TEACHERS AS TRANSFORMERS Innovative...

TEACHERS AS TRANSFORMERS

Innovative Primary School Teachers at Work

SRISTI InnovationsAhmedabad

EditorVijaya Sherry Chand

The Network tries to (a) respect, recognize and reward the creative people, (b) help them add value to the innovationsand traditional knowledge with or without blending with modern science, technology and other institutional knowledge,(c) reinforce the conservation ethic so that nature from which we draw so much is nourished, (d) lobby to protect theirintellectual property rights, and generate material and non-material incentives for individual and communities, and (e)embed their values, creativity and knowledge systems in the educational system and governance of the society.

The mission is best explained through the metaphor of a honey bee which does what many intellectuals and otherprivileged people don’t do. It gathers nectar from the flowers without impoverishing them. The Network similarly seeksto ensure that people do not feel short changed when they share their knowledge with outsiders. Unless we communicatein local languages, people will not be able to learn from each other. Promotion of lateral learning among the creativeindividuals and communities through local language newsletters, thus is one of the important missions of Honey BeeNetwork. It is not enough to recognize or respect the innovators. They must also get a fair share of the benefitsresulting from value addition and the wealth generated by the commercial or non-commercial diffusion of their knowledge/innovation.

Honey Bee Newsletter is published in seven languages by SRISTI Innovations with the help of SRISTI team and HoneyBee Network volunteers

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TEACHERS AS TRANSFORMERSInnovative Primary School Teachers at Work

SRISTI InnovationsAES Boys Hostel Campus, Nr. University Library, Navrangapura, Ahmedabad - 380 009 Gujarat, India

EditorVijaya Sherry Chand

Teachers as Transformers: Innovative Primary School Teachers at WorkMay 2012

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CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION .............................................. i

1 DIVYABEN R. BHATT ............................. 12 SUNILKUMAR S. BHATT ....................... 23 USHABEN J. DAKI ................................. 34 POPATBHAI R. DEVLUK ........................ 55 DHANRAJGIRI H. GOSWAMI ................ 56 PARSHOTTAMBHAI V. KOLI ................. 67 BALDEVBHAI N. PANDYA ..................... 88 LEELABEN A. PARMAR ......................... 99 BACHUBHAI V. PATEL ......................... 1110 KAILASHBEN M. PATEL ...................... 1111 RAKESHBHAI G. PATEL ...................... 1412 SHARMISHTHABEN B. PATEL ............ 1513 IBRAHIMBHAI B. QURESHI ................ 1614 NANUBHAI A. TANDEL ........................ 1715 RAMESHCHANDRA M. THAKKAR ...... 1916 MANIBHAI R. VAGHELA ...................... 2017 ANAVAR M. VHORA ............................. 2218 RAJESH M. BANKAR ........................... 2419 ANANTA H. BAODHANKAR ................. 2520 YOGESH K. CHAUDHARI .................... 2621 PRASHANT K. GAWANDE .................. 2622 MURLIDHAR K. JADHAV ..................... 2723 LAXMI V. KASTURE ............................. 2824 NARENDRA B. KHAIRNAR .................. 2925 RAHUL D. LONDHE ............................. 3026 SHIDDHARAM R. MASHALE ............... 3127 SULOCHANA S. SALGAR.................... 3228 NILESH P. SHELKE .............................. 3329 RAMJAN R. TADVI ............................... 3430 GYANESHVAR DUBEY ........................ 3431 BASHIR MOHAMMED KHAN............... 3632 KAILASH C. PANDEY .......................... 3733 SARDARSINH RATHOD ...................... 4034 SUBHASH S. YADAV ........................... 4235 K. C. BABYKUTTY ............................... 4336 P.O. CHACKO ....................................... 4437 LAIZAMMA V. KORAH.......................... 4538 K. GANESH .......................................... 47

