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Society
Cry, My Beloved School
by Deepti Priya Mehrotra
 The
Indian government untiringly emphasizes the importance of basic
education, yet, paradoxically enough, it is shutting down a
path-breaking experiment in high-quality, accessible schooling. A
wide-cross section of academicians and civil society organizations have
come together to express dissent at the untimely closure of the rural
school at Bandhyali, Rajasthan, and demand that the government honor its
own commitments to provide free, good education to all children. If the
Bandhyali school shuts down, its 325 children (201 girls and 124 boys)
will have nowhere to go. Their education will stop right there.
As a signatory to international declarations at EFA (Education For All)
Conferences in Jomtein (1990) and Dakar (2000), India is committed to
universalizing elementary education by the year 2010. The National
Policy on Education (1992) emphasizes school enrolment and retention of
all children aged six to 14, and substantial improvement in the quality
of education offered. While budgetary allocations to elementary
education have been increased and policies designed to draw in more
children, the government school system remains notorious for its
sub-standard, lackadaisical and corruption-ridden functioning.
In sharp contrast, the Bandhyali school has been providing creative,
meaningful education. It is one of three schools run by Digantar, a
leading NGO, in rural areas of Kho Nagorian, Jaipur district, Rajasthan.
Amid a sea of mediocre and sub-standard schools, these schools stand
out. Set up at the behest of local communities, they provide
high-quality education to children, particularly girl-children, from
deprived and marginalized families.
Started in 1979, Digantar's work has been lauded by eminent
educationists from India and abroad, and partially supported by the
Ministry for Human Resource Development. Which is why there is a ripple
of consternation, shock and anger when one of its three schools is
threatened - by a government agency - with untimely closure. The
Bandhyali school at present has a Damocles sword hanging over it.
The Bandhyali school began in 1992 when villagers approached Digantar
with the wish to educate their children. Bandhyali village has a
sizeable percentage of disadvantaged low-caste Hindu and Muslim
families. It had no school in the vicinity. In the beginning, one
teacher, Ibrahim, taught a handful of children under a patch of five
babool trees, sitting on the sand under the open sun.
In 1993 the village community donated its commons (earlier used for
grazing) for the school. A simple building subsequently came up.
However, the land is officially owned by the Jaipur Development
Authority (JDA). Right in 1993, and several times thereafter, Digantar
notified JDA about the school and applied for authorization. But JDA did
not respond to the repeated applications. Instead, a dozen years later,
on December2, 2005, JDA slammed an eviction notice to the school asking
it to vacate the land within three days. JDA wants to sell the land,
instead, to a private university.
As Rohit Dhankar, Director Digantar, points out, "It is not a question
of one small school closing down. It is a question of children in this
country receiving their fundamental rights to education. If this school
shuts down, these children will have to stay at home. They have nowhere
else to go."
For Bandhyali villagers and Digantar, the land per se is not important.
What is critically important is that the school continues, so that
children have access to meaningful education. For JDA, however, this
land seems important only as a commercial resource.
Like-minded citizens have joined hands to protest this move to demolish
what is in fact a model in accessible education, that ought to be
replicated by the wider state network, rather than dishonored and
crushed. At present the High Court has awarded a stay order to Digantar,
but the battle promises to be a long, tough one.
Ashok Vajpeyi, who retired as Education Secretary, Madhya Pradesh,
doesn't mince any words: "Can we remain silent spectators when the
government closes down a school that has all the elements government-run
schools should have - but do not? The government has been unable to
create anything new in the school system. Yet, instead of learning from
small experiments like this, it tries to stop them! "
He adds: "People of Bandhyali decided to priorities their children's
education, which is a magnificent example of decentralized power, used
democratically. In this country, we should support a great deal of
experimentation and plurality in school education. The Bandhyali school
is a lamp that can light many more lamps. Instead, JDA is bent on
extinguishing its light. Rather than respect people's wishes, JDA wants
to sell the school land to a private university which has been
discredited and thrown out of another state (Chhattisgarh)!"
