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I left for Jaipur at around 8pm by a bus from Delhi. Reached Jaipur at around 2am in the morning. After having a good nap at my friend Gaurav's house, I set off for Todi Ramjanipura village, Jagatpura around 11am in the morning. The auto dropped me off at the mud road entrance to Digantar. I walked in and first met the teachers who were staying at their quarters and then they took me to the house where Rohit and Rina stay.

Rohit was busy with some writing. So, I first went and left my stuff at the guest house (kind of a dorm for the regular visitors at Digantar). I talked with the teachers for about a couple of hours about their work and such. Ate lunch which was bought for me from a hotel nearby on the main road. Then I spoke with Rohit from 3.30 to 5.30pm or so. He explained to me the financial problems facing Digantar and what Digantar was all about. I shall elaborate on this later.

Then I went with one teacher-Naurathji to the village Bhandhyali from where the children to the school come from. Spoke with a couple of parents. They kept replying in Dhundadi in response to my broken hindi. So did not get anywhere. I had dinner with Rohit and Rina.

In the next morning, Abdul Gaffar dropped me at Bhandhayli school, then two hours later he dropped me at Rathwali and an hour later at the Todi school (on digantar main campus). All three were neat places, children were clearly learning and enjoying themselves here. By this time it was 3pm.

Had a discussion with Rohit again on the budget and such. Spoke to 'Vimarsh' Editor briefly and then left. I got onto a bus at the main jaipur bus stand and reached Delhi on a cool early wintery night. Very tired and thoughtful of the financial state of Digantar.

School -I Bhandyali

It is in an open space. It is a circular building, partly roofed with a open courtyard in the middle. The roofed annulus was partitioned into 10 rooms where classes are held. There is a lavatory and a water pump 200m from the main circular building. In this school there were two groups in upper primary( VI-VIII) and the rest 8 groups in primary school (I-V).

There are notice boards here with articles from local hindi newspapers and also cartoons. Outside each classroom and inside the walls of the classroom are paintings by the children. Inside in one corner the books are neatly arranged. There is one staff room with teaching aids (like picture cards, etc), digantar textbooks, newsletter, clock and such.

The children and the teachers clean their premises every morning, a Digantar practice. Soon after, they had their assembly period. In this period two groups each merge and either a play or a song or a story or a topic that the children are interested in is discussed. I was moving from class to class. I illustrate what I saw in a couple:

(a) everyone was asked "how many of you are late ?" Each one who raised the hands was asked to speak out why. The reason was discussed in a very democratic way and solution was offered by the teacher. Reasons varied from I was playing with a tire -to- cooking food for others -to- not waking up early.

(b) a student was reading out the local hindi newspaper. That day Vajpayee had left for a trip to Russia, UK and Washington. There was then a discussion on the other permanent members in the security council, continents and countries etc. Why was the trip being made..Next news item was a act of violence on some dalits in an area..why did this happen and so on went the discussion.

Once this period got over, there was a fifteen minute break. During the break I interacted with some of the 270 students. I asked one of them to write to down their names. In one group I asked them what they learnt on friday. One person wrote down an exercise of addition. I asked for a harder one, someone else obliged.

Then according to their timetable the classes began. Three teachers were on leave here so the other teachers decided that they would share some of the groups. I will illustrate what happened in a couple.

(a) A teacher from the adjacent room came and said we should learn this story from the hindi-textbook. He left. The students in those got the books out in hindi from the shelf and in an orderly manner distributed them to everyone. Students moved into their groups and started talking about what they should learn. Some were alone as well.

(b)I sat in a math class for the secondary. They were discussing how to get the area of a parallelogram. The teacher via interaction to them a basic method and asked (20 of them) to work on it. I interacted with the students as well during this group work time. All children seemed engaged in learning.

I also saw some 5-6 kids play around and then get to work when they wanted to. One group of three just took a math book, were an exercise on modeling clay objects (cubes, spheres) was there, went outside got the clay and started making them. The rest of the class was inside solving some exercises. I talked with a couple of more teachers and I left at 11.15 for Rathwali.

School-II Ratwali
Essentially similar but only three
groups. One teacher was on leave here. So only two groups.

Highlights:

-one class-a small group was discussing a play on the plight of a girl who was married off. The issue was discussed among the group. The rest were reading up on alphabets and various other things etc.

-another class-birds/insects were being classified. A funny moment came, when the teacher asked the class what else flies --some one said "patang"-kite. So he made another column of non-living flying objects. Then they sat around and talked to me for about the last five minutes. The children here and in the other centres seem to be used to visitors.

