by Anita & Shanmuga, Based on visit 28th Feb - 2nd Mar 2003
History of Puvidham:
Puvidham's history is closely tied to that of Meenakshi Umesh.
Meenakshi is from Uttar Pradesh, brought up in Mumbai. She studied B.Arch at Sir J.J. College of Architecture, Mumbai and completed her studies in 1989. In 1987 she attended a Mud Conference in Tiruvanandapuram which a life-changing impact on her. She subsequently did an architecture project and post-degree training at Auroville. She worked in a few Development NGOs including Development Alternatives, Bangalore and ACCORD in Gudalur. At ACCORD, she did an adivasi housing project for Irulas and Kurumbas.By 1992, she and her husband Umesh decided to have a farm and a school of their own.Towards this they bought a 12 acres piece of land in Dharmapuri district for Rs.45000, dug borewells, finished building a house on their own by 1994. They also bought another smaller piece of land with good water supply. The next five years where spent in making the rocky piece of land cultivable, planting trees, biological pest management and in self-sustaining organic farming of rice, ragi and jowar.. Puvidham school was started in 1999 and has been steadily growing in strength. Meenakshi lives in the farmhouse with her three children Kaya, Mahua and Arjuna (all three growing up as fast as the trees). Umesh, being the breadwinner, works as Director at a funding group, I.M.O in Bangalore and visits home for weekends and holidays.
History of the School :
Puvidham school started in 1999 with seven children (two of whom were Kaya and Mahua). Soon G.Madhavraj joined Meenakshi as teacher. The number children when to to 15 in 2001 and 30 by 2002. Most of the children come from the two villages, Kalani Kattur and Avvai Nagar and a few from Savalukkuttai and Kuduppatti. S.Rani, who came to admit her son to the school, joined as the third teacher in June 2002. The teachers have been chosen not with criteria if they've B.As and B.Eds but with their commitment to stay and grow with the school. The school building was designed and constructed by Meenakshi Umesh through personal donations from her family and resource materials procured locally. Puvidham Rural Development trust was finally registered in 2002 with Meenakshi Umesh, M.C.Malathi (of Vikasana Rural School) and Parimala Rao (Sub-editor at The Hindu) as trustees.
School Policies :
Fees in the school - The school has a variable fee structure, depending on the economic situation of the child’s family. The reason for taking fees is the belief that people value more, the things they pay for, than the things they get free. The fees range from zero to Rs. 500 per month. There are an elaborate set of criteria for giving concessions. For the girl child, the fees is halved. For the second child from same parents, if its a boy the fees is halved, for a girl there is no fees. This arrangement prevails with siblings such as Sangeeta-Shabarimani, Manju-Shankar, Sharat-Ajit, C.Devyani (small)-C.Prashant and Lakshmi-Satish. Only book expenses need to be taken care of by the parents. Because of this policy, there are at least 5 girls who are studying in the school, who otherwise will not have been able to go to any school.
Materials provided in school –
Notebooks are provided in
the school, for which the parents pay. The school buys the notebooks in bulk and
provides it to the parents at a lower rate than what they would get in the
stores. Textbooks are provided by the school. Parents who can afford to pay for
new textbooks pay for it. Otherwise the children are given used textbooks.
Vanniyar - 17 ; Naidu - 3 ; Dalits - 8 ; Others - 2 ; Total - 30
Observations at the school
We reached the school on 28th February 2003 around 10am. The prayer session started with some songs, guru brahma, hum ko man ki shakti dena etc. After this the children volunteered to recite a poem, song or tell a story. Some of the children were very shy. Each and every child was encouraged to stand up and recite. If the child did not want to, he/she was not forced. After the prayer, the children went to their respective groups. The school has 3 rooms and a common covered space that can be used as a classroom as well. One of the rooms has all the clay work done by the children. It seemed, one room has the material for children of age group 2-7 and the other, materials for children of age group 7-12 years old. With the younger children, the teacher (Rani) gave them various puzzles to work on. Some children picked up the puzzles they wanted to work on themselves.
