Talkin 'Bout a Revolution

I learned a lot today.

I went to school today after meeting with a representative from another NGO working in government schools, Sikshana Foundation.  When I got to school, the usual chaos was in place.  The fourth and fifth standard classrooms were left without a teacher for most of the day.  The kids were running amok and fighting with each other.  One kid who already had a cut on his head had been pushed around by another girl, and the wound started bleeding again.   I took a look at his head, and it was scraped up pretty badly, and it looked as if it was an open wound.  The teachers remedied the problem by pouring water on his head, and then asking the SDMC (School Development and Monitoring Committee) president for some help.  She sent some ointment for the kid's head smeared on a leaf.  A leaf.  The HM stuck the leaf on his head, and the kid went on his way.  Such is the nature of first aid in Chandranagar Government Primary School.  I asked if the kid's mother would take him to the doctor, because that wound really needed to be checked out.  The HM shook her head doubtfully.

Later, I yelled at an SUV full of idiot guys that was parked in the schoolyard.  They were blasting loud music and disrupting the classrooms and learning that was not really taking place anyways.  They were all male teenagers, with nothing better to do, so I screamed at them for a while and they turned the music down, but didn't leave.  Ram said later that we all should have gone to the police station to have them removed.  Tomorrow.

There are more events from my half-day at the school that made my stomach turn, but I don't feel like getting into it.  After an hour at the school today, I wanted to run.  The kids weren't listening to anyone, none of the teachers were really teaching much, and I was overwhelmed.  But I forced myself to stick it out until the end of the day, and do some English with the 4th and 5th Standards.  As I was taking an auto back, all I could think was that I really needed my coffee, and a shower.

After I got myself together again, and after a long conversation with Ram, was I really able to wrap my mind around just how severe a challenge it is to teach in government schools here.  The number of teachers, no matter how capable they are or not, cannot withstand the capacity of the school.  No teacher could possibly teach for five hours straight at this school, under these conditions.  There is no where near enough momentum behind just seven teachers to withstand the assault of dealing with 330 students and eight grades.  You don't solve the problem of lack of teachers by supplying untrained or apathetic teachers paid a meagre 1000-2000 Rs/month ($25-50).  But then again, if the government isn't supplying teachers, NGOs go on putting these 'temporary' teachers into posts, perpetuating lack of government agency but fulfilling an immediate need.

It's funny, because I keep telling Ram that every time we have discussions about the nature of government schooling here, and its larger reflection on Indian society, he is slowly chipping away at my idealism.  But I suppose idealism steeped in about 25% cynicism is what makes you go on in the world today, beyond misguided notions of altruism and philanthropy, to a deeper understanding of our self-interested ways.  I haven't yet given up my idealism and I'm going on my merry way working and doing research on NGO work in government schools, instead of taking up arms au Che Guevera and joining the Naxalites and starting a real revolution or people's movement for radical change in schooling.  Maybe that is what it takes.  But until then, I might as well be fully aware about how I, and how NGOs as well, exist for our own self-interests. Through learning more in depth about the nature of education work and the realities of government schooling, and about the way our societies work and develop, we can have a better understanding, and "introspect" on our place within it all.  Through such introspection can we figure out how to make change in the world.  I may not be able to empower communities without becoming one of them, and I can't really become one of them if I'm living in America, or in Mantri Elegance for that matter, with my iPod and my copy of Pedagogy of the Oppressed.  But maybe I can have a better understanding of how my personal choices contribute to the nature of the beast, and how through continuous learning I can find appropriate ways in which to act.