School-III Todi

Essentially similar but only one group. They were learning to make objects with clay. The teacher thought them how to make little houses etc. The room is well equipped like a clay studio. Has a manual-wheel etc.

The main classroom has pictures of the students, a visitor came and did this for them. Notes on various little things.

The school here is on the main campus. The campus has the quarters, digantars office, a guest house and a well equipped library. The library has all education related material, books, some magazines and subscribes to all newspapers as well.
Discussions with teachers

Centered mostly on educational matters. Like teaching difficulties, how do children perceive certain logical difficulties.

Discussions with Rohit

MOTIVATION + HISTORY: In 1977, a family in Jaipur wanted their two children to learn in an independent manner with freedom and their own ability. David Hosbero in Bangalore was approached but he declined. At that time Rohit and Rina began teaching for these two along with others in a full fledged primary school in Jaipur. In 1986, several ngo's hearing of their techniques and such approached them for exchanging ideas. It was decided that they would move to a rural land near jaipur and offer a full fledged primary school to poor children. The husband of the family donated the land and some buildings which are now Digantars campus.

With regard to these schools the emphasis has been on quality. Foundation- A democratic set up in the school; independence of the child to learn what it wants; and allowing imagination to flower.

In July 1989 the school was started with a small number of children. With pressure of taking more children they approached Ministry of Human resource and development for funds. It was sanctioned in 1990 and then renewed once in 1996. Next renewal is up for in march 2002.

In 1998 they discovered that they had to pay provident funds to the teachers and also salaries had to be increased. This was when Asha-seattle was asked to augment this amount. Initial FCRA problems led to the first check being issued in 2000, one more has been sent and the last one will come next year.

OTHER PROJECTS: In these ten years, they have built an impressive array of projects. Like academic support, teacher training programs, editing a educational hindi magazine called Vimarsh, working with state governments elementary education program and consultancy programs. Digantar writes its own textbooks, which are quite famous in NGO circles. Each of these projects were independently funded by various sources. Some like vimarsh are self funded and consultancy is still bringing in income. Currently all programs are running low.

LOCAL-PEOPLE: The people, I was told, were either gem-cutters or worked in construction jobs in Jaipur. The houses that I visited did not seem very poor. Enough to eat and basic lifestyle seemed to be prevalent. Land for the two schools have been given by the villages. The villagers themselves have collected money and built the school buildings at Bhandyali and Ratwali. Hand pumps were also installed by them as well. There are regular parent-teacher meetings. There is no involvement in Curriculum. No one from the villages works in Digantar yet. Vice-versa no digantar involvement in solving local problems-Like child marriage-main reason for girl children dropping out of school and child-labour work in gem cutting industry. During my discussion with the parents, this issue cropped up as well. But the dundadi was difficult to follow. In general the people seemed thankful that a school existed.

OTHER SCHOOLS/DROPOUT: There are two private schools and government primary schools in the area. Drop out at Digantar is at about 10-12% in this year because of the uncertainty and such. Usually it would be around the 3-5% mark. This is in the primary. In secondary when girls get to 11-12 they are married off supposedly.I did not visit the other schools in the area.

SELECTION: Children are admitted on a first come first serve basis. Schools have waiting lists on a register. During my visit one parent kept bugging the instructor about when his child would be admitted to the school.

EMPLOYEES: -teachers, -coordinators, -accountant, -in the editorial office of vimarsh, and caretakers. I had the numbers but my notes are deserting me.

INFRASTRUCTURE: Campus buildings, one main school along with the library, staff quarters, guest house, office. Vehicles-1 jeep, 1 motorcycle, moped. All are underutlised right now.

DIFFICULTIES FACED:
(A) Could not retain a trained team. People left for more lucrative jobs.
(B) Project funding fell through for a various reasons (i) Action-aid-another funding NGO- could not give money for a started project because of FCRA glitches (ii) Lok Jumbish (DPEP training) project-fell through. It was Swedish government aid to the g.o.i but was stopped after the nuclear tests suddenly.

CURRENT STATUS:
(A) Teachers training centre which used to be open for 130 days in a year is now occupied for 50 days only.
(B) Vimarsh is struggling to survive.
(C) The school is running with a low morale because of uncertainty in HRD funding. Teachers may leave for better jobs. (D) Some evaluation projects are running. The funding (4-5lakhs)apparently meets just the basics. (E) Rohit continues to write in various magazines and does consulting work. He is not on the payroll of Digantar anymore.