Ravi Aluganti Fellowship – Site Visit Report

Prepared by Amit Mookerjee

 

Introduction

Ravi Aluganti is an Asha Fellow working in Madannapalle mandal of Chittoor district in Andhra Pradesh. Asha Seattle has been supporting the fellowship since 2001. Ravi’s main focus is on improving the quality of education in government schools. At present Ravi is working in fifteen government schools in Madanapalle.

The fellowship program is an interesting experiment in individual intervention in the existing school system in order to improve the quality of teaching. It has been seen that the existing teaching methods in government schools do not promote creativity and interest and often take out the joy of learning from young children. Ravi’s vision is to make the medium of instruction an enjoyable experience. Ravi was fortunate to attend the famous Nilbagh School near Madanapalle that was the brainchild of the well-known educationalist David Horsburgh1. Nilbagh was an alternative educational school that pioneered several concepts like multi-grade teaching in India. Ravi recalls that everyday of his schooling was a day of joy. Ravi is attempting to recreate the experience of his school days in his fellowship work.

Ravi’s fellowship has the following objectives:

The goal of the fellowship is to make a lasting change in the educational system in the area. The scope of the fellowship was recently expanded to support a mobile library. The mobile library is essentially a van full of books and tapes that goes from school to school. The goal of the mobile library is to develop the habit of reading in young children.

This report presents the details of my trip to Madanapalle from Dec 20-22,2003.

 

Day 1, December 20,2003

Ravi usually visits two schools a day – one in the morning and one in the afternoon. I felt that the best way to do the site visit would be to accompany Ravi on a typical workday.

Primary School at Dubbigannepalle

Our morning visit was to the primary school at Dubbigannepalle village. Besides Ravi, we were accompanied by Sampoorna and the driver of the van for the mobile library. Sampoorna is being trained by Ravi to be the librarian for the mobile library project.

The school functions from standard one to five. It operates in two rooms. A total of 105 children were enrolled in the school. While Ravi engaged with the students of class one and five in the classrooms, Sampoorna laid out the books from the library on the verandah outside the classrooms.

I immediately observed that Ravi was immensely popular with the children. The site of him brought a big smile to their faces as they anticipated an interesting activity. Ravi started with a geography lesson with the class five children. He had created a zig-zaw puzzle out of the map of India. Ravi is very good with his hands and he has converted one room of his house into a workshop where he makes his teaching aids. The zig-zaw puzzle is an innovative way to understand the geography of the country. Ravi started with the state of Andhra Pradesh and he slowly let the children build up the zig-zaw puzzle.

This activity sets up the stage for Ravi to pose questions to the students. Some of his questions are:

The puzzle is an interesting activity and helps to promote the concepts effectively. Ravi also makes the children draw with color pencils on a map of India.

While the geography lesson was going on Ravi engaged the standard one students in an arts and craft activity. The objective was to make a propeller with paper. The children started by coloring the paper that Ravi had brought with him. Ravi helped the children in making the propellers and showed them how to make it fly. The children were thrilled to see their little crafts floating around in the village.

Meanwhile the standard two children were studying the books with Sampoorna in the verandah. The majority of books had been procured by Ravi from a book fair in Hyderabad. They were in Telugu and had lots of pictures. Sampoorna also read out a story to the children.

Most of the inhabitants of Dubbigannepalle belong to the Golla caste whose primary occupation is weaving. I spoke with the teacher - P. Rajanna, about the functioning of his School. He told me that the dropout rate after standard five is pretty high (about 40%). He says that most of the children are required to help at home looking after younger siblings and also with the farm and weaving activities. This usually forces them out of school at an early age. I noticed that Ravi had struck up a friendly relationship with the teachers and they seemed receptive to his teaching methods.

After the class was over it was time for lunch for the children. The government supports a mid-day meal program at the school. I met the cook – Gangulamma, and asked her about her work. She said that she cooks for about 95 children a day. Unfortunately the government does not remunerate the cooks of mid-day meals for their efforts. She told me that the only help she has got so far from the government was a loan for thousand rupees.

Primary School at Poolavandlapalle

In the afternoon we visited the primary school at Poolavandlapalle. The school had just one room with two teachers. Ravi engaged the children of classes one and two, while the remaining children from standard three to five attended the library. Ravi started by telling the children a story. Then he handed over painting materials to the children and asked them to make a picture depicting the story.

I found Ravi’s use of arts and crafts to be very innovative. Children take very naturally to these learning aids and they often enjoy practical activities that Ravi designs for them. In the classroom I saw various teaching aids (like model of the heart and the human skeletal system) developed by Ravi to teach science. I also saw examples of string and spay painting work done by the children who had been coached by Ravi.

Ravi also supervised the activity in the library. I saw that he monitored the reading habits of individual students and suggested books based on the progress of each child. He also spoke with the children about the books that they had read in the previous week. One boy was making very good progress and Ravi directed him to a more advanced book.

