. Thesessions are supplemented with community newslet-ters (poster format), village information boards,informal ‘mobile library’ cum study circles and result-oriented cooperative action.

The prime objective of CLM is to develop villagelevel collective leadership complemented bypolitical, cultural, social and environmental regen-eration at the community level.

Says Dileep, its facilitator: ‘Here, perspective isthe most important element that decides the con-text and form of the program. To us, perspective isthe end result of values, beliefs, ideas and ideologiesthat determine the understanding and interpreta-tion of the social, political, eco-cultural context. CLMtreats people not as ‘subjects’ but as masters of theirown destiny, and helps them take charge of theirlives rather then being passive ‘objects’ that can bemoulded and fitted into a previously decidedframework.

CLM looks upon participants as individualsbringing in their own values, opinions, perspectiveand unique experience. Through sharing and discus-sion they become partners in a collective process oflearning and action. The result is, each one be-comes responsible for his own learning.

Inspiration and ideologies are derived fromdiverse schools of thought as Buddha, Kabir,Basavanna, Tukaram, Jyotiba, Savitribai Phule,Gandhi, Ambedkar, Marx and the feminists whoadvocated for the rights of women, dalits, tribals,

peasants, toiling workers in the unorganized sector,minorities …..etc.

As facilitators and animators our role is to createand ensure a conducive learning atmospherewhere participants get space to question, chal-lenge, debate, experiment, reflect and internalizethe learning. The acid test is when they go back totheir respective villages and share the knowledgewith the aim to influence their own communities intoaction.

The results cannot be seen but felt, once thebarriers have broken down. One notices a subtleform of awareness that induces self-confidence,pride and self-worth.

STEPHEN SMITH

I am a teacher educator in Krishnamurti school.

22 2005 Goa, India

4problems with the school and ‘education’‘Close all educational institutions for five years ifyou want to undo the damage and set thingsright’, said Vinoba Bhave. Bhave has not beenalone in recommending drastic solutions. In1942, thousands deserted school and college inthe wake of the ‘Quit India’ movementlaunched by Gandhi. Tagore quit school at theage of thirteen and then went on to win theNobel Prize for Literature.The problems associated with schooling are sowell documented that more need not be writ-ten about these. The challenge is why are weunable to design systems which suit the learningneeds, desires, capacities and yearnings of thechild?

Why do we continue to think the child is bornwith a blank slate, on which we write what wefeel is in its best interest?Why do parents want to live a second lifethrough their wards? When will this borrowing ofother people’s lives come to an end?Most thinking people will never dispute thedismal, soulless character of the modern state.How come they willingly hand over their chil-dren completely to soul-killing curricula de-signed by the state?

232005 Goa, India

CHILDREN NEED EDUCATION FREE OF COMPARISONS

By Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev

I have two school-going children. They are veryhappy at home but they don’t like to go to school.

Unfortunately you are not sending your children toschool because you want them to learn. You wantthem to earn. That’s not education.

You want them enslaved, to what you call aseconomic wellbeing so the teachers are doing thejob for you. You are not sending your children toschool because you want them to develop a thirstfor knowing irrespective of whether it is going tomake money or not, isn’t it?

So you better change your attitude to educa-tion. The focus of education should be not to sup-press information but to kindle thirst for knowledge.

Then you can’t stop the child from learning, he’sgoing to learn anyway. But instead of kindling that,you’re suppressing it.

Beating it down with your idea of what is educa-tion, because your idea of education is social statusand money. So, slowly children who are joyful be-come sad because you’re just disorienting them withyour compulsions.

The pressure is also because you’re putting twoabsolutely unique beings in comparison. There is onlyone like you in the world.

That is so for your child also, but now you aretrying to put all of them into the same compartment.So it is you who brought that competition and com-parison, because for most parents it is not abouteducation, it is about first rank.

They’re not interested in learning or education.The whole effort is how to sit on top of the pile. Isn’t it

so? Everybody cannot sit on top of the pile, only afew can.

Others will naturally end up at the bottom andget suppressed, isn’t it? Whatever the activity, if ourfocus is just to outdo others, many others will getsuffocated under the pile.

This is bound to happen; there is no other way.So that orientation of education has to go. ‘’I can-not do anything, the schools are like that”.

No, the schools are just catering to your atti-tudes. If your attitudes change, the schools willchange. They want to run the business in a way thatit works.

Somehow you want your child to get a hundredmarks. It doesn’t matter what happens to the child.You want your child to get first rank.

Schools are just trying to cater to it becauseyou’re paying them. They’re trying to fulfill yourrequirements. In the course of your activity the childis getting ruined, but it doesn’t matter.

Your child is unhappy; it doesn’t matter. Youwant him to get first rank. This is a sickness which hasto go. True human genius will not flower if this kind ofeducation happens.

True human capabilities will not find expression incomparison and competition. True human capabili-ties will find expression only in absolute relaxation.Your mind, your body will work best, will find fullestexpression only when you are joyful, peaceful andquiet within.

When you are trying to race with somebody youwill think only one step ahead of them. That’s all.You’re not thinking of what is your ultimate potential.

We’re just ruining a whole generation of peoplewith the kind of schooling we are doing.

24 2005 Goa, India

T. M. NARASIMHAN

One sees violence in society. Where does this comefrom? And why does it happen? One very strongreason for this could be that from the very childhoodthere is constant trouble, prodding, comparison andcompetition in a child’s life. Most schools promotecompetition and generally adults and peers, indulgein comparison.

SIYA CHAUHAN

In the Tehri Garhwal region of Uttarkhand the situa-tion is very different.

Problems have been created by modern edu-cation. Because with education has come thefeeling that a person fits only into a city lifestyle. If wehave to challenge the mainstream it has to be donedirectly and not piecemeal by addressing isolatedconcerns. To begin with, we have to first define whatwe understand by education.

CHANDRASEKHAR DEVANA

The whole society including ourselves have notunderstood the vital role of different activities thathappen in a child’s life like spontaneous play, closeassociation with people, apparent whiling away oftime etc. Early growth experiences play a vital role inthe growth of the child.

MUNIRA AMIRALI

We believe in textbooks more than in God. If inscience textbook it was written: be seated whiledrinking water, then it is more relevant and logicalbecause it is written in the textbook.

CHANDRASEKAR DEVANA

The whole society is conditioned. All our perceptionsare blurred by the notion of school being theagency to deliver education. So we try to jugglearound, change the school our children are goingto, but not quit.

AMINA KANJEE

Schools in Pakistan still use books that are 25 yearsold. There has been no significant revision. Essentiallythey do not want a change because of the prevail-ing mind set and they also do not want to acceptthat change and updating is required. It is not easyto break this circuit and since AKES works with themainstream we have to maintain a balance andkeep in mind parents’ aspirations and societaldemands.

Pakistan has rich cultural resources. There is anindigenous knowledge base that is not incorporatedinto regular schools books. For example, I will beable to tell the botanical names of several trees inthe school campus but will fumble if asked the localnames.

LILATAI PATIL

I have visited 26 schools between 2001 and 2002and talked to 1256 high school students. The treat-ment that is meted out to children is appalling. Thereis beating, punishment, ill treatment, no freedom toquestion. In fact a child sent an appeal to say - donot treat us as you treat cattle.

The most serious of all problems in school iscompetition. All this is so very contradictory to what Ihave read in a small booklet on the rights of thechild published by UNICEF.

NEEMA VAISHNAVA

Compared to children of Laxmi Ashram, today’syouth in the mainstream are chasing imaginarydreams of being elite professionals. The rationale isto make a good life for oneself with seldom anythought to larger social issues. How many are ableto achieve this dream is very debatable. The othersspend most of their life chasing illusions.

252005 Goa, India

MOHAN SURVE

Who makes the curriculum and who implements thecurriculum are two important aspects for education.Usually the implementation ends up as a watereddown version of the original idea.

STEPHEN SMITH

Learning is something that we go to school to pickup and later on at some stage you are tested on it.You put it in a form that is accepted by the examinerand ultimately you get a piece of paper and hope-fully a job.

That is the accepted belief of learning.

MOHAN SURVE

Education makes a person a misfit in the village. Inmy own case education has managed to leave mewith an inferiority complex, a sense of inadequacy.

CHANDRASEKHAR DEVANA

Curriculum and methodology is the problem of theschool and not the learner. Children need resources,support and assistance. Curriculum and methodol-ogy are delivering systems and they close the doorto the outside world which is the biggest learningspace available.

SHEELA PIMPARE

Solutions to all the modern education system can befound in the traditional system. Oral traditions obvi-ously had something valid. That is why they evenexist today.

AMINA KANJEE

Exploration is more important. I don’t bother toomuch about covering the syllabus but make linkswith what children have absorbed.

MUNIRA AMIRALI

Teacher is a friend to the child. A teacher shouldhelp the child. She should not think that she is anexpert. The teacher has to encourage the child. Theteacher has to think that I have to teach the chil-dren and along with them I also have to learn. Theteacher is the first learner in the classroom. There is asaying that ‘Charity begins at home.’ So I am tryingmy best to help people, one cannot change peo-ple’s perceptions, but can facilitate. I cannot saythat everyone will think in the same way becauseeach person is unique and will naturally think indiverse ways.

MANISH JAIN

The need for diversity is needed implicitly; if thatgoes out then at some point all of the work that wedo will have to shrink. The gathering is to show thatthere is place for cultural diversity and its experimen-tation. How can we keep it alive? How can wemake it more vibrant?

TENZIN RIGZIN

I think there is too much of idealization of the oraltradition. I have been associated with oral traditionsfor the last 10 years. People spent years to memorizethe text and also recite text backwards. This is oraltext as they have memorized for years. That wasimportant maybe when writing had not evolved.People who are with this oral tradition are not ableto adopt a critical view which is outside textualknowledge. Reading and writing are important toolsand not a compromise. They develop other kinds ofskills that people from oral tradition don’t have. Weshould not be reactionary and try to go backwards.

26 2005 Goa, India

5discussion on taleemIndia is heir to a long and rich tradition of learn-ing. As part of this tradition, we have the path-breaking contributions of Gandhi, Tagore,Aurobindo, Krishnamurti, Vinoba Bhave, etc.These have, in turn, stimulated, inspired andemboldened a number of individuals andorganizations to strike out in significant, revolu-tionary experiments that cry for documentationand sharing.Many of these experiments in stimulating genu-ine learning have been carried out in isolationand have at times been lonely and difficultjourneys. But they have succeeded in escapingthe deadening conventions of modern univer-sal homogenizing education and have en-hanced the meaning, joy, uniqueness andutility of learning.