39 S. SRIRAM ........................................... 4940 RAKESH JAIN ...................................... 5041 RAMCHANDRA SHARMA .................... 5242 SUKLESWAR DEKA ............................ 5443 RAMKUMAR S. VERMA....................... 5644 ROSHANI DEVI .................................... 5945 RAMESH P. PATRI ............................... 5946 VIRENDRA KUMAR AGARWAL........... 6047 ANANDHI K .......................................... 6148 RAJANI J APSUNDE ............................ 6149 REKHA K BARI ..................................... 6250 DR MANJULABEN R BHATT ............... 6351 DR RAMESHCHANDRA K. BHATT...... 6452 KRISHNA BISWAS ............................... 6553 TAPAN CHANDRA BORA..................... 6754 SACHIN D CHOUGULE ....................... 6855 MOHANSINGH K DABHI...................... 7056 KISAN DIWAN ...................................... 7257 ELANGOVAN R .................................... 7258 ETHURAJU K ....................................... 7359 VIJAYSINH H GAIKWAD ...................... 7360 BABLOO SINGH GOUTAM .................. 7561 HAMSA BEEVI A S ............................... 7662 JEEVA R ............................................... 7763 JEYARAMAN S ..................................... 7764 SURESHCHANDRA V JOSHI .............. 7865 RAHIMBHAI J KANOJIYA .................... 8466 SAMEENA A KARIGAR ........................ 8567 VYANKATESH R. KULKARNI .............. 8668 YASODA LAMA..................................... 8769 ASHOK S LAVATE ................................ 8870 MAHALINGAM ...................................... 9071 MANICKODI M ..................................... 9072 MARY JOSEPHINE .............................. 9173 SUDHIR G NACHANE .......................... 9174 NAMBI DURAI J ................................... 9375 KADAM CHANDRA NATH .................... 9376 SEVAK RAM NELE ............................... 9477 KESHARISINH A PADHIYAR ............... 9678 PANIMALAR C ...................................... 97

79 DHARMISHTABEN G PATEL ............... 9780 GORDHANBHAI C PATEL.................... 9881 PRABHAKARAN P ............................. 10082 PUGAZHENDHI B .............................. 10083 VINABEN M PUROHIT ....................... 10184 RAJENDRAN T H ............................... 10485 RINA DEVI .......................................... 10586 AKHTAR M RIZVI ............................... 10687 MAHENDRA SAIKIA ........................... 10788 SALEEMA JAN R ................................ 10889 JOY CHANDRA SARMA..................... 10990 SELVI K ............................................... 11391 SHAFEERA BANU G .......................... 11392 RAHIMAN R SHAIKH ......................... 11493 NAYANA Y SHINDE ............................ 11594 ILABEN E SOLANKI ........................... 11695 SUNDARA RAJAN P .......................... 11796 BALDEVBHAI K SUTHAR .................. 11997 SWARNA BAI S .................................. 12398 NEELIMA THAKUR............................. 12399 GEETHA THAVAMANI V .................... 125100 THILAGAVATHY R .............................. 125101 VASANTHY D ..................................... 125102 BALASAHEB S. WAGH ...................... 126103 YUNUS ALI ......................................... 127104 MANGESH S AJGAONKAR .............. 128105 C ARUNADEVI .................................... 129106 J BANUREKA ..................................... 130107 BIJENDRA KUMAR ............................ 131108 S CHITRA ........................................... 133109 MANSUKHLAL K DAVE ...................... 134110 DINESHKUMAR A DESAI .................. 135111 SHARDA Y DESSAI ............................ 137112 D DEVARAJ EDWIN ........................... 138113 MUNNA LAL DEVDAS ........................ 139114 KRISHNA LAL DHIMAN...................... 140115 RAJESH KUMAR DHIMAN ................ 140116 RAFIQ AHMED GANAI ....................... 142117 VIRAMBHAI B GOYAL ....................... 142118 YOJANA M HONRAO ......................... 143119 P S IRAI ARUL .................................... 144120 N JANAKI ............................................ 145121 J JOHNSON ....................................... 146