Rani then started working with some children on matching word game. A set of cards which had the same word written twice was spread on the floor. The child had to pick the cards that had the same word. This exercise was being done with children who did not know the alphabet yet. The children had to pick the same cards based on the pattern that they observed the letters to make. The children were extremely good at it. Small confusions occurred with two very similar words like pin and bin. We looked around the room and saw many other such pattern matching cards of various types – Tamil words, English letters and Tamil letters, other general and complicated color patterns, line patterns etc. The children were extremely good at identifying similar cards with tough line, color pattern cards.
I was then given the book with story of Pinocchio, and asked to tell it to the children. While telling the story of Pinocchio, the children had questions like – how did Pinocchio light a fire, where did he get the matchstick from, did the fire hurt the whale? Could he have got out some other way? Etc. It was a very interactive session and at the end the children wanted another story. This time it was a story in Tamil from panchatantra told by Shanmuga.
In the afternoon we had a session on Math. Math teaching is based on ideas in the Montessori Method and using material prepared on their own. I was working with a group of 4 children who were doing addition using sticks and place value. They were able to do addition very well with numbers up to hundred. We extrapolated the addition to beyond hundred, for e.g. adding 64 and 44 to give 108. We also did subtraction. The children were also able to do quick addition for adding one to a number. i.e getting the successor of a number. While this was happening, another group was working on counting beads on a string for numbers up to 50.
Language teaching uses the method followed at Vikasana. Tamil and English are introduced simultaneously and Hindi in introduced after a year. During one of the language classes, the children were identifying Tamil words that have multiple meanings. There were more than 10 words written on the board and I hardly knew multiple meaning of more than 3 words! The children had come up the words themselves, some of them suggested by the teacher (Madhavraj). On knowing the multiple meanings, the children were to construct sentences which brought out a particular meaning of the word.
At the English language session the children were doing prepositions and the children were drawing what each proposition signified, similar to what the teacher (Meenakshi) was drawing on the board. Drawing is highly encouraged with all the children. We saw the drawing notebook of Dinesh (?). It was interesting to see the change in the drawings the child had done. Initially the drawings were all small, at least 5-6 on the same page. Later on the drawings became clearer and bigger.
In the afternoon, after lunch, the younger children play for a while in earth/sand and have a fun time, doing what they please like with sand and mud. After the sessions on math, languages and craft are over the children also play various games like skipping, ring, cricket etc for at least half an hour, in the evening. We also joined in their play while we were there.
On the second day, we were shown the rough maps the children had made after surveying the nearby village earlier in the morning. They had noted details like the number of houses on a street, what kind of houses, wells, schools, temples, what kind of roads, shops, electric poles etc. The children had earlier made a map of their house/street, which consisted details like the houses near their house, the number of rooms in their house, if they had a well, what kind of roof, doors, windows, TV etc. The maps were very detailed. After this the children showed us what they had written in their own words about how their parents met and got married, the happiest moment in their parents life, the saddest moments in their parents life, with a picture each. Their writings were very enjoyable and well written too. They also showed us their family tree they had traced all the way to their great grandparents.
There were also sessions on clay making, painting, having kanji that we also participated in!
Some thoughts :
1. The activity of matching and looking for patterns helps in alphabet learning and making connections. There is very little need for the teacher when children are working on such activities. The teacher only has to ensure that each child is working on something interesting to him/her.
2. The amount of resource materials that madhavraj and meenakshi have made by themselves is extensive and very professional. More groups can learn to make these materials and use them for making their classrooms active, full of life, learning and fun. Meenakshi and madhavraj have discovered ways of making good quality low cost teaching aids.
3. This school is very unique in many aspects, like the fee paying structure, children from mixed backgrounds attending the school, introducing farming in the school etc. Since the school takes fees (whereby it is considered as a private, English school in the neighbourhoods), the school cannot put an upper limit on the number of children.