On the other hand, mainstream schooling hasnot travelled much from the days that colonialoverlord Macaulay set it up. His intention was tocreate a generation of clerks whose only learn-ing came from books. That basic system of‘education’ has continued without muchchange uptill now. Macaulay’s system hasbecome the basis of what is now called ‘fac-tory schooling’ since it is based on mass produc-ing individuals who are fed the same conceptsthrough the same text books year after year,while the world outside has changed long timeago.This chapter contains lively excerpts, discussions,interviews and documentation of some thinkingon learning that has successfully exorcisedMacaulay’s ghost.

272005 Goa, India

MANAV MUKUL DAS

All the motivation to excel, in teachers and in stu-dents, is generated in school through competition.The means, fair or foul, hardly matter. Schoolsgenerally are a reflection of whatever is going on insociety. The emotions that prevail in schools areidentical with those that prevail in society: the killerinstinct, ambition, hatred, jealousy, rivalry, anxiety,and tension. The division of society between the richand the poor has given birth to schools for the richand schools for the poor, making the situation muchworse. Values are never learnt from a formal curricu-lum. They are imbibed from a school’s informalsocial atmosphere created by the network of rela-tionships which binds everyone and everything toeach other in the school.

Every act of knowing is made up of a field that isknown, a mind that knows, and the relationshipbetween the two. Even the most prized Institutionsof education today which focus on excellence, lookonly at the field to be known, and strive to putmaximum pressure on the mind to absorb informa-tion and intellectual skills. Unconcerned whetherminds are getting twisted or cracking up, whethersociety is filling up with venomous emotions, the millsof education grind on.

Will there be a change? How will conflict end? Ifit cannot end at once in the whole of society, shouldthe process not begin somewhere on a small scale?And should not the school get interested in the mindthat knows, in the relationship behind the knowerand the known, and in the ultimate ending of thatrelationship where the knower is the known; thesinger, the song; the dancer, the dance; the philoso-pher, the thought; the meditator, the silence; thelover, the beloved; the devotee, lost in the deity.

The urban, modernsystem deliberatelyalienates the child.Modern houses arenot child friendly. Haveyou noticed that, inmodern homes allactivities happenbeyond the eye andhand level of thechild. Children like totake part in all adultactivities. But urbanchildren aredeliberatelydiscouraged fromlearning anything ontheir own or throughtheir own perceptionsso that when they goto school they can betaught everything andthen they can beconsidered educated.

– K.B. Jinan

JINAN

When I lived with tribal communities in the northeastand in Orissa, I observed how the children of thesecommunities learn without being schooled. I foundthat rural, tribal children are basically left to explorethe world on their own. And this is not a bad thing atall. A rural child begins to feed itself by the age oftwo and partakes of most activities around thehome by the age of four. To the modern mind,doing things at home is labour, but to the rural childit is part of growing up. Learning and playing are nottwo separate activities. As a result, while growing upnaturally, the rural, tribal kid acquires all the basicknowledge needed for its survival. Cultivating,animal breeding and rearing, constructing, repair-ing, tool making, even basic medication, these areall part of everyday living and learning. Only this isnot termed education by our modern urban system.What passes off as education incapacitates, shuns“doing” and makes one a passive thinker.

On the other hand the urban, modern systemdeliberately alienates the child. Modern houses arenot child friendly. Have you noticed that, in modernhomes all activities happen beyond the eye andhand level of the child. Children like to take part inall adult activities. But urban children are deliber-ately discouraged from learning anything on theirown or through their own perceptions so that whenthey go to school they can be taught everythingand then they can be considered educated.

I have come to the conclusion that there is lackof free thinking in children because of the strongconditioning from family, school and society.Through our so-called education, we are culturallyuprooted and our world views are totally altered.More important, our intuitive abilities get destroyedand distorted. I have found that people, who havenot been taught to draw or paint, do it better. Theyexpress themselves naturally and every line, stroke,hue and tone has its own rule, design and justifica-tion.

28 2005 Goa, India

‘Diversity is external’ is a western school ofthought. In indigenous communities all over theworld, the mode of learning is the same and isuniversally uniform. Look at the importance given tobirth, death, marriage, food, kinship. Fundamentally,a biological impulse guides us and since our survivalinstincts never fail us, it goes to show that nature hasno self destructive element in it. It is this biologicalelement in knowledge that is being destroyed bythe domination of reason over intuition. Reason isessentially a western outlook. Reason, after all, is ofthe self or the ego whereas intuition is of the collec-tive life force. And it is this destructive reasoning thatis being popularised by modern education.

Holistic knowing is a result of intuition. Intuition ispossible only in an experiential process where thewhole being is involved. And only in a naturallearning process does experience itself become thecontext for learning. Authentic living is learning.Modern education has shifted the centre of knowl-edge from nature to human, from collective to ego,from heart to intellect/mind, from intuition to reason,from experience to information from holistic tocompartmental.

As a consequence, the effects of moderneducation on the individual arecompartmentalisation, alienation, intellectualization,conceptualisation, etc.

On a larger and more dangerous scale theeffects of modern education on the planet are thatwe have destroyed ecosystems, used up most of thenon-renewable resources, driven thousands ofanimals and plants to extinction.

The worst pollution has been the one caused bywords, concepts and books. Knowledge evolvedout of experience is meaningful and is within thecontext of living. But the concepts created fromabstraction are endless and most often meaning-less. Deeper and authentic experience can evolvedeeper knowledge.

Creativity is a state ofmind when the mindbecomes anonymous.– Manas Mukul Das

Human centred knowledge can not becomeholistic. Only by accessing nature’s knowledgewhich is accessed by all life forms can there beholistic knowing. This knowledge is also evolutionaryand has a biological element to it. The only way toaccess this knowledge is to de intellectualise andlisten deeply and honestly to experience.

Holistic knowledge is not a matter of moreinformation, sensitive or other wise. What is requiredis a qualitative change. Buddhist master Milerappasays, ‘Spirituality is the last ploy of the mind.’ Moderneducation and the culture it has created, havegenerated more than enough words and conceptsto play with and to continue to dodge the realquestions.

One must seek knowledge that will sustain andcontinue life of all living beings not just a select race.The egocentric knowledge after the 17th centuryincreasingly destroyed other forms of life. To theWesterner to know means to conquer to control. Butfor the indigenous people to know means to beblessed. Knowledge to them was always sacred andhelped to sustain and continue life. One couldaccess it with dedicated action and use it withwisdom.

Knowledge in natural learning process is like asprouting seed, the way people build their settle-ments. This is seen in the way children play variousgames in villages. All of them are meant to makethem true learners. There are games for sensitizing allthe senses, balancing of the body, planning, comingto know of the life and environment around them.This biological element is visible even in their senseof beauty. I used to often wonder how a potterarrives at a particular form. Obviously he is not usingour ways of creating things.

Two-dimensional experience is introduced tooearly in our system.

292005 Goa, India

Modern education devalues all self learning andinstead imposes western notions of modernity,poverty, health, development, education and lifeitself! Today, after nearly 15 years of spending timewith so called illiterate people I feel educationmakes one ignorant and arrogant. We need to payreal attention to our thoughts and actions so that wedo not harm the child with our so called goodintentions and our love.

I am deeply interested in natural learning and‘senses guided learning’. How does a potter arriveat a form? It is because the sense of beauty is innatein us. My first visit to Aruvacode and my interactionwith the potters gave me the insight that mindsunpolluted by text and education were able tocreate unique works of art. Intuition as opposed tointellect is a powerful means of learning. Traditionalpotters are also not over burdened with wanting toachieve perfection in design. There can be beautyin asymmetry. It is the collaboration of this sense ofbeauty and the natural surroundings that results inthe fine blend of a particular culture.

The primary role of the temple and the ritual ofvisiting it, for example, is one of sensitizing the senses.The customary bath, the act of cleansing andrubbing the body, sensitizes the skin. The smell ofincense heightens one’s sense of smell, the singlelamp lit in the dark recesses of the temple helps theeyes to focus. Similarly, the bright flowers that areoffered, the ringing of the temple bell and thesinging of the bhajans, even walking barefoot on therough granite floor in the temple complex, are allmeant to stimulate the senses. The prasad that one isoffered at the end, thereby sensitizing the tastebuds, completes the process, thus making a templevisit a completely sensual experience. I believe thatall these aspects were consciously included as partof the ritual, to give to the senses their due as theprimary players in any learning experience.

I believe that we learn through our senses. Theseare our primary windows to the external world.

Oral tradition cameinto existence beforethe text. – Manish Jain

Reading and writing are man made, human inven-tions and at best they can be categorised as usefultools, but they can never be the windows to thelearning process. All problems start with this craze forwanting to read and write. I think that five years of‘formal study’ for the purpose of literacy is ad-equate for anyone to get by the mundane routineof being part of the social structure.

Abstraction has come about with modernity.Memory has shifted from the body to the brain.Memory no longer is a manifestation of intuitivebehaviour or experiential reinforcement, it is recol-lection – a regurgitation of exercises undertaken bythe brain. I believe that memory goes back to thetime of conception and includes all the experiencesduring gestation. At birth, the first responses areinstinctive. When we interfere with them, theybecome second hand responses. Reading is a thirddegree of abstraction.

To understand this, I have been closely photoand video documenting the activities of villagechildren, especially their games - the toys theymake, etc. I notice that through their games theydevelop all the faculties of a true learner. In fact,one can relate all that they do, from early child-hood onwards, with their mathematical sense. Theyare constantly dealing with concepts like quality,quantity, space, weights, balance, numbers etc.,understanding and manipulating them through thethings they do and the games they make up. Theyalso experiment with forms, colours and find multipleuses for everyday things found at home or in theneighbourhood. Leaves are improvised into whistles,empty bottle covers become wheels and stonesbecome toys. They learn all the time from natureand their games change with availability of naturalseasonal abundance like seeds, gourds, flowers,beans etc. Their senses are sensitised, their bodieslearn and respond all the time. It is simply amazingto watch how naturally learning takes place.

30 2005 Goa, India

This is where I see the biological aspect ofknowledge at work. Nature evolves these things. Theforest is not man made. Nature does it in the mostappropriate manner. It doesn’t take a PhD scholarto understand that life sustains life.

