This morning, Ms. Karmakar took us to another organization she has spent a lot of time with. It’s called Shrimashram and it is a social welfare and educational research institute located in Orgram, a rural village in the Burdwan district. It was about a 2 and a half hour train ride from Kolkata and then another half hour’s drive from the Nowda Dhal railway station. It was our first train ride in India – what an experience!
One of the most important parts of Shrimasham is its educational programming, run out of all four of its different sites. It offers five different types of general education. The first is Barna-Shikshalaya , pre-primary school, which is like the American version of preschool and kindergarten, and teaches children from classes O to OB. The second is Parthamik Shikshalaya, primary school, which is much like elementary school in America and teaches classes I to IV. The third is Sandhya Shikshalaya, a night school for young laborers and adult women, and has classes O to VIII. The fourth is Balika Shikshalaya, girls junior high school, with classes V to VIII. The fifth is Madhyamik Shikshalaya, a high school with classes V to X. This high school prepares students to pass the Madhyamik Pariksha, the secondary examination course of the West Bengal Board of Secondary education. What all those different “classes” actually mean are the reading level at which children are taught, with O being the lowest and X being the highest. The concept of assigning children a level at which they can read is really interesting to me; it’s actually the way I was taught to read as well, because I lived in London until I was 5. The way it worked in London was you were given a set of books to read that were at your level – much the same way you can buy a children’s reading book at Barnes & Noble that says “level 1” or “level 2” in the upper right hand corner. The difference is that these levels are really only for commercial purposes in the United States; in England and in India these levels are actually incorporated into the educational system. Another part of the English system that I clearly remember was that when I completed the required reading to demonstrate my competence at one level, I was able to move independently onto the next level. I’ll have to ask Maya if this also holds true for India.
The specific Shrimashram site we went to visit was a primary school for children ages 3 to 10. When we first arrived at Shrimashram after our long journey, we were greeted by its secretary, Tapam Khamar Mandal, and a few of the schoolteachers. (This is still confusing us, but we think in India the role of “secretary” is something closer to the role of “director” in the United States). They took us to the school’s two main buildings. We could hear the children laughing before we could see them – suddenly we saw the small recess yard absolutely filled with young children playing outside, almost all wearing matching uniforms. They all started to get quiet and crowd around us, and the principal of the school introduced us to them. He then told us that the students had prepared a performance for us, which we were not expecting at all! The children gathered on the porch of one of the building around their teachers, who were seated at instruments. They sang two songs for us, one in Bengali and one in English, a smaller group danced and sang, and a few individual students recited poems or songs in both Bengali and English. Afterwards, we had the chance to meet a few more of the children and speak with all the teachers in a group setting. We learned that they were all volunteers, and that while they lived at Shrimashram and received food and lodging for free, they were not compensated for their pay. Most had been educated to become teachers in Kolkata, and were almost all young women. Most of them didn’t speak or understand English very well, so Ms. Karmakar and the few teachers that did helped us to translate. It’s actually amazing how quickly Michelle and I are adjusting to the language barrier – conversations do take twice as long, but waiting for the translation from Ms. Karmakar hasn’t been too much of a problem.
After the performances, we had the chance to sit in on a yoga instruction class. At first we just watched –I couldn’t believe how calm and quiet the children were. I never would have sat through something like that with a straight face at their age. Yoga in India does not exactly mean the same thing as yoga in the United States – their yoga also includes all forms of meditation. The children sat cross-legged with their eyes close and were learning how to regulate their breathing and how to sit up straight while relaxing their muscles. Afterwards, a few of them showed us the physical yoga skills they have developed – more like the American-style yoga we are familiar with. It was unbelievable to see these small boys and the feats they were able to accomplish! Afterwards, the yoga instructor offered to teach Michelle and I a few things about meditating, so we sat on the ground where the students had been a few minutes before, while they stood around us and watched while we closed our eye s and received a little crash course on regulating our breathing.
It was very interesting to me that this class was part of their education. Ms. Karmakar explained to us hat the organization prides itself on this type of nonformal education, where children have the opportunity not only to learn math and English, but also to learn how to develop spiritually, through yoga, and artistically, through dance and song. This is one of the things that sets Shrimashram apart from government education.
After spending some time with the children, we had lunch with the co-founder of Shrimashram, Sankar Prasad Nag, and had the chance to learn more about the beginnings of the organization and how it functions today. He and his wife, Mahamaya Nag, left their positions in the Indian education system in 1961 (Mr. Nag himself was a Headmaster at an Indian school) to start Shrimashram. It’s run almost entirely by volunteers and receives minimal government funding. It is also our understanding that they have no constant source of outside funding from a donor agency. They are financed by a mix of one-time donations from members of the organization, charity events, and social-economic projects that the organization itself sponsors. We also learned that there were 150 students at the school were visiting, and that 60 of them actually live at the school because they have no family to take care of them. The rest come from families in the surrounding village. There are 16 teachers and 12 of them live on site, a few of them with their own children. One of the main school buildings has two functions – inside, there are rooms for all the residential teachers. Outside on the porch is where the children may sit for classes if it is too sunny or rainy. The other main building has three large rooms, which also can function as classrooms for the children. It is also where the residential children sleep at night. Behind this building is a very large field which functions as a play area for children.
As I said earlier, education is a major part of Shrimashram’s organization, but it is not all they do. They try to address the issue of rural poverty from all angles. A second type of program they have is vocational education, which includes music, drama, dance, art, and skills like weaving, carpentry, tailoring, pottery, and batik printing. A third is social education events, which have included seminars on the use of medicinal plants, awareness programs on maternal health, women education, and socio-economic development, and workshops on the development of elementary education. They produce a variety of jams, jellies, sauces, and pickles at a production center, have 5 cows, hundreds of ducks, and 2 acres of land with a variety of fruits and vegetables growing on it. All this is used to provide jobs for the community and support the organization. They also have a medicinal plants unit, which grows a variety of medicinal plants on 5 acres of land under the supervision of a team of ayurvedic doctors. These medicines are distributed to the local community at no charge. They have also opened a home for the elderly, which currently cares for 6 residents.
It was amazing to see an organization involved in so many different areas of uplifting a community, and interesting to see how education fits into their overall goal.
We're going to try and post pictures of all the children soon on Givology, and if taht doesn't work we'll send the webshots link!
29 MAY 2009