2 posts tagged “chandranagar school”
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.
After about a year, I returned to Chandranagar Government Primary School today. Chandranagar is about 3 km. from where I live, in an urban slum. Last year, there were 280 students for 7 grades and 7 teachers. This year, there are 330 students, 8 grades, and 5 teachers? Maybe 6 1/2 (two have been recently appointed by another charity in the last few days). The children and the teachers remembered me from last year, and it was slightly surreal seeing all of these kids, one year older, slightly bigger, slightly rowdier, and still not learning much.
The situation at Chandranagar has been quite rough in the past year-- 3 Asha appointed teachers gone, one new headmistress come and gone in a month, another long-standing government appointed teacher switched out to another school, and then 2 recent appointments by the government for a school desperately in need of teachers. The 5th grade class is now taken underneath a tree. But apparently the tree causes a lot of noise blowing with the heavy wind at times, and the teachers are afraid that branches will fall on the children!
I was greeted with the usual "Good Morning Miss!!" and smiling faces. I was really surprised to have remembered the special handshake that they do at the end of the day. After spending less than an hour there, I was already left in a classroom of 8th graders, alone, and instructed to do some English with them. We read a story together, with the students competing for their chance to read, some struggling, some reading each word very well but having absolutely no clue what it meant. At times I would stop and ask the class, in either English or broken Kannada, what "ocean," or "frightened," or "peak" meant, sometimes having to draw diagrams on the board.
One definite improvement from last year to this year has been the nutrition and midday meals situation. Last year, the mid-day meals provided by the government came infrequently, if at all on time, and were typically tasteless and void of nutritional value. The teachers always brought their own lunch. This year, an NGO called Akshaya Patra, in conjunction with the Government of Karnataka (GOK), is feeding children through the kitchens of the ISKCON temple. The GOK only pays one rupee (~2.5 cents) per head out of the cost to feed the children through Akshaya Patra's Midday Meals, the rest of the cost is covered by other donors. Needless to say, these kids are now getting fed better tasting food in bigger quantities, and apparently even the teachers eat it as well.
These kids are absolutely adorable, of course, but it is very troubling to see just how much of the day was characterized by classrooms stuffed to capacity without teachers.
When I asked about advocating for more government teacher appointments, the HM told me that government teachers are appointed from a group of teachers that are interested in transferring locations. The teachers get the option of choosing which school they would like to work in, and often choose schools close to home. So, when the HM requested 5 new teachers from the Block Education Officer, they only brought in 2 because only two chose to work in Chandranagar School.
One of the most troubling situations, apart from the lack of basic needs in the school-- adequate teachers and space-- is the 3rd grade (III Std.). There are over 60 third standard students in one classroom, and according to the headmistress, maybe only 10 students are at the level they should be, the rest are quite far behind. This is apparently due to the chaos of this past year. When these children were in II Std, their teacher (Asha hired), left in October, and there was no new teacher for II Std. until the following February. The reasons for leaving were probably for the right reasons (see last year's blog for a full account of the drama that went down), but these children suffered a lot without a consistent teacher for so long. So many of these small children that used to be so quiet have now grown bigger and more rambunctious, certainly difficult to control all at once. The headmistress had to tell them, as I sat to visit their classroom, "Behave so 'Miss' can go back to America and say what nice children there are here."
The GOK has also instructed Chandranagar School to hold upper primary classes up to the 8th standard now, as last year only went until the 7th. To keep students from dropping out, an entire grade was added, and one additional teacher certified to teach upper level science and math was appointed by the GOK. When I was in the 8th grade class, I noticed that one of my favorite kids from last year, Selvakumar, was not in the classroom. He was a little troublemaker sometimes, but a sweet kid that had hopes to start his own business named after the headmistress, "Padmaja Electrics." I later asked the HM where he was. Apparently, his father had suffered from some illness, and is no longer able to work. Selvakumar has now left school and become the "working man." Apparently he is working in an aluminum factory. He is probably 13 years old.
I asked the HM what I could do for them, because apart from writing a follow-up report on the school, I'd like to spend my free time there doing whatever I can. Part of me feels helpless, yet empowered to do something for a school lodged in a broken system. The GOK has now established that English should be taught from the 1st grade, yet no one is currently teaching English to these children, with not enough teachers to go around. The HM gave me the new 1 std. English workbook and a teacher's guide to go with it, and got very excited at the thought of me teaching English to the tiniest of the lot. I'm not a teacher. I don't know a thing about teaching. But there is a need, so I'm reading the instructors guide and studying up. I also need to learn some more basic Kannada, fast. That would make things a lot easier. But still, I can't help but feel troubled by it all-- this school needs serious changes, not quick fixes.
Doing research on how NGOs should be investing in government schools, and then acting as an NGO player in a government school itself creates an interesting work dynamic in India. Many things are familiar from last year, and some of the same things I debated with myself then are just as relevant one year later. In a city and a country with an 8% growth rate, construction and development occurring rapidly from one year to the next, the middle and upper classes growing wealthier by the minute, it is also startling to see just how much things have not changed, even deteriorated, in the government schools.