Linguist Dr Ramakant Agnihotri, who has been associated with educational
programs at Digantar and other valuable organizations like Eklavya in
Madhya Pradesh and Vidya Bhavan (in Rajasthan), says, "If we launch a
satyagraha (struggle using ethical or truth-force) against the closure
of Bandhyali school, I will be the first to volunteer. Digantar has
contributed vitally to educational thinking not only in India, but
internationally. We really need Bandhyali - and many more Bandhyalis."
Professor Gita Nambissan, from the Jawaharlal Nehru University, vouches
for the educational value of the Bandhyali school. Noting that it has
demonstrated the possibility of high quality, creative schooling for a
rural population, it should be recognized as a beacon of light in the
otherwise dark scenario. The school has a curriculum that develops
children's critical faculties, and committed teachers. It provides
children with a space where they can flower. Girls and boys learn
carpentry, art and sports along with all their academic subjects. When
they sit for common examinations at Class 5 level. They fare markedly
better than their counterparts from government-run schools.
Bandhyali and adjacent villages, civil society organizations and
educationists are determined that the school will not shut down. In
Delhi, on January 3, 2006, about 200 concerned citizens including
students, teachers, academicians, social and political activists and
social organizations met to voice their dissent, and hand in a
memorandum to Vasundhara Raje, Chief Minister of Rajasthan, through the
Resident Commissioner at Bikaner House, New Delhi.
The memorandum noted that JDA's eviction notice to this community-based
school is "...arbitrary, non-transparent and extremely irresponsible....
JDA's insistence on removal of the school would be a violation of
children's right to education, and destruction of a very good quality
school for the marginalized to favor privatization of education."
Earlier in February 2005, when schoolchildren from Bandhyali gave a
memorandum to Rajasthan's education minister demanding that they be
allowed to study in their beloved school, the Education Minister told
them, "You are mixing up two separate issues. I look after education, I
do not look after land." Right. But for the children of Bandhyali - and
a million more in this semi-starved land - the world is not divided into
pigeon-holed compartments. They are able to see life whole and ask the
right questions, thanks to the critical skills their education has
empowered them with.
January 15,
2005
By arrangement with
Women's Feature Service
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Society
The Week of January 15, 2006
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Pakistan : Musharraf's Cauldron
on the Boil by Dr. Subhash Kapila
Strategy for Rural Electrification
by Dr. Anil K. Rajvanshi
New Zealand on My Mind : My
Favorite KIWI Destinations by Neha Girotra
Isomers, Prions, Homonyms,
Necker Cubes,
Us and the Universe Part 2
by Gaurang Bhatt, MD
Inspiration Series
'Bolography' by William C. Gladish
The Spiritual Dimension of
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Unforgettable Times: Indo
English Poetry in the Seventies by Dr. Amitabh Mitra
No Kidding by Pallavi
Bhattacharya
Perception Defines Life by
Mahesh Sharma
Truth is No Longer Required
by Michael Levy
Life's a Charade by Anjali
Anand Seth
The Spirit of Indian Philosophy
by Dr. R.K. Lahiri, Ph.D
Tulsi – The Courtyard Plant
by Aparna Chatterjee
Cry, My Beloved School by
Deepti Priya Mehrotra
SPARROW'S Flight to Success by
Fatima Chowdhury
A 'Chip' of the Old Block by
Naunidhi Kaur
America : A Land of
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Biography of the place named
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The Unwritten History of the
Saurashtrians of the South India by T.A. Ramesh
Folk Song at My Door Step
A Short Story by NS Murty
The Syed A Short Story by Mehru
Jaffer
Namdapha: A Land of Unspoiled
Beauty by Arun Jyoti Pegu
No Park-ing by Akshay Khanna
A 100 Miles Away from Home...
by Surendra Phuyal
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