By Srinibash Das and Ranjit K. Sahu
Providing education to people in the hinterlands of India still remains a challenge. Non-availability of teachers and infrastructure, decreased interest among student due to language barriers, absent of novel methods to elicit interest are a few factors that affect children’s education across the length and breadth of India. The distance of school from the house and absence of proper transport and conveyance also prevents many students from continuing their studies. Adding to these problems are the stereotype curricula and decreasing personal interaction between students and teachers that results in education being denigrated to certification without real transmission of skills or knowledge. To address these issues and make the education system compatible with socio-economic, cultural and ethical patterns prevalent in the rural areas of Koraput several organizations have been undertaking newer approaches. Under the stewardship of Vidya Das, one such approach was undertaken that shows why and how these pertinent problems of educating the masses in remote regions may be tackled.
Educating the local people and reintegrating them into the education system maybe the best approach to develop a system that is contiguous as well as effective. The case of Dharamsingh Majhi highlights this aptly. He hails from a poor family in Jhiriguma, a remote tribal village in the district of Rayagada in India. After he completed his primary education, in the village school, his parents could not afford to send him for further studies. However, DharamSingh was eager to pursue his studies and become a teacher which was his dream. He had a personal mission to accomplish that would make school learning easy for other poor tribal children as he had undergone enormous struggle to get educated.
Hailing from a tribal background and being used to communication in his native dialect, , he was unfamiliar with Odia, the medium of instruction in the Government School and the official language. This was also the case with most of his other classmates who were exposed to transmission of knowledge via incompatible language barriers. Thus their comprehension and imbibing abilities were severely compromised. They found it very difficult to understand what was being taught, and thus had learning problems. The teachers being trained in a routine system and under pressure to carry out the curricula had no time, energy, patience or motivation to develop innovative means to address this issue. Apart from this most teachers were form an alien socio-economic background to the one existing in these tribal tracts and had adjustment problems which resulted in their low morale to teach.
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In Figures: Mr. Dharamsingh Majhi with his students, Mr. Das conducting a survey to obtain the feedback about the new system of education that includes the involvement of teaching aid in the system. TheChildren of Dharamsing Majhi’s school are singing the song at Jhirigumma before the parents in the Village.
According to Dharamsingh, they would come irregularly, and undertook corporal punishment to force the curricula on the children. Dharamsingh himself had faced abuse and beatings and told often chided as being stupid. Thus the prevalent education set up resulted in most children getting extremely frightened of their teachers, and attending with much reluctance. Most of them dropped out of after passing Grade V in their village primary school. And as Dharamsingh recalls may students after having passed primary school still lacked grade level reading and writing skills. The teaching pattern also resulted in psychological trauma to the children and in many instances, the sight of an open book would make children tremble.
Dharamsingh however felt that he could overcome these problems, if he could pursue his studies. Determined to prove his mettle he joined Kashipur High School, eight kilometres from his village, where education was free, and managed to pass high school after much hardship in 2004.
By this time, the financial position of his family had deteriorated further. His mother had become very sick, and his father had also aged, and was unable to work with his former strength. That is when Dharamsingh decided to keep his dreams aside, and join his fellow villagers as a migrant labour and moved to the far away state of Kerala. There, he did back breaking work, worked overtime, and skimped and saved for four years. Eventually, he was able to save enough money to return home and pursue his studies. Thereafter he completed his Intermediate Certificate Course in Kashipur College.
A short while after that he had completed his Intermediate, he received information about the advertisement in the local NGO (Agragamee) for teachers, and applied with much enthusiasm. After being recruited as a support teacher (Shikshya Saathi), Dharamsingh rejoined his school, this time on the other side of the platform, as an instructor.Now, Dharamsingh as a Shiksha Sathi (support teacher) works in the very school where he completed his primary education: Jhiriguma Upper Primary School. He is extremely happy to be back as a teacher and to teach children from his own community.
After his appointment, Dharamsingh had received intensive training that helped him realize that teaching can be a fun and stress free exercise for the children and the teacher if the teacher was ready to respect and understand children, rather than teach through a textbook and a pre-formed curriculum. He was also provided with supportive material and ideas for games and other activities that helped him keep his children engaged, and the classes interesting. According to Dharamsingh, the most interesting part of the training was teaching through funny nursery rhymes, proper nouns including the names of the children and their friends and family, the names of familiar animals, and so on. This method of teaching children to read, helped the children have fun in class, even as they were learning to read and write. Thus, there was little difference between playing and studying, which is very good for small children in the experience of Dharamsingh. He says that the students have lost the fear of attending classes as they were not forced to memorize and reproduce course contents. This type of environment sans any pressure to perform helps them to learn better.
Dharamsingh Majhi’s mission of helping all children to read, and also become fluent in the Odia language, which is the language of the state while still being able to retain their native language skills is a great lesson about how a better India can be built retaining the traditional resources while amalgamating newer ideas and knowledge into the various development schemes. In the words of Dharamsingh Majhi, “Our language is important he says, but as most of the written material is in Odia, we have to learn it otherwise we will not be able to pursue our education”.
The villagers of Jhiriguma as well as his family are happy and excited to have Mr. Dharamsingh Majhi as a teacher as per the survey conducted by Mr. Srinibash Das. This enthusiasm has translated into a regular attendance of the children in schools and their improved learning capacities. Their grade levels have increased dramatically. The smiles on their faces and the confidence and eagerness when they come to school, says it all. Dharamsingh’s work is tough as he has been assigned to teach three grades together in a crowded classroom. The other teachers in his school are irregular and he has to compensate for their absence as well. He also devotes time to children in the higher grades with poor learning levels to help them improve their standards. However these things have not deterred him from pursuing his goals. He says, “Whatever the difficulties, and hurdles, I am committed to help children learn every aspect of their class curriculum and to ensure that no child wastes its childhood and forfeits its future due to poor education”. Dharamsingh Majhi smiles and admits that there is a long way to go before this mission is accomplished, but remarks that every journey has to begin with a first step. He gladly acknowledges the training in Agragamee, which has helped him take this important step in the right direction. This approach of reintroducing educated local people into the education system maybe one of the novel approaches that may be replicated across India to reach out to masses who cannot afford education due to socio-economic and cultural constraints.
Author contributions: Srinivash Das (SD) and Ranjit Kumar Sahu (RKS) contributed to study design, conceptualization and drafting, SD was involved in conceptualization, conducted interviews during field visits, collected data and images and wrote parts of the text ( in the native language which was translated into English by RKS). The photo manipulations (cropping, and color adjustments) were done by RKS.
Dr. Ranjit K. Sahu is a freelance writer currently located in Virginia, USA. His interests include education, environment, sustainability and health care in the underprivileged regions of the world.
Srinibash Das is a development professional based in Odisha and works as a District Coordinator of Agragamee. His thematic areas of works are right based advocacy, education, women empowerment and strengthening community based organizations. He has also a keen interest in environment protection and health care in rural/tribal areas and has been witness to the sufferings of the people in the hinterlands for several years.
Acknowledgements: The authors thank Ms. Vidya Das (Agragamee) profoundly for her inputs without which this report would not be possible.