4. If the school continues to have children from a mixed background and is able to provide quality education to children from all backgrounds, and the children intermingle with each other, this would be a successful model to learn from. This could lead to ideas on bridging the gap between underprivileged and privileged through education.
5. Most of the children here are bold, speak without fear, and happy, especially the little ones. Some children are shy and speak less, which is in their nature, I guess.
6. I was really ashamed of the Tamil I knew, when I saw the competency of these children (9-12 years old) finding more than one meaning for a word that I had not heard of! There is a vast difference in being able to speak Tamil and actually knowing Tamil.
Interview with Meenakshi Umesh particularly on Parents Involvement :
Is there a reason for making this an English medium school ?
Being a private school which takes fees (however small) parents expect it to be an English medium school. So, we have to project it that way. I see our school as being bilingual, though children's reading and writing is invariably better in Tamil than in English. We plan to start spoken English classes to address this gap.
Why do you want to link up organic farming with school ?
Farming is the most important activity on earth for human existence. It has been neglected and people have been harming the earth by practising wrong methods of farming. As a school located in rural India, where most children come from agricultural background we're obligated to teach the children intelligent farming. Farming can be connected to all academic subjects including Botany, Mathematics, Environment, etc. besides the physical exercise for the children. Children will learn to plan months ahead, follow directions, make decisions, and do scientific experimentation. All these are transferable skills to any field they may work in future. Farming connects the children to life and nature in a wonderful way. Farming creates a respect for manual work, and can establish gender and caste equality. If some children become farmers, and quite a few will, they will choose their crops wisely, pattern the crops, use water, manure and resources in an intelligent way.
How do parents react to your proposal ?
The parents are aware that we are committed to and practise organic farming. All parents whose children are here for a while understand our overall philosophy at the school. We have not yet discussed the idea of farming as part of the activity in the school with the parents.
How can you go ahead without parents consent in making this important change in school curriculum ?
Our school encourages parents involvement. parents are welcome to visit the school and observe the classes. They give feedback to improving things in class and have a high degree of trust on Puvidham. Its just that in farming we are in an experimental stage. We are sure of success but would need to see if in practice, farming can indeed be an aid to academic study. Can children involve in farming and be successful at it. We want to demonstrate this positively and ask for parents participation to take things to next level. Right now we go to the community with just words and ideas, the parents will understand by 'farming' their historical experience which has been very negative rather than what we mean.
Interview with Ramu and Sashikala:
Ramu and Sashikala are parents of Venkatramana who studies at Puvidham. Ramus trained in Information Technology but has chosen to stay in his village and take care of farm and cattle. They belong to the land-owning Naidu community and pay the highest fees for their child next only to Meenakshi herself. We had a brief chat with them.
How do you like your son studying at Puvidham ?
Ramu-Sashikala: We are of course very happy. Ramana didnt talk until he came to Puvidham inspite of our efforts. He also doesnt cry to go to school. We are happy that we located Puvidham.
So, what is so good about Puvidham ?
R-S: The teaching method is so different here. There is no beating. Children mostly allowed to learn on their own. I[Ramu] have traveled a great deal but have not seen a school like this anywhere.
Any problems because of Puvidham being different ?
R-S : Why, yes! All my friends in the village mock at us for going 'backwards'. You see Puvidham is literally on the opposite direction to the road to Nalampalli from my village. while all children go to government school towards Nalampalli I have to bring Ramana backwards deep into the villages !
You said you're educated in IT, didnt you seek a IT job in the city.
Ramu : I have a Masters in Information Technology. But who will take care of house and farm in village ? Besides, the exorbitant living costs in towns, we also like living in our village. So, I have got busy with agriculture, poultry farm, dairy farm,etc. I also take tuition for high school students.
Any future plans ?