RAJANI GARUD

I feel angered by the word methodology because itcuts creativity. Every group has different abilities andthey have to be taught differently. Alternativeeducation is not about an alternative methodology.Alternative education is not a methodology but it isan alternative way of learning. We had severaldifferences with parents and teachers because ofthis disparity in thinking.

The bottom line was: the children perform well,approach things very creatively, find creativeanswers to problems and show high degree of self-confidence. Over the years their writing and oratoryskills developed to a high degree and gave a boostto their academic performance.

This is a slow process where results are not seenimmediately. If you ask me how they will fare in acommon qualifying exam, I will not be able toanswer. This is because the results are not visibleimmediately. How they lead their life in future issomething that we have to wait and see. Educationis something that one uses to fulfill social responsibili-ties. So these children will have to be watched toknow what impact this education has had on theirlives.

The general impression that people have is:theatre is a medium of entertainment. Becausetheatre can grip a person’s attention and influence

I believe a textbook ismeant to be read onlyat night to put one tosleep – Ranjan De

his thinking and action, I think theatre carries with it asocial responsibility. In fact, all cultural arts carry asocial responsibility. Using theatre to educate canbe very exciting especially since children lovedrama, role playing and the world of stories.

RANJAN DE

I am against using computers as a major learningtool. Computers should be used only as a finishingtool. Learning happens best when it is hands on.Learning happens by accident.

LILATAI PATIL

Children learn in the mother tongue because lan-guage is an indication of freedom, thought andexpression. If one loses one’s language, in a wayfreedom is lost.

312005 Goa, India

Poetry as you know isnot just collection ofwords. A kind ofthinking, sensitivity andmental make-up isrequired if one has tocreate poetry. – Neema Vaishnava

STEPHEN SMITH

The question of freedom is very essential to learningand living. In the schools that we have in India,England and America we do have curriculum,courses, classes. When the child chooses to dosomething he does it with all his heart. The questionsand questioning is where it begins.

How do we question and to whom do we ques-tion. We do question our teachers when we want toget information, but mentally we question ourselves.When a question was asked to Krishnamurti he usedto say, Why are you asking it to me? The person whohas the answer is you. And the constant pushingback of the question on the questioner is the actualmovement, if we want to dismantle the old structureof authority. So the alternative is not subscribing tothe same values. It is trying to go a different way;one way is by re-examination of the basis of learn-ing, what learning is. Learning is something that wehave acquired.

Learning is something that we go to school topick up and later on at some stage one is tested onit. You put it in a form that is accepted by the exam-iner and ultimately you get a piece of paper andhopefully a job. That is the accepted belief oflearning.

There is however a different kind of learning. Thelearning that we are involved in is the things that arehappening – not only the gestures, the words, andthe meaning of the words but what is going be-tween the words. In the span of the awarenesswhich is being limited to the language or the span ofwords used, there is a different kind of learning, it isnot just a mechanical exercise that a computer cando. It is tuning in of everything that is going in andaround you. Life has different kind of quality, texture.Yoga and other breathing exercises make a personsensitive to life’s underlying quality.

There was an incident in the US where 2 youngboys of the age of 14 or 15 stocked a lot of weap-ons including the automatic weapons. They went toa school and shot 20 people and later shot them-selves.

Where is civilization going? One will think that USis the most prosperous and powerful country onearth, this is what happens. The response is equallyalarming because the school authorities, governordidn’t know what to do. This type of situation callsfor a reorientation of our way of thinking and ourway of perception.

Krishnamurti had no place for thinking or noplace for thought but that is simplification becausewhen he talks about the limitation of thought hetalks about thinking itself as active present likelearning in a very interesting way. We can’t fortu-nately do much of it today but we have been doingit in some sense by thinking together. We have beenthinking for the past two days during this meetingabout education without the object of contempla-tion. This is a kind of process that can move aroundin the country and create a sense of alignmentwhich is not an agreement.

32 2005 Goa, India

GOPALAKRISHNAN AND VIJAYALEKSHMI

Claude Alvares: Sarang had to close because it raninto financial trouble. Do you still think that it’s agood idea to revive it in a place like Attapadi,Kerala?Vijayalekshmi: Definitely! We were teachers in Gov-ernment schools, we quit, and started Sarang. Wehave the experience and background. Sarang wasnever a conventional school and never will be.Gopalakrishnan: Our ultimate aim is no schooling.But it is a far away target. Learning is part of onesreal life but schools compartmentalise and separateit. This should not be the case. Children learn fromtheir environs. School has now begun to mean alocation, building, furniture etc.V: Schools treat children as boys and girls, segregatethem at the nursery stage and condition them withdefined ideas. Part of our curriculum was to mergeall distinctions and let children participate in allchores related to everyday living.CA: People generally would like to conform to a setsystem. Does this not come in the way of experi-menting with a new idea.G: Generally people of Kerala are well informed andpolitics and public events are discussed in mosthouseholds. But recently, the Government of Keralabanned politics in the colleges and schools. This wasa very dangerous thing to do. Our country is said tobe a democracy. But in reality, we are not a demo-cratic country. Power is concentrated in the handsof a minority. This is repeated everywhere, in thefamily, in the classrooms, in the offices, in everyinstitution in the country.V: If we take a particle of water, it should show thequality and nature of water. Similarly even thesmallest units of society should be democratic innature. Families are the micro particles of society.The offices and institutions are the molecules. Sodemocracy should start from the family and class-rooms. Otherwise, even after another thousand

years we will not be a truly democratic people. Thatmeans democracy should start from the family itself.The relationship between the members of the familyshould be democratic. The work should be bal-anced. We may talk about democracy but inpractice the father is the dictator in the family,teacher is the king of the classroom and headmaster is the emperor of the school. How can therebe democracy? This is not education. It is mereliteracy. Education is something more meaningfuland related with real life. So the curriculum shouldinclude everything related with real life. That is thekind of school and curriculum we have in mind.CA: Tell me what should a child do? You know theeconomy is very powerful. It is offering young chil-dren the dream of luxury and comfort like cars, style,fashion and all sorts of things. They have managedto successfully put these ideas into the minds of theyoung children that if you want all these goodies,then you have to go through this schooling systemand you must get 95%, you must get eventually intoa renowned college and only then will you get theso called successful job and then the world will be atyour feet. This is becoming the driving force forparents to push their children more andmore…go…go…learn more.G: A train is a fantastic thing. There is efficiency,comfort, it can carry so many people, and it is big.But it has one major disadvantage. It needs a rail tomove. Without a rail it is useless. If this rail collapses,the train also collapses. This is what our schools are.

We are pushing children through a rail of direc-tions. We see it as very good. But the fact is, withoutthis rail the train won’t move. If we bring up childrenin freedom, they will develop their own balancedmode of life.

When we take children out they see and learnfrom life itself and see for themselves that there areother facets to life. This is part of education. Childrenwho get this exposure may consider a lifestyle that ismoderate and in the interest of common concerns.

If we are designing themethodology, thenwhat is alternativeabout this? If it has tobe truly alternativethen it should involvethe family in childcentred education.Education that comesfrom living and lifeoutside the wrap ofclassroom,methodology andcurriculum isalternative. The childshould create its owncurriculum, life andinterests.

332005 Goa, India

GURVEEN KAUR

Responsibility for the children and the protectionthat they need as they grow is on us. Each child is aunique being. Each child has to be unconditionallyaccepted as an individual with limitations and strongpoints.

With regard to responsibility I would like to startwith an unconditional acceptance of every childgiven all the limitations and also the potential theycan achieve. One of the problems of the schoolingsystem is that it is making a deliberate attempt toleave out, to screen. It often comes in the way ofchildren achieving their unique potential. The schoolcan be a place which can be very problematic.

We must have centres where we learn therelationship with the children without forgetting thatwe are adults. Where is it that I should provoke andwhen must I exercise restraint so as not hinder thechild?

AMINA KANJEE

I believe that knowledge is there within the child inthe brain. Human being uses only 5% of his brain. Theteachers can create strong links that will help thechild to make the connections between the knowl-edge when it is scattered. So it is just the bridge thatwill help the child to link the internal knowledge tothe outside world. If a teacher acts like a bridge inthe child’s life then he or she can support the childto learn in its own way. I am looking forward tosomething new that will benefit the educationsystem and for my country Pakistan. This is one of mydreams.

JINAN K. BThere is one thing which is called the experientialknowledge system and the other one which is calledthe non-experiential knowledge system and any-thing that is memory based is non-experientialknowledge system. Oral tradition is something that is

Any understandingmust addressfundamentalquestions. It should re-boot, rethink.Rebooting should notbe bound to anytraditions. – Jitendra Sharma

passed outside, it is always re-invention. Every childis rediscovering and every child has the potential tocreate. Every living being has the ability to re-createknowledge. Authenticity is very important. Usingyour body again, using your life again.

MUNIRA AMIRALI

It’s not the degree that people have but the hu-manistic perspective. If everyone loved the otherperson then this place would have been a goodplace to live. But right now we are just moving awayfrom this concept and then fighting with each other.So I think the main aim of education is to createlove, to love each other.

LILATAI PATIL

In education circles everybody talks about motivat-ing the child. What does this mean? – Does it mean:to encourage, to stimulate? Some one said that oneshould allow the world to enter the classroom andthe child would learn on its own.

We too have competitions but we present ourchildren with not a certificate but a hand writtenletter of appreciation which does not state whetherthe child stood First, Second or Third but statesqualitative appreciation of efforts put in, an unique-ness in personality, a special trait or skill… We alsotake Shrujal Anand Varg (class) in other schools.

We noticed children are by nature creativeintellectually, reflective and responsive to theoutside world. It looks like schools are meant to kill allthese and shut off this natural inclination.

To summarize: Learning can happen when thereis full scope for creativity; children are encouragedto be creative without imposition and compulsion.

The moment you accept creativity you acceptjoy. May be, one can call this meaningful educa-tion.