122 DIKSHA JOSHI ................................... 147123 PRAMOD P KASTURE ....................... 147124 SOPAN G KHAIRNAR ........................ 148125 NASEER AHMED KHAN .................... 149126 M KRISHNA MURTHY ........................ 151127 MEENAKSHEE A KSHEERASAGAR . 152128 K V MAHENDIRAN ............................. 153129 PURAN LAL MALI ............................... 153130 E MALINI ............................................ 154131 RAJENDRA R MANE .......................... 156132 RAFIA NIKHAT.................................... 157133 BALWANT V PADHALE ...................... 158134 DR. NEELAM PARASHAR ................. 159135 BALVANTSINH M PARMAR ............... 159136 RAMAKANT K PATIL .......................... 161137 IVETTE LOIOLA PEREIRA ................ 161138 VILAS PRABHU .................................. 161139 N MUNI RAO ...................................... 162140 SUCHITRA R RODAGE ..................... 163141 MAHESH CHANDRA SARASWAT ..... 164142 MAHIBOOBSAB N SAWAR ............... 164143 RITA SEMWAL ................................... 166144 BUDAN A SHAIKH .............................. 167145 SHAHIN R SHAIKH ............................ 168146 GHULAM MOHMMAD SHEIKH.......... 169147 GANESH V SHINDE ........................... 170148 HEMA G SHINDE ............................... 170149 JAGVEER SINGH ............................... 171150 RAJ KUMAR SINGH........................... 172151 SURESH PAL SINGH ......................... 174152 VINAY SHARAN SINH ........................ 175153 N SIVAGAMI ....................................... 175154 S SURESH.......................................... 177155 GURUSIDDAYYA S SWAMI ............... 178156 K UDHAYA KUMAR ............................ 179157 V UMARANI ........................................ 180158 KALIDAS L UMARYE ......................... 181159 UTTARA .............................................. 182160 A VASUGI ........................................... 184161 K VIJAYAKUMARI............................... 185162 PRASHANT N WAGHMARE .............. 186163 MOHD. YUSUF ZAGOO .................... 187

ADDRESSES OF TEACHERS .................... 188

This collection of cases of innovative and experimentingprimary school teachers at work is mainly addressed toteachers working in state-run and funded schools operatingin difficult environments. These cases were finalized duringthe period 2004-2006, under a project based at the Ravi J.Matthai Centre for Educational Innovation, Indian Instituteof Management Ahmedabad which was supported by theSir Ratan Tata Trust, Mumbai. As part of this project, threeannual conferences were held in 2004, 2005 and 2006,titled Universalization has to be from the village upwards;Aren’t four grades enough? and Open a school; Close afew jails, respectively. The cases included in this volumewere first presented at these conferences. Draft copies weredistributed to the participating teachers at theseconferences in the form of ‘yearbooks’. The 163 cases thathave been selected for this volume are from all the threeyears—cases 1 to 45 are from the first year, 46 to 103from the second year, and cases 104 to 163 are from thethird year. Unfortunately, these cases could not bepublished up to now. We hope the cases would now reacha wider audience.

Geeta Amin Choudhury, Samir Joshi, Umesh Patel, ManishPatel, Siddharam Mashale and Jeya Inbaraj played keyroles in screening and validating the teachers’ work. VijayaSherry Chand undertook the preparation of the cases, withsupport from Geeta Amin Choudhury, Samir Joshi and JeyaInbaraj, on the basis of a wide range of material that hadbeen gathered—audio recordings of teachers, artefacts ofthe teachers’ work, interview transcripts, site observationnotes, expert validation reports, notes prepared by theteachers themselves, and so on. He is responsible for theselection and organization of material, developing the‘story-line’ and the writing, which have resulted in the casestudies presented here. Since the focus was on Gujarat,Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, most of the material was inGujarati, Marathi and Tamil, with some in Malayalam, Hindi,Urdu and Assamese—there was material in English in justone case. The material in Assamese had to be translatedand Jhini T. Khambatta helped with the Urdu material; theproject team was familiar with all the other languages. Wedecided to develop the cases in English so as to facilitatethe dissemination of the work to a wider audience. Wehave tried to use a first-person narrative style to the extentpossible, so as to enable readers to listen to the teachers.However, a different style has had to be used in somecases; thus, some cases are in the reported format. Thewrite-ups presented here are edited and condensedversions of much longer accounts. We encourage readersto contact the teachers directly to get more details andclarifications on the experiments or interventions describedin brief here.

The documentation reported here was underpinned by apractical understanding of teacher development: build onthe strengths that exist within, and build on the experiences

of those who have performed well in spite of manyconstraints, using their own creativity and resources. Thepractices of the 163 teachers reported here are responsesto very context-specific socio-economic and classroomsituations. However, the constraints faced by theseteachers may be similar to those of a wide cross-sectionof the primary school teaching community. The teacherswhose work is reported here were selected from a widerpool of innovative teachers. The experiences of suchteachers have the potential to constitute an ‘educationalbank’ which can play the role of a ‘clearing-house foreducational innovations’. While teachers would beinterested in reading about other teachers, teacher traininginstitutions and educational policy makers may also findthis document interesting; the alternative solution-augmenting teacher development approach whichunderpins the work reported here can be incorporated intothe teacher training curriculum. Learning directly from thosewho have realized their educational goals in contexts thatare not well funded, do not reveal high parental supportfor education, and are influenced strongly by local culturalenvironments, is one way of promoting self-driven andlifelong learning-based approaches to teacherdevelopment.

