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Place: Todi Ramjanipura, Jagatpura, Jaipur, Rajasthan.
Details: Available here
Status: Being funded since 1999 (first check encashed 2000) Date: November 4th and 5th, 2001.
Area: 10-15km from Jaipur. It is accessible by road. (The bypass to NH-8).
The Digantar campus is accessible from the main road via a mud road.
Organisation: Digantar
Project(s): Running three formal schools, 'Vimarsh'- a hindi magazine on education, Teacher training programs, consultancy
Asha-funded: part of teacher's salary in schools
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.
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