34 2005 Goa, India

IN DIALOGUE – CLAUDE ALVARES AND CHANDRASEKHARDEVANA

C.A.: Why do children find the school situationunbearable and yet stay in school?C.D.: I have come across many children wanting toescape school. But there are two main reasons thatkeep them from doing this. One is the control byparents. Two, is the notion the larger society hasdeveloped about education. Essentially they do notsee an alternative, the notion that if you are in aparticular age group of 5-16 then one has to be inschool. This notion has quite an influence on theirbeing in school. They are internally conditioned.Some bitterly try to fight this. But parents don’t letthem do it. Also, the whole society is conditioned. Allour perceptions are blurred by the notion of schoolbeing the agency to deliver education. So we try tojuggle around, change the school our children aregoing to, but not quit.C.A.: How are schools damaging children?C.D.: Basically schools divide life into 2 parts: learn-ing and non-learning part. Life cannot becompartmentalised into specialised delivery system.Before and after school hours are not considered aseducation and learning experiences.People are divided into two: teachers and learners.This was true in ancient times. Even the Gurukulasystem of teaching was limited to the privileged fewbut learning has happened throughout humanexperiences. Even today many people, especially inrural areas are living meaningfully and successfullywithout having attended school.C.A.: Is there an impact of schooling on the stu-dent’s personality?

Chandrasekhar

Claude

C.D.: In non conventional schools there may be afew exceptions. In most schools children experiencelife as boring. The perception of life is moulded,streamlined based on designs provided by experts.For example school makes people depend onexperts and social engineers to solve their life issues.This is the biggest loss to the human personality. Ithas created a consumerist society that cannot thinkbeyond a confined vision and life has to be lived forpleasure. Learning as a whole is an alien concept toconditioned minds. School has deprived children ofspontaneous play, thus depriving children of theirpsychological and philosophical growth.C.A.: Millions are going to school; there must besomething good in it.C.D.: The major aspect of schooling is that it is aconvenient tool for the society. The ideas of westernschooling have invaded the whole world. We havelost our perceptions and our ability to see someindigenous leaning opportunities and approaches.Now the discussions are about whether somethinggood is still left in schooling. People are living andgrowing out of school because life and living are thebest teachers. Why should we then give an exaltedstatus to these institutions that go by the name ofschool?

352005 Goa, India

insights into taleem practice6

The endeavours in educational practice de-scribed in the pages that follow generally fallunder the category of alternative/experimentalor innovative schools.In our opinion, these labels greatly underminethe pioneering nature of such work.These learning centres clearly point to theirrelevance and stupidities of main streamMacaulay type of ‘factory’ schooling that acountry like India presently follows.Educators since the past three to four decadeshave been exploring ways in which children

can learn from nature, develop their sensuallearning, learn from experience through song,dance, puppetry, theatre.The ‘system’ however is unable to read thesigns. It does not need to read the signs. It isconfident it will continue to retain the alle-giance of millions who see no avenue for ad-vancement in their material life except throughwhat formal education promises them. Thatpromise ends up empty, but in the process itquashes all the dream worlds that warm theinsides of children from the day they are born.

36 2005 Goa, India

MANAV MUKUL DAS AND AKASH

From August 2002 to May 2003, on a patch ofground shaded by two jackfruit trees in the village ofSaraimohana, as the Honorary Director of the ruraleducation programme of the Krishnamurti Founda-tion India at Varanasi, I was witness to a most ex-traordinary experiment in holistic education which,subsequently, shifted its location. The experimentwas conducted by Akash, helped by half a dozenyoung graduate and undergraduate students of theUniversity of Allahabad. Akash had been my studentin the University and says he learnt from me, but thefact is, it is I who has learnt from him and am stilllearning. We had often met before and we hadwondered how could one change society. Why isthere violence and hatred in society? Where haseducation gone wrong? Why have we allowedsociety to impose its ways upon its schools? Must aschool mirror in miniature all that goes on in society:the competition, the rivalry, the desire to be aheadof others? The jealousy, the envy, the anger andfrustration? The killer instinct? The sense of injury? Thesycophancy, the intrigue, the manipulations?

When, invited by the Krishnamurti Foundation,one August morning seven of us were walking into itsvillage school compound, little Anita, whom we hadmet before, was walking out of the gate. Westopped by her and asked, ‘Anita, won’t you cometo school?’ The girl hid her face and started sobbing,‘I shall not go to school. I have failed.’

In the school the Assistant Director informed us,‘This year we have conducted the exams very fairlyand out of 400 students we have detained 160 whohave failed in four subjects or more.’ Only five or sixgirls had passed in all subjects and not a single boy.Anita sobbing at the gate returned like a ghost tohaunt our mind and around her other shadowyfigures, their faces hidden, blurred, unseen, gath-ered sobbing. Branded failures, these were thelooked down upon, the insulted and injured, the

We were wonderingwhy should any childfail in a school. Can’tthere be a schoolwhere no child wouldfail?

psychologically traumatized. On the school treethey were dead wood. In a future society theywould be the unwanted, discontented waste, thesocial effluent, the human resource that could notbe developed, the raw material for crime.

We were wondering why should any child fail ina school. Can’t there be a school where no childwould fail? Where every child would learn upwardsfrom the level at which she or he was, in whateversubject? The idea was not acceptable to theteachers of the school to which we had come. AsHonorary Director I initiated a dialogue betweenthe 18 teachers of the older school and the handfulwho had come with me. Even after a week, behindtheir grudging acceptance, I sensed non coopera-tion and insurmountable resistance. A way outcould be to let the old guard teach the childrenwho had been promoted and new ones teachthose who had ‘failed’. So, under a jackfruit tree, ona small separate portion of the school ground,around the middle of August, 2002, a handful ofteachers and some hundred odd boys and girlscame together and a school came to life from outof the dead wood of an older school-tree.

No child is a failure. The school under thejackfruit tree took them all under its care. Everymember of the school – teacher or child – wouldcare for every other. The school would be like home.

The experiment in holistic education was alearning experience for those who participated in itand also those who witnessed it. The experimentfocused on the complete development of themind, the nurturing, not only of the intellect and theemotions, but also of the creative faculty of thebrain. The intellect is the faculty which understandswhat is already known. A school child understandsthe laws discovered by Newton. The creativefaculty receives from the unknown. The creativebrain is an original brain. Not a peddler of secondhand information. Instead of stuffing the mind of thechild with information and know how, Akash’s group

372005 Goa, India

related with the children and took them along onthe path of listening and watching with completeattention (attunement rather), observing whateverwas around, whatever was being studied, andwhatever was going on in the mind as the mindrelated with what it was watching or studying orgoing through. The children began by listening anddancing to music, then listening silently, choicelesslyto all sounds. They engaged in self-study, in dia-logue, and in teaching each other. They lost theirtimidity and the boundary between teacher andtaught crumbled. The school was like one familywhere teachers and students lived and learnt aboutimportant things like arithmetic, reading and writing,and more importantly, about relationship andresponsibility and caring and about the silent caveof the mind where compassion, creativity and otherwonderful things dwell. And the learning was at thelevel of being. The children named the school ‘ApnaVidyalaya’ (Our Own School). We called the chil-dren ‘dancers in the sky.’

The place acquired a mind which Akash called“the common brain of the whole school.” Thequestions that were asked, the insights that wereborn in any one’s mind floated in the commonbrain, energized the atmosphere and that atmos-phere created by minds meeting in worded orwordless dialogue was the school. And the schoolwas insouled. Was that school within us or outsideus?

Under a jackfruit tree a school came to life outof the dead wood of an older school-tree. It wasbeautiful, sparkling, resplendent and vulnerable likea bubble. And within the bubble beautiful dreamswere born trembling with hopes and anxieties. Whenthe time came for the school under the jackfruit treeto disband, for the ground and premise to be re-turned to the original school, for the bubble to burstin the blue sky, the dreams didn’t die. The childrenand the teachers parted with the resolve, ‘Theschool is wherever we are.’ Their links didn’t break.Their resolve did not waver. For all the children andall the teachers had become one family, a family ofdreamers, of dancers in the sky who had actualizeda dream in miniature and continued to dream ofexpanding towards one larger global family wherethere would be no hatred, no competition, no ratrace, no killer instinct, where there would be onlylove and caring, joy and creativity, relationship andresponsibility, silence and dance.

Six months later the children of the school invitedthe teachers back, though not to the same ground,yet back to the village of Saraimohana and fouradjoining villages to set up Little Parliaments govern-ing Little Democracies of children and of adults inwhom the child had not died.

‘The school is wher-ever we are.’

38 2005 Goa, India

SUJATA BABAR

Abhivyakti has a children’s film park. This film parkregularly screens children’s films or films that we thinkare appropriate for children. These films usually carrya value based message and there are discussionsaround these values after every screening. Childrenlike to come to the film park.

At one time we had a session that we calledweekend session where we chose the topic water.Water is approached very differently in textbooksdepending on whether the subject is science,geography, history, or literature. These weekendsessions on water lasted for over two and a halfyears. If one explores water from the scientific pointof view then it is different. In history wars have beenfought along side rivers which form natural territorialboundaries. Geography would deal with waterdifferently and literature and poetry still more differ-ently. So instead of this compartmentalised assimila-tion the entire understanding of water developedover a period of two and half years. They were 11-12year olds when they joined this discussion and grewto 15 years. With time, their perception and depth ofunderstanding changed. It was a very interestingexperiment. It had to be stopped because ofmainstream school pressures and examinations.

Can there be acurriculum for anempty mind, for thebody plaint, forcorrect breathing, forlistening andwatching? – Manas Mukul Das

SUMAN

Children learn about the environment in two ways.One is the infusion approach and the other is theseparate approach. The separate approach is thestudy through books and is rather textualised andtheoretical. Our land, our life books are based oninfusion approach. The state of Uttaranchal is a hillstate and people of our area are very connectedto the land, the rivers, and the forest. Their life isconnected to the biological cycles and the foodchain. These books were designed to facilitate theunderstanding of this connection in a mutual,cooperative and co-learning atmosphere. Thisapproach involves the teacher, the student, andthe community. We introduce these books inschools as part of regular curriculum. Since 2002, thegovernment of Uttaranchal has introduced thesebooks in 800 government schools. The books arevery localized and children in school learn localconcepts of ecology which complement their ownlife-styles at home.

392005 Goa, India

SUMAVANAM

Sumavanam is a small village school drawing itsinspiration from David Horsburgh. It has 20 students inthe age group of 8-14 years. There are no competi-tions and no exams. We have been influenced byseveral writers of education, science, and math. Allof us sit in a room of 20’ by 12’ with individual deskfor each student. It is a fact that children in our areado not get the affection, attention and time ofparents. There is a felt need to make those basicrelations complete. For the first few months allnewcomers start with oral work and are familiarisedwith listening, speaking and memorizing. We do thiswork with stories, flashcards and many languagegames that Usha has developed over the years.David Horsburgh encouraged teachers to maketheir own learning aids based on children’s needsand requirements.