We now turn to the process followed to identify the teachersand validate their work. The process of identifyinginnovative teachers is a crucial first step. Various methodslike public announcements through teacher organizationsand education departments, nominations by local voluntaryorganizations associated with education, and internalnewsletters of teachers or educational institutions, wereused. The criteria specified were the following: theinnovation should have been developed (or modified afterborrowing) in response to a specific problem; the workshould have been monitored; and results (in line with theobjectives that the teacher had determined for himself orherself) should have been achieved. The teachersnominated were then asked to describe their work followingbroad guidelines which included the inspiration for the idea,the process of developing the work, evolving criteria formonitoring the intervention, modifications made over time,and the spread effect of the work. These responses werescreened and additional information gathered whereverthere were obvious gaps in the data. The task of scoutingout innovative teachers was undertaken with the help ofpeople working in the government, teachers, some NGOs,and other individuals interested in such work. The initialphase of the scouting was characterised by networkbuilding—identifying partners who could join this task.

The second step of screening the work was equally critical,and time consuming. The outcomes were studied in thecontext of the constraints the teacher had faced, theinnovativeness of the work, and their impact on schoolingand on the community. An expert committee which also

INTRODUCTION

Teachers as Transformers : Innovative Primary School Teachers at Work i

included a number of outstanding teachers undertook thescreening. For purposes of this project, an innovation wasunderstood to mean an educational practice (method,learning tool or aid, or set of actions) which has actuallybeen tried in practice and has achieved certain educationalgoals that the teacher had for his or her specific socio-economic context. These goals have to be in consonancewith the goals of universalization of elementary education.“Effectiveness” has been understood to mean that theinnovation resulted in identifiable positive improvement inaccordance with the educational objectives of the teacher.The criteria used for screening were: novelty in the activitymentioned by the teacher, the context in which the activitywas performed (varying levels of difficulty arising out ofthe school’s history, and the socio-economic status of thevillage), the “scope” of any single activity in terms of thenumber of aspects which would be affected/ number ofchildren benefiting, the complexity of the activity, thenumber of innovations made by the teacher, the origin ofthe idea and the spread effect of the teacher’s work.

The final stage of validation included visits to the teachers’sites, and very importantly, meetings of selected teachers,in which the work was presented and the participants couldchallenge the teachers and ask questions. Someeducational experts also attended these validationworkshops. The validation process followed the procedureof case study recording and triangulation with localstakeholder groups. A number of people have helped at allstages of the project. We would particularly like to thankthe institutions and individuals mentioned in the appendixbelow, and Professor Anil K. Gupta, who has been verysupportive throughout.

As mentioned earlier, the first conference was titledUniversalization has to be from the village upwards. Thetitle was a paraphrase of the words of one teacher, ManibhaiVaghela, and provides an alternative perspective onquestions like, “How many districts or states have beenuniversalized?” Achieving near universalization isimpossible, as many of the cases illustrate, withouteliminating the context-specific social and genderdisparities and overcoming the socio-economic barriersthat hinder educational performance. We hope thisdocument will provide our readers with brief glimpses ofthe work that many of our outstanding primary schoolteachers undertake in contexts that, more often than not,hinder rather than support, the achievement of educationalgoals.

Vijaya Sherry ChandRavi J. Matthai Centre for Educational Innovation

Indian Institute of Management, [email protected]

May 2012

AppendixKey Partner Institutions and Individuals: Scouting

and Validation

1. DIET, Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh2. DTERT, Government of Tamil Nadu, Chennai.3. SEVA, Madurai.4. State Innovation and Research Foundation,

Solapur, Maharashtra.5. SRISTI, Ahmedabad.6. State Council of Educational Research and

Training, Gujarat.7. State Council of Educational Research and

Training, Maharashtra.8. Shri Ananta Baodhankar: Primary school teacher,

Maharashtra.9. Smt. Arti P Kale, Secondary school teacher,

Maharashtra.10. Shri Rahul D Londhe: Primary school teacher,

Maharashtra.11. Prof. Satchidanand D Mokashi, Faculty, Damani

Premratan Bhairuratan Dayanand College ofEducation, Solapur University, Maharashtra.

