A SCHOOL ON PEOPLE's INITIATIVE

Sandeep

It all started in March 1994. About thirty people of the village Bhainsaha, near Reoti in Ballia district were meeting to discuss the possibility of starting a primary school for their children. Before that, for about a month the children of this and some neighboring villages had been getting together in a mango grove and had informally begun the process of their education. They had managed to bring some slates lying around in their homes and were quite innovative in using small mud balls, normally used in catapults to drive away the monkeys, in place of chalk. In fact, these mud balls were writing quite well on the slates. The children would also play 'kabaddi' and other games and some of them would try their hands on riding bicylce. There was a large open space available for such activities. It was the villagers who wanted to regularize this informal gathering of children and give it a shapte of a school by appointing a regular teacher. They saw it as a excellent opportunity to provide formal education to their children and more importatnly, saw the possibility of children being engaged in constructive activity instead of idling away their time.

Ram Prasad Yadav, who owned some land adjacent to the mango grove, volunteered to let half a 'bigha' of his land be used for this school. It was decided to erect a temporary structure made of hay and bamboo, populary known as 'palani', to begin with. Everybody, assembled there volunteered to donate some bamboo or bundles of hay. People who could not give either of these ,offered small financial donations of Rs. 5 to Rs. 20 each to meet expenses of bying rope and other material. Two labourere were hired and rest of the labor was volunteered by the people. In a week's time the 'palani' was up.

The school got going. Harihar Pandey, who has his fields less than half a kilometer from the school site, volunteered to teach at the school. He has earned a B.A. degree but begin unable to find a job was engaged in farming, in land owned by his family. The villagers took a decision to institute a moderate fee of Rs. 5 per month for each child and it was also decided that the amount collected from fees would be kept by Harihar as his renumeration. It was debated whether any fees should be charged at all and in the end most people opined that a small fees must be charged in exchange for the educatijon given. People thought that if it was made free then it would not be valued by the parents.

In April, the heat had become unbearable and the people started feeling the need for a hand-pump near the school site. By this time many children from nearby villages, Bhisia and Rakham, had aslo started coming to school. Hence, Harihar went to these villages as well, besides Bhainsaha, and explained the situation to lot of people. People came up with donations - some even with Rupee 1 and Rupees 2. The money was collectd and a hand-pump installed. This hand-pump, it later turned out was a boon for people coming frooom far off villages going to Reoti. Reoti serves as a market for villages as far away as 4 to 5 km. The school in Bhainsaha falls in their way. Some of the people frequently using this path weer seen blessing the school for providing this hand-pump.

When the school reopened in July it continued functioning smoothly for a while. But by the end of the year it ran into problem. Except for Ram Prasad's children, whose land it was, other children stopped coming to school. The politics of caste which has gripped people in U.P. and Bihar and has started playing a very divisive and destructive role in society, tooks its toll here too. A lower caste teacher who was operating a private school about 2 to 3 km from Bhainsaha in Hadia village branded the school in Bhainsaha as being run by Brahmins and convinced the parents, mostly belonging to lower and backward castes, to send their children to his school instead. Gradually, all the children had moved to Hadia school.

The people who had originally come forward when this school started, were then contacted. It was proposed to them that if they thought, that the school had served its purpose and was no longer required by the people, then it sohould be closed down. The people realized their mistake and asked Harihar to continue teaching. The children started coming back to the Bhainsaha school and it began running with renewed rigor.

Meanwhile, the 'palani' gave way in the second monsoon. Some cows and buffaloes, who were using the palani during the non-school hours as a rest place were also respponsible for the damage. But the people did not want to put up another palani. They wanted to have a more permanent structure. Vinay,m a public spirited youth from Reoti, had started taking interest in this peopl's project by now. Vinay holds a M.Ed. degree and is quite interested in theoretical issues concerned with education. He is also quite well known to the people of Bhainsaha as he has his fields near this village.

Vinay proposed the idea of going once again to the people to collect donations. He started meeting the people informally to get an idea of exactly how much funds could be generated. Unfortunately, an amount good enough for the construction of a permanent structure could not be realized. Hence, it was decided to go in for a semi-permanent one. The pillars were to be made with bricks but the top would be a bamboo-hay structure. If more funds were available in furture it could gradually be converted to a permanent room. Some funds were also arranged from friends outside. Soon enough money was available to purchase the bricks. The people were quite happy to see things moving. Some of the vilagers who work in Ahmedabad and Orissa, and were visiting their villag eduring summer were also inspired by the effort and promised to collect more donations from fellow villagers back at their work place and send it for the school.

About Sandeep: The author is trying some new concepts in education and was associated with teh creation of Bhainsaha school. He is also one of the founding members of Asha for Education.

Sandeep, c/o Shri B. N. Upadhyaya, Advocate, Harpur, Ballia, 277001, India