Children in the villages, once familiar with theteacher, will confide many personal details. There israrely a teacher-student relationship in small villages.

We encourage children to talk a lot and tellstories. In the span of few months we are able tothen identify each child’s learning abilities. Based onthese insights we then move on to simple workbooksfor children. Sumavanam uses a lot of learningmaterials.

Once the child gets into textbook mode, lan-guage is taught through phonetics. Usha has devel-oped books with groups of words for all the alpha-bets. Children are now able to make their ownwords and also use these words in sentences. It isamazing how in a span of 2 to 3 months children areable to make sentences, read small story books andanswer questions related to comprehension, arrang-ing sentences in a particular order etc. There arework books which the child first reads with theteacher, then tries to understand the lesson through

individual self learning and works with exercises incomprehension. For the first 5 years of schooling weuse books published by Oxford and Macmillan apartfrom books developed by ourselves.

Sumavanam is a village school with its attendantvillage perceptions to deal with. Given this, becauseparents want their children to have a certificationand a sense of achievement we thought it appropri-ate to cater to their needs and perceptions ofeducation.

I cannot claim to say that ours is an alternativeschool. I cannot say that children are not learning ina classroom. I do not have the heart to tell myvillage people that I do not believe in examinations,and that certifications do not teach anything aboutlife and are not required. I do not have the heart tosay this.

So on completion of five years at the VI and VIIgrade we introduced government prescribedtextbook to help children to prepare for the class 7thand class 10th examinations. Though we follow thesebooks we do the lessons as we think they should bedone and now there are several audio visual aids,audio, CDs, microscopes and other equipment andtools that we put to use regularly.

We even give the school a very formal atmos-phere in the morning. There is morning assemblywhen the children stand in lines, and sing local folksongs and other value based songs. This ritual coin-cides with local perceptions of what a school shouldbe and that, for a village school is very vital.

40 2005 Goa, India

A village school doesn’t only have the limitedresponsibility of imparting education; it inadvertentlyhas a role to play in the child’s personal life too. Wehave had children who have grown up to be goodand responsible people in the village today. Somehave even gone ahead to do their college study. Tocite an example: one of our students now looks afterhis mother, takes care of his brother’s family, main-tains the village accounts for a community pro-gramme, and teaches at the school. People like himare respected in the village and are role models forthe younger children who want to be in the sameschool that made him what he is today.

SUMAN, MANJU

In 1986 the Supreme Court directed all schools tohave a programme on environmental education.This gave a boost to our idea of using the villageecology as the curriculum for the environmenteducation programme. The first experiment wascarried out in Panwalala village school 25 kms fromAlmora. Children went out into the village in groupsto understand their ecology. Parameters were setwith regards to food, milk production, compost, fueletc. Data on quantity of compost used in fields wascollected by children from the village and data onfuel consumption in winter per family was collated.The same exercise was carried out with regards tomilk and food production. Through this programmeseveral other concepts were becoming clear to thechildren. Children showed a marked improvementin mathematical problem solving and mathematicalconceptualisation as a result of their field studies.The village was happy to see that for a changepeople were coming to learn from them rather than

to teach them something. Children of the villageare very good at identifying local trees. It becamean exercise in mutual learning.

The programme is now officially adopted andimplemented by the government of Uttaranchal in800 government schools for classes VI, VII and VIIIstandards.

MUNIRA AMIRALI

My interest is to see the school as a place where thechild’s experience is valued and they are facilitatedto arrive at personal understanding of their learningexperiences.

SUBBA RAJU

Once I was building a small structured house. Itwent on for a month. Everyday I used to work withthe masons. I asked the person in charge of theconstruction that I be paid for my work. He said:‘Why should I pay? You are also learning housebuilding.’This speaks of their wisdom and the relation be-tween the learner and the teacher.

T. M. NARASIMHAN

A boy was writing mirror and inverted images ofalphabets and numbers. It puzzled us for sometimetill it struck us that the child was left handed andwrote correctly and beautifully if using the left hand.In the village doing things with the left hand isconsidered inauspicious and inappropriate, so theparents used to insist he use his right hand only.

412005 Goa, India

RACHEL KELLETT

Called Footprints, after the ecological tool for meas-uring and comparing input energies with outputproduction, all modules trace the pathways ofproducts from their origins to their graves, weighingthe inputs and outputs of material, energy andlabour. Over for years, we worked on 4 diversemodules:1. Footprint of a clay kulhad and a tin of coca cola

(comparing the pathways, what we know anddon’t know, concepts of input and output, andseparation and connection)

2. Footprint of plastic in India (concepts of causeand effect).

3. Footprint of the story of Bhopal gas tragedy(concepts of good and bad, right and wrong)

4. Footprint of water (concepts of science andbelief)The ‘I DO NOT KNOW’ is celebrated in each

module.Each module uses the story to teach aspects of

English vocabulary and grammar. Not the other wayround.

We use cartoon and drawing as much as possi-ble

We use drama and play (most successfully in thestory of Bhopal)

We move freely into the other curriculum disci-plines to dissolve these borders and work in circles.Other teachers of maths, history, geography, etc.,became involved in the subject, and bent theusually strict Uttar Pradesh board curriculum toembrace our ‘footprint’ curriculum.

The photographs from our ‘water’ curriculummay be seen on www.aliceproject/2004/2004.htmThe entire curriculum – in a very much draft format –was hastily posted to http://www.baobabs.co.uk/footprints/footprints.htm

A child wants ateacher with whom hecan talk. At teacherworkshops, my task isto make friendlypeople out ofteachers – Ranjan De

MONA PATRAO

To address the problem of the ‘detention centre’ likeatmosphere in village schools, the focus of mypresent work involves exploring the option of ‘freeingchildren’ through interacting with and learning onthe land. The emphasis is on drawing up on andlearning through their innate, inherited, collectiveand individual wisdom. An effort at creating adialogue through a series of consultations with thecommunity (including children, youth and women)to investigate possibilities for both relevance andhuman/child rights is on. The intention is to involvethe local knowledge keepers, skilled artisans, craftspersons, farmers and community members in thelearning process. A vision of a child centred interdis-ciplinary thrust so as to revive holistic education withan emphasis on experiential learning is beingshared. Incorporating of ecological agriculture,traditional cultural practices and knowledge sys-tems, alternate energy, appropriate technology,relevant ecological and social issues, other sustain-able practices and the exploration of several learn-ing environments in the learning experiences isrecommended. Collaboration with the local anddistrict forest department is also in progress.

ANISA ISSANI

I have always believed that when parents join handswith the school and develop good relationships, it’sthe child who gets the maximum benefit out of thisrelationship. The child feels secure and confidentwith the knowledge that both the home and schoolare working in the same direction.

42 2005 Goa, India

Children listen with a lot of attentionChildren see with a lot of attentionThey have just come into this worldAnd they have so many questions to askLikeWhy should guavas be always drawn round in pictures?LikeWhy isn’t the death of a goat an accident?Why are there firings across borders?Why are there firings?Why are there borders?They are ignorantThey do not know that it is more important to brush your teeth in the morning than togive clothes to someone who doesn’t have them.The system is threatened if too many questions are asked.If the answers are notapproved.So deploy a parent behind every child.And for further caution,Open schools.

SATINATH SARANGI

432005 Goa, India

Country RoadsLearning situations in village environments arecompletely different from urban environments,yet, the same inane curriculum of studies isthrust down the throats of children who live andwork in the countryside.No greater scandal than this, that the moderneducation system does not have a curriculumdesigned exclusively for children that live in thecountryside where they have their own needs.

7

The outcome of the present policy is obvious: itcreates a generation of children who arecontemptuous of agriculture, want to get out ofit as rapidly as possible, hold their parents in lowesteem and eventually become misfits whocan only survive at the margins of both socie-ties.Time for a change. How long do rural childrenhave to wait?

44 2005 Goa, India

BHUVAN PATHAK

I ran away from school in the third grade. The moun-tains and rivers have been my first teachers and stillremain so. For me learning came with life and living.From the age of three till the age of about seven-teen I grew up in close association with the commu-nity and my village. I grew up by the river and learntalongside it through play.

Our favourite engagements in summer wereplaying cricket and grazing cattle. In the summerwhen water levels fell we would make ponds toswim in. Thinking back I realise we were civil engi-neers at the age of five. How to collect small stoneof the right size and roll down big boulders? How toblock small leaks and how to provide for over flow?We knew this at the age of seven.

To state an instance: In the mountains, thestreams are fast flowing and the fish small. Catchingfish here is a science in itself. One cannot use a netor hook. What we did was, divert them into a cornerand catch them there. The entire group of friendsfrom the neighbourhood would be engaged in aserious discussion on spot selection and would veryseriously consider and the pros and cons of a par-ticular spot. Then would come an action plan todivert the water and retain the fish. Leaks and gapswould have to be blocked with sticks and rags. Tointoxicate the fish, we used an extract from thestems of a big variety of bamboo known locally asram bhans. The extract is harmful to humans. This

‘Mai to jeete jeeteseekha’

– Bhuvan Pathak

danger added an extra bit of thrill to the entireexercise. One had to then swim across to pick thecatch. As a child I learnt to swim in six different ways.Since it was forbidden at home, the fish had to becooked by the riverside. This now posed the ques-tion of fish selection for size, easy cooking andconsumption.

There were other games like throwing stones intothe river and diving in to be the first to retrieve.Building long tunnels with rounded stones, hide andseek, making cricket balls with molten plastic,instigating bullfights etc.

One thing we all did was steal fruits, carrots, andradish from the farms. There is a skill involved instealing. Apart from the thrill, I think it builds confi-dence. I turn a blind eye when I see kids doing it inmy farm now.

What I learnt as a child was because the entirevillage was my learning space: the mountains, rivers,farms, trees, animals, and people. I try to emulatethis through the Jeevan shalas that we have started.In the Jeevan Shala the entire village is the child’slearning space.

I do not believe that any learning for life canhappen confined within a classroom seated in athree square feet area for hours on end. Subjectingchildren to this I think is the gravest anti child rightsact. The way I live today is not because of what Ilearnt in school, but outside its four walls.

