The School of hopes!
As a newly joined Chief Ministers Good Governance Associate (CMGGA), I have been working on the state’s multiple flagship programmes and ensuring their smooth implementation on the ground. During my early days of joining, I was assigned the duty of carrying out five school visits to understand the nuances and ground realities of public education. So, I visited five schools but felt unhappy with what is going on in public education. The harsh Indian realities were hitting me hard. I felt disenchanted by the casual attitude of teachers towards students. In the process of these field visits, I asked one of my colleagues from the education department to show me at least one school where teachers are putting a hundred per cent efforts within the existing constraints so that students fly with bright colours. Immediately he replied, “Aapko district ka sabse best school dikhata hu.” (Let me show you the best school in the district.) He gave directions and we were following.
After travelling for half an hour or so, we entered a village located just a few kilometres away from the State highway but wasn’t connected properly. The village was covered with lush green trees and I felt a sudden and surreal exposure to my eyes. In the middle of the village, there was a huge water body, which was shining with the fall of direct sun rays. Towards the end of this pond, one could spot a school building, deeply hidden and caved in the cover of trees. When we entered the school premises, an old lady who was preparing the mid-day meal for children, came to receive us. She said, “Sir, classes are on-going, visit classes one by one as per your wish and teachers will join you at the interval.” This was fairly new for me. By the virtue of carrying CM’s tag in our designation (CMs Associates), whenever I would visit a school, a set of few teachers would leave the classroom to welcome me to their school. Probably the first time teachers dedicated their time to the students and not me, which was unusual but pleasant! Already liking the approach of this school, I visited each and every-classroom and found teachers teaching diligently. I went through the Saksham Passbook which keeps the record of each student’s competencies and areas of additional support. They were marked accurately, as I could see most of the students performing really well in terms of their understanding of concepts and being able to answer most of the questions posed by teachers.
In one of the classrooms, the students’ strength was so small that they had gathered around a central table and the teacher was explaining geography using maps. Another surprise. The session was extremely interactive and followed a much-required concept in teaching — two-way communication through a healthy student-teacher engagement. After explaining every concept in a chapter, it was followed by a question-answer round. It helped students clarify their doubts as well as made them curious to know more! This approach of teaching was also seen in almost all the classrooms, which was a heat-warming.
While walking on the pavement and gazing at cheerful students in school, all of a sudden, a few monkeys entered the school compound. Students were eager to watch them. While some waited for the monkeys to get in action, a few popped their heads out of the window and started teasing the monkeys. It was fun to watch this sudden change in the atmosphere. Amidst the chaos and uncalled entertainment in the classroom, the geography teacher started asking questions to students about monkeys. Where do they live? What do they eat? How high can they jump? The list was long. Students could answer a few questions. The teacher heard the answers and then explained the concepts in detail.
Noticing a curiosity on my face, he said “I am doing this for a reason. Books will give them only theoretical information, but these life experiences and application of bookish concepts in everyday lives will actually help them in gaining 360 knowledge. Whenever they will see any other creature, they will develop a habit of questioning more about their nature and would want to know more about it. This curiosity will help them expand avenues of knowledge. This cannot be achieved through just preaching, instead, it can be achieved with the active engagement of students.” Sharing this thinking with me, he went back to teaching students.
And in my head, I just smiled and felt immense gratitude from what I had just witnessed. In very simple words, this geography teacher had reflected upon the foundation and the essence of education — knowledge beyond theory.
The bell rang and we knew it was an interval for students and teachers and I used this time to engage with teachers in an in-depth discussion about the school. I learned a lot in this interaction. As my visit was coming to an end, I still had many unsaid emotions. While leaving, I asked them, “What motivates you to do this fantastic work?” One of the teachers unlocked his mobile phone and showed me a picture of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar and said “A few decades ago, a man named B.R.Ambedkar was born who lived his life for a cause. I got access to education because of a person named Dr Ambedkar. In the same manner, I also want to become Dr.Ambedkar in someone’s.”
I was speechless. I left school with thousands of thoughts and pure zeal to do more with the time I had, with the designation I hold. On my way back to my colleague asked: “Sirji how was the best school in the district?” I just smiled at him and said, “Not only is this the best school in our district but probably in the entire world!”
Imbibing the essence of participatory learning, creative knowledge dissemination channels and passion for serving the under-served, a small visit helped me to not lose hope. I remember how I started with the visits, how negative I felt and concluded that there is no hope left in our education system. I am happy I was wronged by this school because this was sure ‘the school of hope’, for collective and equitable bright future of thousand children!