R-S: We dream of starting a school like Puvidham in our village. We are sick of seeing children mugging up and draining out stuff in exams. We may not be as innovative as Akka's school, like we may have to start teaching from alphabets to satisfy parents, but surely we can create a happy school in our village. We need to find time to take training at Puvidham.
Best Wishes for your future school.
Some points for Discussion :
Puvidham consistent to its name :
Puvidham derives according to Meenakshi, from Puvi meaning Earth and Idham meaning warmth. Since the name has been coined in Roman alphabets, we can give an alternative interpretation. Poo meaning flower and Idham meaning gentle or pleasant. Either interpretation would suit Puvidham, as farming work is warm towards the earth and the children are handled as gently and pleasantly as flowers. Puvidham is a canonical model school for young individuals and couples wanting to establish village schools.
Moral consistency :
Meenakshi is one of the few urban educated educationists who remain morally consistent by placing her own children in the school she runs for poor village children. We must remember that Umesh and Meenakshi could have placed their two daughters in an English convent in Bangalore if they'd so wanted. Two others I know who fall in this category as S.Mondal of Khajurdaha and Aruna&Raghavan of Anugriha. These few stand heads and shoulders above the vast majority of educational activists in India who remain hypocritical by holding one standard for their children and another for those they 'help'. While Mahua appears a pampered doll at home, within the school premises Kaya and Mahua do not enjoy any special privilege (same is true for Rani's son Dinesh).
Children are bold and open:
Children at Puvidham are very bold and open. They demand visitors do things along with them, dislike anyone hanging around as objective observers. So, I and Anita had to play games, teach math, tell stories even on the first day of our visit. The children also questions and answer questions freely with visitors. One of the boys, Arun, has an amusing way of replying to questions always in tag questions with a peculiar accent in Tamil. Anita liked to talk to Arun so much that she had caught on to Arun's accent and tag questioning and on the way back to Bangalore couldn't let go of it !
Need for financial help:
The school gets a monthly fees collection of Rs.1860 of which Rs.1000 is from Meenakshi and Umesh(as fees for their two daughters) and Rs. 860 from the remaining 28 children. The fees starts from Rs.10 (for boys) upto Rs.200 (for Ramu's son Ramana) and average of Rs.30 per child per month. This money just about covers Madhavraj and Rani's salaries. So for other expenses like textbooks, Umesh makes a donation of rs.3000 per month. It should be clear that this is an enormous burden on Umesh to maintain his family as well as almost single-handedly finance the running of the school. Financial support will help the school reach out to children from poorest families rather than take more of not-so-poor children who can afford to pay fees.
Community Involvement :
Puvidham must take effort to involve the community in its activities. Meenakshi is concerned as to how the parents may react to the complex fee structure (put in place for economic justice) and the integration of farming work with school curriculum and wants more time (about two years) before the school can handle such issues. She feels inadequate about the requisite people's skills to handle a debate at this stage. To begin with the parents must be given an awareness workshop to explain the future plans of the school, particularly farming activities, and to play a role in it. Perhaps, Asha volunteers can help Puvidham in arranging this workshop to be held in an effective manner.
Future Plans of Puvidham :
Puvidham wants to limit the maximum number of children at 50 or 60. Puvidham wants to become a resource group for government school intervention. It also wants to provide for income generation activities for youth after 12th Std. by making organic products like neem soap, neem seed extract or nux vomica (Etti Kottai) as pesticides, etc. In both these areas Asha and the Learning Network can support and guide Puvidham in multiple ways.
Contact Information
Reaching Puvidham – From Bangalore take a train to Dharmapuri. From Chennai take a bus to Salem and then a bus to Dharmapuri. From Dharmapuri, there are frequent buses to Nalampalli. Puvidham is 9Km from here. There are a few buses once every few hours that go to Nagarkoodal. From the bus stop Puvidham is a short walk.
Asha Contacts :
Anita Balasubramanian anitasatish@vsnl.net
Shanmuga sshanmuga@vsnl.com