452005 Goa, India

SUBBA RAJU

For the last 10 years I have been observing thatthere is no marked change in the way the people ofChennekothapalli and surrounding areas ofAnantapur district, Andhra Pradesh, have cel-ebrated their festivals, although these areas havebeen declared a chronically drought prone area ingovernment records and schemes. The people aremanaging their resources very wisely and having agood life. The need for agriculture among theeducated people is drastically reducing. The com-mon man here is able to lead a better and joyful lifecompared to the educated man.

At Timbaktu we see the capacity of the com-mon people to live, the capacity to celebrate life.These are the goals of our education programme inall the activities that we conduct with children in thefive schools we run in five villages.

There is a lot to learn from the children especiallythe rural children. We do lot of art and craft activi-ties so that we can have good combination of artsand crafts in the academic subjects we teach.

We try to teach them reading and writingthrough worksheets, play materials, etc. We haveused all methods and spent a lot of time perfectingour techniques.

Children are good in house building, gardening –they produce things for the kitchen, etc. We havechildren from 8 to 15 years old. The children collectsoap nuts, wild berries, assist in cooking activities,rearing poultry and other animals, permaculture,organic farming. All these jobs are done as seriouslyas academics. The children improve as they acquireself confidence. Parents are kept informed of theprogress of their wards. It always helps.

NEEMA VAISHNAVA

It is 58 years since Laxmi Ashram was started bySarlabehn. There was a clear understanding that ifat all anything would stand the test of time forpeople of India’s villages and especially in the hillstates like Uttaranchal where the woman plays thecrucial role of running the domestic set up and thefarm, the answer would have to be found inGandhiji’s philosophy of self-sustenance or BuniyadiTaleem. It would be a solution to strengthen theiralready existing inherent strengths.

SIYA CHAUHAN

In the Tehri Garwhal region of Uttarkhand the situa-tion is very different. The women here may have notbeen to formal schools but are capable of doing 50different kinds of jobs related to their home andland. One earning member can support 15 people.Alcohol is not a problem even though it is sometimesbrewed at home.

46 2005 Goa, India

SUJATA BABAR

The youth in the villages are influenced by the cityculture. We started working in villages and startedtalking about education. People there relatededucation to school. One women in the group saidthat education is like pickle for us, if it is there then itis okay, if it is not there then too it is fine. The realfood that we need is dal and roti. We don’t requirepickle everyday. That was their understanding ofeducation. There is a saying that the school educa-tion produces parrots and the education one gainsfrom experience creates human beings.

Though the lady was not able to read, she saidschool education is like pickle in her plate. Westarted working in the village with the whole com-munity, the children, women, youth and the farmers.We began planning the following programmes:

For the children we planned an open space,khel ghar, the house of games where the childrenhave the feeling of being at home,

We decided to explore the games in the villageswhich already exist but are slowly vanishing.

We explore non-materialistic games in thevillages and various activities where thechildren get the opportunity to expressthemselves, like plays, dramas etc. Khelghar is the weekly activity. There are sometai dadas who are the youth from thevillages. These tai dadas along with thechildren plan the activities and the gamesto be included. They have dialogues witheach other and find solutions for theirproblems. The children solve the prob-lems without any interference fromadults, but we help, if needed. There is no

The village was happyto know that for achange people werecoming to learn fromthem rather than toteach themsomething. – Suman

fixed curriculum in the khel ghar: the children them-selves decide on an activity. It is an energy and joygiving place for the children.

In our three year period of establishing the khelghar in the villages, we found that initially we startedworking with the youth to became the tai dadas forthe children. But now we find that even in theabsence of tai dadas, children can manage thekhel ghars. They are well-managed and self di-rected. Some senior children have now taken theresponsibility of running the khel ghars.

We also have a programme with the youthcalled ‘co-learning’. We found that in the villagesthe youth leave the agricultural activities and go tothe cities for jobs where they work in factories ondaily wage basis. After discussing with the youthwhat they want, we found that they want to learnthings which will be useful to them and to the vil-lages. So they started getting engaged with agricul-ture as we began working with the farmers in thevillages.

472005 Goa, India

T. M. NARASIMHAN

Village children are very hardy and life in the villageis difficult. Education and learning are bright starsand important landmarks in their lives.

Several years ago I remember an instancewhere the child passed out during assembly. He wasvery reluctant to tell what was wrong and after along time of persistent enquiry revealed that therewas no food in the house and had not had anythingto eat before coming to school.

MONA PATRAO

The Redstone Farm grows fruits, berries, vegetablesand greens organically. We link the farm to learning.Children come here for varied periods of time to liveand work on ecology related projects. The farm isused as a base for exploring various aspects of lifewhich is then assimilated into the learning process.

CHAMPA

When I finished my studies I went to the village toknow the people there. I started speaking withwomen, children and learned from them. By havinga dialogue with the people I was able to know thesituation of the people, what are the people think-ing about their children, about their life and abouttheir village. The village is a part of the jungle, fields,water, the lifestyle of people etc. I have learnedmore from the students than what I have taught tothem.

NEEMA VAISHNAVA

Can one objectively advocate for the youth to stayback in the villages when the niches for gainfulemployment within the villages have themselvesdisappeared. Education then doesn’t stay a periodbut becomes a question mark. How many who gothrough the system become competent? Postindependence India has neglected its villages. Inother words over 70% of the population was givenno place worth mentioning in planning. Hence theresultant warped progressive graph to put it verymildly. Does the village have a compatible arrange-ment for opportunity? Can we then question themass movement towards big towns, cites andmetropolis? How would one define development?How would one define progress?

How would one define advance? Whom canone call educated? Confusion will remain. So longas the inter connectedness is not accepted andaddressed it will continue.

48 2005 Goa, India

MOHAN SURVE

This is the story of a Dalit Mahar community inSangola taluka in Sholapur, Maharashtra. DalitMahars are low caste scavengers anduntouchables. They have lived as discriminatedhumans for generations. Untouchability is a seriouspsychological scar that they have to deal with. Theyhave been very influenced by Dr. Ambedkar in thecontext of liberating themselves from untouchability.Kedi soda ani gao chala meaning leave the villageand move towards the city is a slogan that theybelieve will liberate them from all woes.

They thought the solution lay in the wisdom ofthis grand phrase.

The youth and educated moved to the citiesand formed pressure groups in the cities to demandand provide jobs for the educated dalits. Eighty-fourpersons managed to get jobs. Only four have stillbeen able to retain it. There have been voluntaryretirements but mostly retrenchment because ofmechanization and cost cutting factors. They havehad to come back to the village and seek solutionswithin the community resources. They are weary ofthe scavenging and untouchability stigma.

Generations ago it was this very stature in theirlife that provided them with 90 acres of communityland for development – a gift from the then ruler.They are not traditional agriculturists. In ten years thisendeavour of cultivating the community land failed.I have been visiting this village since 1986 and I haveseen this village becoming weak. People lookdesolate, the streets are deserted. The basic prob-lem was that they were trying to do capital orientedfarming which failed. We thought we should salvagethe situation and hence introduced them to naturalfarming. Someone had to do it. The village chose aboy who had done his B. Sc and moved back to thevillage for a job. He did not find a job and was sellingfish from door to door from a basket head load.

Their basic mindset is that they are not capableand think themselves inadequate to deal with issuesthat affect their own life. The police are called in tosettle even minor problems.

The solution to this community endeavour offarming the community land lay in uniting thecommunity. We had series of meetings to reach thisend. Through them we realized that people aremade differently. Some have initiative and takeaction, others prefer working in the background. Thecommunity learning took place in the sheti shala(farm schools). Questions regarding issues wereraised and understanding derived.

Many things have happened since.The sheti shala has 2 groups; one, an action

group and the other is a study group.Understandings have evolved on governmentschemes, common endeavours that benefit thecommunity, the tangible immediate gains that theysee in sand mining and brick making but the longterm losses to top soil and river ecology.

In a way the curriculum is people oriented andmethodology an evolving process.

492005 Goa, India

“The results cannot beseen but felt, once thebarriers have brokendown, one notices inthe participants asubtle form ofawareness thatinduces selfconfidence, pride andcontentedness”.

– Dileep Kamat

RAGHU BABU

I joined the Sajana school. I was there for the periodof one year. Here I started with agriculture. We had12 acres of land. The children used to work two orthree hours a day. This curriculum linked the childrenwith nature. By observing and working with thenature the children learnt a lot of things. The chil-dren had to maintain an information sheet, from thestarting of the season till the end. The student had tonote down the number of hours they put in to waterthe crops, how much yield was obtained etc.

On one acre of land we had grown creepers, ontwo acres ladyfingers, and on the remaining landwe planted maize. The children got the opportunityto learn about the plants while watering, observing,cutting etc. The children went to the fields to collectdata, interview the farmer or the labourer there.

There were no prescribed textbooks, no fixedcurriculum nor syllabus. The teachers used to teachaccording to the interest of the children and de-signed worksheets accordingly. The work of eachstudent bound together became his own uniquenote cum text book.

SUMAN, MANJU, RAMA AND CHAMPA: USNPSS,ALMORA

All our learning has come to us from the mountains.Uttarkhand is the hill state in northern India sharing acommon border with West Nepal. The mountainshave sustained life for aeons. People have drawntheir basic necessities of fodder, water, fuel andfood from these mountains. In the past three dec-ades the ecology has changed, the forests havegone. There is male migration and alcoholism.Women are deserted and land degraded.

Land degradation has made life difficult for thewomen because the basic necessities have be-

come that much more difficult to fetch and gather.It has become a cash-based economy.

Terraced farming is done by the women andsince it is rain-dependent, limited crops are har-vested. This has led to the youth seeking opportuni-ties outside the land.

A few decades ago, people took cognizance ofthe connectivity between their sustenance and theforest resulting in the well known Chipko movement.

Since the village ecosystem is the sustainer,Uttarkhand Seva Nidhi decided to introduce aprogramme that would incorporate this understand-ing in children.

We have pre-primary education throughbalwadis for 2 to 6 year olds, women’s communitygroups for community unity, action and decision-making and the environmental education pro-gramme is introduced in class VI, VII and VIII throughthe ‘Our land, our life’ series of books.