The teachers of the school were on excellent terms with Ravi. I asked him about the difficulties he had in starting the project in doing his work. Our conversation is transcribed below:

Amit: How did you get permission to apply your teaching methods in the government schools?

Ravi: I wrote a letter to the education department and visited the officer in charge. It wasn’t very difficult to convince the administration about this project.

Amit: You seem to be on good terms with the teachers. How well do they receive your teaching methods?

Ravi: Some of the teachers are keen to learn the teaching methods and adopt them. Most of them never object to my work. Some of them are indifferent. However the number of teachers who take an active interest in the work is low. There is also a problem that the government keeps on rotating the teachers every two to three years. Thus the continuity of the training is lost.

Amit: That is a shame. Do you think the teachers who get posted to other places will use the methods that you have taught them?

Ravi: There are a few teachers who keep in touch with me. But the environment of learning is lost when they get transferred. Then I have to start again with the new teacher who comes to the school.

 

 

Amit: Why does the administration transfer the teachers after a few years?

Ravi: The administration has seen that teachers become lax if they stay in a place for too long. This maybe because they become familiar with the local community and get involved in petty politics.

Amit: What do you think we should do to tackle this issue?

Ravi: We need an institution like a resource center that will serve as a hub for providing teacher training. The resource center will motivate the teachers who are willing to learn to keep up their work and they will also have the required support.

Amit: What do you have to say about the punctuality of the teachers?

Ravi: Some of the teachers are quite irregular. I have frequently been to schools where one out of the two teachers is absent.

Amit: I see the joy in the young faces when they see you coming to the school? What do you think happens when you leave the school?

Ravi: Most of the schooling is dreary and uninteresting for the children. Some of the teachers even beat the children. The purpose of my work is to make learning enjoyable for the children.

 

After the discussion I felt that Ravi’s visit to the schools is an enjoyable interlude for the children but a lot has to be done to keep the continuity of the teaching experience that he creates.

Day 2, December 22,2003

Dec 21 was a Sunday and a day of holiday for the children. We resumed our visit on December 22.

Primary School at Chilakavaripalle

In the morning we visited the primary school at Chilakavaripalle. The children rushed out when they saw Ravi approaching the village. This school had two rooms. Ravi started a lesson on the lifecycle of a butterfly with the class five children while the class four children attended the library. Children from classes one to three was being taught by the schoolteacher in the other room.

Like any other lesson that Ravi prepares the lifecycle lesson had a very interesting practical activity. Ravi started by giving a brief lecture about the various stages in the lifecycle of a butterfly and the associated physical forms. He drew the different physical forms on the board. Then he handed out a specially cut paper that had different stages of the lifecycle drawn on them. The children were asked to paint the different figures. Then Ravi made a toy out of the paper cutting that the children could rotate with their fingers and see the different stages of the lifecycle. I found this learning aid fascinating and was tempted to keep a copy for myself.

While Ravi was giving his lesson, a young girl named Munira came to the room. Munira was studying in class six in the Urdu medium school. She had attended this school and fondly remembered the lifecycle of a butterfly activity. She had seen Ravi approaching the school and quickly rushed in to take part in the activity once again. I asked her about her new school. She said that she had a holiday since her exams had finished the day before. She also mentioned that she was looking after her buffalo when she saw us coming in to the village.

Teaching Aids

After the trip to Chilakavaripalle we went back to Ravi’s house where he showed me the teaching aids that he had prepared. It was a fascinating collection of learning aids that was built out of low cost local material. A few of these aids are listed below:

My site visit of Madanapalle ended as Ravi and I headed out to Anantapur district in the afternoon.

Conclusions

Ravi’s fellowship supports a very creative teaching program in the government schools around Madanapalle. Looking at the happy faces of the children when they see Ravi is testimony by itself to the success of this project. The teaching and learning methods are innovative and children take an immediate interest in the practical activities designed for them. The mobile library has also started. It should be noted that the speedy approval of the mobile library proposal by the Seattle chapter has got this project going in a very short period of time. However the librarian Sampoorna needs more training from Ravi to be more effective.

There are a few challenges that have to be carefully analyzed by Asha. Ravi is involved in fifteen schools in the area. The amount of time that Ravi can spend in each school is limited. Ravi’s work will be effective if the teachers in the school pursue his methods. Due to frequent transfers of the schoolteachers and the limited time that Ravi can spend at each school, the impact of his work is limited. Also Ravi is hardpressed for time and it does not make sense in increasing the number of schools that he is working with.

I think the next logical step in supporting our fellow is to encourage him on the resource center cum school project. The resource center will serve as a nodal point of contact for all teachers interested in improving the quality of education. The school will serve a small number of local children.

In summary, I think Ravi’s fellowship is an excellent project. Ravi is a unique individual and he is doing remarkable work in bringing the joy of learning to the children he works with. I think Asha should be very happy in supporting him.

References

1. Where the mind is without fear, Amukta Mahapatra, http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/mag/2004/01/11/stories/2004011100190700.htm