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ADHARSHILA LEARNING CENTRE

Run by

Jayashree, Amit, Badribhai, Devika behen, Majali, Shewanta, Shanta – the regularsKalsingh, Mirkha – Trainee teachersKamal, Deewansingh, Kesarsingh, Anil, Sarang, Pushpendra – senior studentsThe Octopus, Nile and Amazon group childrenKalsingh, Mansi, Annie, Mirkha, - The volunteers

VEER KHAJIYA NAIK MANAV VIKAS PRATISHTHAN

PAGE

THE THIRTEENTH SESSION 2010 - 2011

.........

Introduction

The Adharshila Learning Centre was started in 1998 to explore new possibilities inthe field of education of tribals.Could there be a paradigm of education for children based on their distinct cultureand lifestyle, history of struggle against oppression. Could education come upwith livelihood options for the future generation based on their land and naturalresources and to a large extent on the local economy. Could education play a rolein the struggles of people to create a more equitable and just world ? Could it playa role in establishing cooperation and social good as values instead of greed andindividualism? Could it help to establish progressive, democratic and secularthinking in the minds of future citizens? This urge to explore these questions was born out of our experience of working inan adivasi organization – The Khedut Mazdoor Chetana Sangath in MadhyaPradesh where we came across expoitation at its worst. Where we learnt ourlessons on caste, gender, moneylender, bureaucracy, religion, police, the stateand its power. We felt the helplessness and frustration of not being able to doanything even after knowing that one was right. But we also learnt that in spite of all odds there could be successes howsoever small. The optimism that thingscould be changed.We draw courage even now from the extraordinary strength and courage beingshown by ordinary people all over the world, who are standing up against the everincreasing exploitation and repression in the new global economic order and alsoagainst the tyranny of local oppression of petty officials, goondas, liquourvendors, politicians. The thirteen years of Adharshila have produced a lot of ex students, now incolleges or villages waiting for lady (and) luck to strike. So it was only natural forus to get involved with the young people of our area.In these years we have received a lot of support from friends and colleagues, yetwe feel that discussions on education are still guided by the agenda andparadigms of the state. The activist friends have yet to grasp the full potential andscope of education as a political weapon to change the way things are. It isdisappointing to see that in spite of so many innovative ideas everybody is stillstuck with the school, classroom, exam model of education. Our experience tellsus that we will be able to say good morning after maybe 10 years when peoplewake up to the call of radical change in education. The state and the market have always been ahead of us. Education is a long terminvestment in which only people with long term vision can invest. Right now it

.........

seems they have it and they keep everybody busy with firefighting. They areahead of us in the mind game and hence winning.

Main Stories with some hidden messages

The RTE dilemma

The year started with various rumours of the Right to Education Act. Mostteachers and local people who knew about the act were not happy with the act.Everybody has experience of the existing scheme where children were notsupposed to be failed till the 5

class and teachers were forced to show 100%enrolment in the primary section. As a result of this we had lots of dropouts after5

, mostly children who didn’t actually attend school, but had there names on therolls and we saw middle school teachers complaining that many children admittedto 6

class were illiterate or could barely manage to read and write. So with thisexperience in mind the parents and teachers fear that now children will bepromoted to 8

class without the capability to read and write because this Actalso forces 100% enrolment and it is mandatory to pass everybody. There is aprovision in the Act which says that if a child has not gone to school she/he can beadmitted to a class according to his age. Meaning that a 14 year guy who hasnever gone to school will also be admitted to the 8

class.Though there is aprovision for remedial class for weak students in the holidays but ultimately thechild has to be promoted. So parents fear that this will actually make schooling abigger farce - it already is a very big farce – and now this farce will have legalsanction.We have a hunch that this is just to prepare ground for the privatization of schoolsby putting in place a set of rules for pvt. schools. Interestingly these rules don’tapply to existing Govt. schools. The other problem in front of us was that according to the Act no child below 14years could be kept outside school. As Adharshila is not a regular registeredschool, the children learn here and give private exams at the 5

, 8

and 10

levels according we could not keep children below 14 years. So it was decided in aparents meeting that the children’s names will be enrolled in the nearby govt.school and the children will stay in Adharshila and learn here also. The parents