50 2005 Goa, India

THE COMMUNITY LEARNING MOVEMENT (CLM): PRACTICE

On the second Tuesday of every month, if youhappen to be at Budramatti (near the campus ofthe Karnataka University’s Humanities and Econom-ics extension departments in the outskirts of Belgaumon the Pune Bangalore highway), you will notice alone figure with cap and sun glasses make his wayon a motor cycle on dusty terrain and wobbly tracksthrough the open scrubland of the hills behind the‘university’. This is Dileep Kamat, facilitator of thecommunity learning movement, making his way toone of the cluster of hill top villages.

Kadoli, Katttanbhavi, Bambarge, Godihal,Ningyanatti, Idelhond, are small villages that havehad a along standing association with two sons ofthe soil: Dileep Kamat and Shivaji Kaganikar.

Dileep Kamat hails from a family of freedomfighters and is a social activist, educator andGandhian and his close friend and brother in armsShivaji Kaganikar is a shepherd by birth, a Gandhianby choice, a highly sensitive educator by defaultand a justice seeker by genetic compulsion.

The CLM participants have also prepared them-selves for the day. All routine chores would havebeen attended to early. Animals fed, grazed,milked, sheds washed, gardens watered, farmsattended to. Since a common meal is also cookedat the end of ‘lessons’ with provisions brought fromtheir homes, a few would have reached early to setthe fire place and gather some dry fuel from around.About half a dozen youngsters still in middle schoolmiss classes for the day to participate. Walking adistance of three to seven kms from the neighbour-ing villages, youngsters begin to converge at thetemple by around 10.30 am – their temple of wisdomfor the day. About 20 are enrolled; it is a mixed agegroup of young adults and teenagers. The youngest,Pintoo, aged eleven, is a student of class six.

CLM is conducted in any one of these cluster ofvillages by rotation and prior decision. The venue is

usually the premises of the village temple or com-munity hall. And on a pleasant day, it may beconducted out in the fields under a shady tree.

Interactive sessions begin at 11 am with aprayer. The atmosphere is alive and informal, withgenerally a circular seating arrangement on a mat.Mid way however, the youngest ones may decideto take a walk to bring down a few mangoes from anear by tree, move away to sit perched on a tree towatch a busy squirrel, a circling eagle or flittingbutterfly.

Very often visiting city folk come to witness thedynamics of the CLM with their kids.

At these times the youngsters are always keen toteach the visiting city kids how to knock downmangoes, pick berries without being bruised bythorns, play marbles, spin tops, fly kites and play anindigenous checker game with tamarind seeds andpieces of coloured broken bangle.

The topic of the day usually evolves from theprevious session and is previously decided. Thishelps, as everyone would have a month’s time todiscuss, contemplate and analyse a given issue forthemselves. The day’s collective session would bringtogether each ones understanding of the issue fromtheir perspective, context and level of comprehen-sion. With Dileep as facilitator and Shivaji as theinsightful animator the group progresses from,presentation to discussion, role play, jest and veryoften a heated debate to make a point. Sincethese youngsters have been actively involved in thislearning process and have learnt the art of thinkingfor themselves (which is so rare in persons educatedin the main stream) it is not surprising to have ses-sions conclude in a stale mate. All however ac-knowledge and respect individuality and agree todisagree.

Chart paper with coloured pens are used todemonstrate and articulate opinions and ideas inwords, diagram and drawing. Topics covered could

Freedom is reallywhere alternativeeducation begins.

– Stephen Smith

512005 Goa, India

range from food security, water, forests, agriculture,environment, advocacy, panchayat and citizenrights, health, alternative energy, budgeting, coop-erative and barter markets, health, relationships,nutrition prevalent village issues, etc.

All topics begin by relating to self and then tothe outer circle of family, community, village, town,country and global implications. Every participanthas the freedom to express himself freely. Dileepfacilitates, coordinates and guides the participantsthrough the various streams of ideas and opinions.He has the uncanny ability to simplify the mostcomplex issues making it comprehensible to all. It isno wonder then that the group is pressing for fort-nightly sittings rather than the present arrangementof once a month.

The resulting output ‘charts’ are taken back bythe participants to their villages and go up as post-ers in the village community hall, temple or a com-munity space.

On the day of our visit the interactive session on‘Food Security’ encompassed and laid bare a vastrange of topics: growing of food, its relation to soiltypes, local environment, effects of growing cropsunsuitable to local conditions, unemployment’market distribution, farm economics, water,weather…. It is interesting to see that in the shortspan of a three hour session so much learning,understanding and an action plan evolves. Theparticipants are convinced that desired changecan be brought about only through understandingof an issue followed by individual and collectiveaction.

As testimony to this, visitors are in for a pleasantsurprise. The youngsters volunteer to show visitorsaround their community water shed projects, theirvillage tank, the solar run motors for pumping water,the village forest regeneration programmes, contourbunds, check dams, community well, marking along

contours with an ‘A’ frame for plantation in thewatershed, the rain water harvesting experiments,the compost pits and biogas plants.

The teenagers of CLM would give any main-stream educated peer a distinct feeling of discom-fort and inferiority with their knowledge of appliedgeography, geometry, agricultural practices, recy-cling wastes, reforestation, ecology, implementingcollaborative and cooperative endeavours ,man-agement of common assets and alternate energysystems.

Goramatti, a hamlet of dam oustees with about20 households and a population of 110 is like a‘model village’. Each house has its own compostingunit, biogas, coconut trees and a front yard. Eventhe forest department now capitalizes on its success-ful community managed forests by placing it on theitinerary of international funders and visitors

The session winds up with simple report writingand personal note jottings. The groups then break tocook a simple common meal. This is supplementedwith generous contributions of pickles, buttermilk,roties and chutney from the host village. Lunch is atime to catch up with friends, discuss local issues andrelax. By late afternoon everyone begins to headhome with a sense of self worth, pride and belong-ing.

CLM is proof that pockets in India still care fortheir young and are ready to make the effort ofcontributing towards making learning a meaningfulexercise.

Learning happensby accident–Ranjan De

52 2005 Goa, India

SCHOOLING NATUREHey! All you butterflies!You ought to carry schoolbags on your backs!And you should not fly freely here and there, this way and that!Hey! You beautiful rivers and streams!Do not meander, but flow straight!And do not make a noise either: flow quietly!Likewise all you fishes!Do not swim any which way you please.Swim in straight lines,As they do in swimming championships!Hey! All you colourful flowers!Wear the same colour, uniform and dress,As they do in school!

JAPAN PATHAK

532005 Goa, India

Outcomes?The seeds of optimism have been sown. In thetogetherness of meeting, courage intensifies.We are not alone. Together we can changeeducation, cut off its links with drudgery andsterile visions of progress.

9

8

The discussion will continue, in further meetings,new exchanges, better forms. Till the narrowconceptual walls that imprison the educationsystem are broken and freedom returns.

54 2005 Goa, India

In the four days’ gathering, our discussions coveredmeaningful education, methodology and curricu-lum, learning through the senses, arts, crafts andtheatre, learning in the mountain regions, farm andenvironment based education, rural perceptions,home schooling, post school and out of schoolprogrammes, philosophy in education and manyother concerns. And emerging new threats.

Tenzin wrote: ‘We should focus on policy mattersat some level. We must be aware of various policies.For instance, the WTO has foisted various policies onvarious nations. This can subvert a lot of the pro-grammes we are doing. For instance, in Rajasthan, itis becoming illegal to practice certain traditionalmedicines. In some places it is illegal to cut bambooas it is under the Forest Act. It might also happen atsome time that the alternate schools also might be

declared illegal and the system might notallow our kind of schools to function.

So we must be aware of thechanges taking place in policy

matters.‘There must be net-

working without bounda-ries. In future networkingwill form small communi-ties.’

At the end of the four day meeting the groupdrew up an agenda for action and study items asfollows:1 Increase exchange possibilities between alter-

native education groups. All those interested infurthering these exchanges are to get back toTaleemnet on whether they are positive aboutthe idea (as far as their own organisation isconcerned) and what are the nature of facilitiesthey can offer for guests.

2a Apprenticeship arrangements (Taleemnet towork out a format for those willing to take onapprentices which the educator then has tosubmit with details). Also required are offers fromprofessionals and educators who are willing tofunction as ‘learning nodes’ for persons in needof professional training or learning opportunities.Taleemnet, Abhivyakti and Shikshantar arepreparing town-wise mentor directories forapprenticeships for Goa, Nasik and Udaipur.Others are invited to prepare one for their owntown. A directory of such persons with theirphone numbers will be posted on the internetand in Kamiriithu.

b Self directed learning (swapathgami).These programmes are being conducted byShikshantar with the collaboration of Taleemnetand Abhivyakti. Shikshantar brings out a newslet-ter, ‘Swapathgami’ (distributed at the work-shop).

c Home school support: Taleemnet will link groupsat www.alternativeeducationindia.net forbuilding a steady base for those families thatrequire resources for home-schooling.

552005 Goa, India

3a Regional meetings are being held in:Maharashtra: Abhivyakti, Vikas SahayogPratishthan, Possibilities, Centre for Educationand Documentation, Red stone farm and learn-ing resource centre with Lilatai PatilUttarakhand: Bhuvan Pathak, Uttarkhand SevaNidhi, Laxmi Ashram and SIDHBihar: Tenzin Rigzin of Vidya Ashram, SarnathUttar Pradesh: Manas Mukul Das and AkashAndhra Pradesh: Chandrasekhar Devana, SubbaRaju, Gurveen KaurKarnataka: Valley School, Bangalore (StephenSmith to explore the possibility with KFI), CEDBangalore. (Tanvi Patel to make contact withBangalore office.)

b Biannual national meeting will be held by MonaPatrao at Redstone Farm, Panchgani,Maharashtra, in February–March 2006.

4 Policy issues/law/ WTO and Globalisation: Mukulwill help guide the process of preparing a posi-tion paper of the group for presentation to theCurriculum Review Committee of NCERT andvarious other government bodies connectedwith education.

5 Documentation/Resource Centres/Research. Atthe moment, three documentation centres onalternative learning are available withAbhivyakti, Taleemnet and Shikshantar.

6 Lobbying for SANE policies7 Media exposure/ Propaganda8 Sensitizing Parents/ PTA/Community9 Evaluation

Knowledge is notknowledge if it doesnot change theknower. – Manas Mukul Das

It was also decided that groups would meet atregional levels, set up regional nodal centres forfurther pursuing the action plan, make representa-tions to the national curriculum review committeeset up by the NCERT.

56 2005 Goa, India

MANIFESTO

Tenzin Rigzin drafted a spiritual manifesto of the meeting.From the meeting of educators at Rustic Plantation, Goa, 10 to 12 February, 2005.We command ourselves to commit our energies to an active search for alternatives to the prevail-ing system of learning.We desire to create alternatives that help us to escape the hegemony of the West andto move towards revitalisation of indigenous traditions of learning.We are willing to transcend existing systems of thought and think afresh fromthe fundamentals.We desire to overcome fragmented structures and to seek the whole.We seek a form of education that enriches the inner life of people.We desire and are willing to share our experiences and understanding with others.We have an affinity for the local rather than the global.We desire to create good humans who can fulfill effectively and harmoniously their relationshipwith the rest of creation, rather than produce products for the market.What moves us is not an alternative vision of education but an alternative vision of life. At thesame time we acknowledge that this vision of life can be achieved by means other than those‘educational’.We believe that if the spirit and understanding of an endeavour is right, the working out of finermodalities and mechanics is rendered both easier and more meaningful.We shall continue to also work actively within the spaces and interstices that the existing systemoffers.We do not desire to participate in the politics of expediency that prevails.We understand that our resistance amounts to a kind of political activity because we seek toenvision alternative forms of polity and society.

572005 Goa, India

Aspi & Yasmin ShroffPossibilities43 Sea QueenJuhu Tara RoadMumbai – 400 049Tel: 020 – 26607923Email: [email protected] KanjeeSultan Mohamed Shah Aga KhanSchool1-5/B-VII, Karimabad, Federal ‘B’AreaKarachi – 75950, PakistanTel & Fax: 92-21-6329115Email: [email protected] /[email protected] IssaniSultan Mohamed Shah Aga KhanSchool1-5/B-VII, Karimabad, Federal ‘B’AreaKarachi – 75950, PakistanEmail: [email protected] PathakUttarkhand Lok VidyapeetAnashakti AshramKausani – 263 639P.O Kausani, Almora, UttaranchalTel: 05962-258105Email:[email protected] Devana,4 - 75, Ravuripeta,Vetapalem – 523187,Prakasam District,Andhra Pradesh.Tel: 08594 – 246632Email: [email protected]

LIST OF PRACTITIONERS

Claude Alvares & Nyla CoelhoTaleemnetG-8, St. Britto’s ApartmentsFeira Alta,Mapusa – 403 507, GoaTel: 91-832-2255913Email: [email protected]: www.multiworld.orgGerard D’SilvaE MATS, B-1 AdarshM.G. Colony,Tilakwadi, Belgaum – 590 006KarnatakaTel: 0831-2436205Email: [email protected], Vijayalekshimi,Kannaky & Unniyarcha SarangSarangAgali-Chittor P.O.Palakkad DistrictKeralam – 678 581Tel: 04924 – 254552Email: [email protected]@yahoo.comGurveen KaurCentre for LearningC-128, AWHO – Ved ViharSubhashnagarSecunderabad – 500 015Tel: 040-27990529, 27790457Email: [email protected] RaoC/o. Vinod Singh Negi,Village & Post Kausani,District Almora – 263 639M: 09412436429Email: [email protected] /[email protected]

Jitendra Sharma & Siya ChauhanSIDHPO 19, HazelwoodLandour Cantt.Mussoorie – 248179UttaranchalEmail: [email protected]: www.sidh.orgJinan K. BAruvacodeNilambur – 679 329KeralaTel: 04931 – 221568Email: [email protected]: www.kumbham.orgSmt. Lila Patil17 Saurab,Ruhikar colonyKolhapur – 416 005MaharashtraTel: 0231-2650622Mona PatraoRedstone Farm & Learning ResourceCentreBhose Village,Panchgani – 412 805MaharashtraTel: 02168-240566, 241837Email: [email protected] & SumanUttarkhand Seva Nidhi ParyavaranShiksha Sanstan, Jakhan Devi,Mall RoadAlmora – 263 601UttaranchalTel: 05962-234430Fax: 05962-231100Email: [email protected]

Manas Mukul Das & AkashApna VidyalayHawaghar – 337, Chatham LinesAllahabad – 211 002Uttar PradeshTel: 0532 – 2644118/ 2640974Email: [email protected] JainShikshantar21 Fatehpura,Udaipur – 313 004RajasthanTel: 0924-2451303Email: [email protected]: www.swaraj.org/shikshantarMohan SurveVikas Sahyog Pratishthan130/1040, Motilal Nagar 1,D. B. More MaryGoregaon (W)Mumbai – 400 104Tel: 020-28762035Fax: 020-28762135Email: [email protected]: www.vspindia.orgMunira AmiraliSultan Mohamed Shah Aga KhanSchool1-5/B-VII, Karimabad,Federal ‘B’ AreaKarachi – 75950PakistanTel: 92-21-6322920Fax: 92-21-6329115Email: [email protected]

58 2005 Goa, India

Nitin Paranjape,Anita Borkar,Saki Paranjape,Sujata Babar,Pravin Pagare & Vikram BachhavAbhivyakti – Media for Development31A Kalyaninagar, AnandwaliShiwar,Gangapur Road,Nashik – 422 013Tel: 0253-2346128Email: [email protected]: www.abhivyakti.org.inNeema VaishnavaLaxmi Ashram,P.O Kausani, District AlmoraUttaranchal – 263 639Tel: 05962-258003, 258013Email: [email protected]. Prakash, Rajani & Bhumika GarudBalabalaga Puppet HouseGurudatta Apartments G2Behind Sanjeevini HospitalMahishi Road, MalmaddiDharwad – 580 007KarnatakaTel: 0836- 244183, 2745460Raghu Babu137-B Block 8, Janapriya Apts,Miyapur Hyderabad – 500 050Andhra PradeshMob: 9848092338Rama & ChampaUttarakhand Seva NidhiParyavaran Shiksha SansthanJakhan Devi, Almora – 263 601UttaranchalTel: 05962-234430Fax: 05962-231100Email: [email protected]

Ravi GulatiManzil, 13, Khan Market,New Delhi – 110 003Tel: 011-24618513Email: [email protected] DeBridging gapsc/o Chandra De4D, the Peninsula, 778, E.V.P Solai,Chennai – 600 010Tel: 09841035296Email: [email protected] KellettHalf MoonMetfieldSutfolk IP20 OLAUnited KingdomEmail: [email protected] KaganikarParivartanAt KattanbhaviPost: BambargaTaluka BelgaumBelgaum, KarnatakaTel: (pp) 0831 – 2254109, 2554069Stephen SmithThe Valley SchoolThatgini PostBangalore – 620 021Tel: 080-28435243Email: [email protected]: www.jkrishnamurti.orgSubba RajuTimbaktu CollectiveChennekothapalli PostAnantapur District – 515 101Andhra PradeshTel: 08559-240149, 240335Email: [email protected]

Sanjoy & Damyanti SinghaGurukulam1, Harsidhi,Hirajain SocietyRamnagar – Sabarmati,Ahmedabad – 380 005GujaratTel: 09879033124Email: [email protected] Pimpare13 A rue Michelet92500 Rueil MalmaisonFranceTel: +33-1-47521173Email: [email protected]. M. NarasimhanSumavanam schoolCheegalabailu, Madanapalli,District Chittoor – 517 325Andhra PradeshTenzin RigzinVidya Ashram‘Buddhakuti’ Ashoka Marg,Sarnath,Varanasi – 221 007Uttar PradeshTel: +919839115353Email: [email protected]: www.vidyaashram.orgTanushree BorundiaThe Valley SchoolKrishnamurti Foundation IndiaHaridvanam, Post ThatganiBangalore – 560 062Tel: 91-80-8435240Email:[email protected]

Tanvi PatelCentre for Education &Documentation3, Suleman Chambers4, Battery Street Colaba,Mumbai – 400 001Tel: 022-22020019Email: [email protected]: www.doccentre.orgUmaNo. 2 Rose Avenue,10350 PenangMalaysiaTel: 6048299511Email: [email protected] PatilStaff CorrespondentThe Hindu# 62, Double RoadT.V Centre, Hanuman NagarBelgaum – 590 001KarnatakaTel: 0831-2432010Mob: 94488-50140Email:[email protected] KundajiFlat 19 Building 2Patil Complex37A Aundh RoadPune – 411 020Tel: 020-25697491Email: [email protected]

LIST OF PRACTITIONERS

592005 Goa, India

TALEEMNET, GOAwww.multiworld.org/taleemnet

ABHIVYAKTI – MEDIA FOR DEVELOPMENT, NASIKwww.abhivyakti.org.in

ALTERNATIVE EDUCATION IN INDIAwww.alternativeeducationindia.net

SHIKSHANTAR, UDAIPURwww.swaraj.org/shikshantar

MULTIVERSITY, GOAwww.multiworld.org

AGA KHAN EDUCATION SERVICES, PAKISTANwww.akdn.org/agency/akes.html

OTHER INDIA PRESS, GOAwww.otherindiabookstore.com

UNESCOwww.unesco.org/education

60 2005 Goa, India

The Taleemnet logo depicts the weaving together of the five straight and five wavystrands representing the five elements of the natural worlds (which are central to theideas of philosophy, science and art), and the five senses with which we experienceand interpret them. The interweaving of the straight and wavy strands symbolisesthe fusion of the rational and scientific with the spiritual and aesthetic.

Have we seen a tree?The word is not the thing, so do we see without the word?Do we see with all our senses?Have we touched a tree? Smelt it? Tasted it? Climbed it? Sat under it?Have we seen it in the rain? Heard the sound of rain on its leaves?Have we seen it at the break of dawn? Heard the first birds that wake onits branches?Have we seen it in the changing light of day? Against the sunset?Against dark clouds?At night? When the moon is full? In the dark night? In the flash oflightning?Have we seen it when its leaves fall? When the new leaves come?When it swings in the storm? When a breeze stirs its leaves?When a squirrel runs a loop on its trunk?When from upon a branch an owl hoots to a distant hoot?Have we seen its shadows changing with the day? And with theseasons?Its shadows by moonlight?Do we know what its roots feel drawing up the sap?Its leaves, in the first rain after summer?Can we flower to spring like a tree?And drop our leaves to autumn?Can we stand and perish like a tree?Have we heard the woodpecker on a dead tree?Seen the termites turning it to earth?Have we lost ourselves in a tree?Have we become a tree?

The word tree is not the tree.