12. Shri Motibhai Nayak, Primary school teacher,Gujarat.

13. Shri Bhavesh Pandya, Primary school teacher,Gujarat.

14. Shri Jayesh Patel, Primary school teacher,Gujarat.

15. Shri Manjibhai Prajapati, Primary school teacher,Gujarat.

16. Shri Dharmesh Ramanuj, Primary school teacher,Gujarat.

Related volumes of interest

1. Learning from Innovative Primary School Teachersof Gujarat, by Vijaya Sherry Chand (with Geeta AminChoudhury, Samir D. Joshi and Umesh M. Patel),Gujarat Educational Innovations Commission,Gandhinagar, 2011. Also in Gujarati as PrathmikShikshakona Nootan Prayogo. (Available fromChildren’s University, PTC Bhavan, Sector 19,Gandhinagar, Gujarat. English version, Rs. 20;Gujarati version, Rs. 25.)

2. Teachers as Transformers: Learning fromOutstanding Primary School Teachers, by VijayaSherry Chand and Shailesh R. Shukla, UNICEF,Gandhinagar, 1998. (Out of print. Please [email protected] for further information.)

Teachers as Transformers : Innovative Primary School Teachers at Workii

Teachers as Transformers : Innovative Primary School Teachers at Work 1

Master, in Gujarati, can be interpreted as a combination of‘Ma’ and ‘sthar’, meaning mother and status, respectively.A primary school teacher is as good as a mother, and shouldbe as loving and caring as a mother can be. I have tried toact on this understanding. As I was fortunate enough toget an opportunity to combine what I like and what I do,my work gained me a lot of appreciation. Here is a briefdescription of my efforts.

Working Against the Evil of ‘Untouchability’

My first appointment was at Inaj, Veraval taluka, Gujarat.Children from the surrounding villages also used to cometo this school. There were mainly two communities, theAhir and the Harijan Hadi, scheduled caste. Each despisedthe other. This negative attitude was very evident evenamong the children. The Hadi used to stay in the outskirtsof village since they were considered to be ‘untouchables’.Their children were socially despised and so they used toenjoy irritating the Ahir children by touching their tiffinboxes. Once they did so, the Ahir students “could not eatthat food”, which was thrown away. This created a problemfor me since the Ahir children then used to take leave andgo home. I was pained to see all this. I raised the issue inthe Bal Sabha, a formal structure which gathered the school’schildren for discussions, and explained to them the evilsof untouchability and asked how food or a person couldbecome ‘impious’ merely because of touch. My messagewas, “There is nothing like a lower or a higher caste.” Ibegan to discuss this issue also with the people, communityleaders and other students. It took time and patience, but Iwon ultimately. At least my students received some sense;the breakthrough was achieved when they studied together.This behaviour was then extended to working together, andthen eating together. Up to this day, I am told how peopleare happy about what I did. Changing children’s behaviourthrough constant, focused, messages is possible, even ifone is unable to change social mores and customs thatpromote undesirable behaviour.

At another place, I took what I consider a more active, anddangerous, step. There were many girls in Manavadar Girl’sSchool, to which I was transferred. I had a special affectionfor them. Among these girls, there was a girl who used tocome to my home regularly to play with my small son. Sheused to carry him lovingly, played with him, and treatedhim with affection. This girl belonged to a communityconsidered to be ‘untouchable’. When the people realisedthat an ‘untouchable’ girl came to my home regularly andplayed with my son, everybody criticised my attitude.People used to tell me that I would “destroy” my home byallowing her to mix with my family. I also incurred thewrath of my relatives. I just continued with my behaviourand messages. With the passage of time, we treated herlike we would our own daughter, and she also acceptedmy husband and I as “parents”. She participated in all myfamily functions. Now, she was a part of our family, andthe wall of caste was broken. She now has a daughterherself.

Education of Girls

When I was serving at Chanduvav, Veraval, I noticed thatthe presence of girls was almost zero. There was a strangereason. I found that the school-enrolled girls were engagedto the boys studying in the same school, and so they didnot come to the school. I felt that this was not a problemwhich had no solution, and I talked to the parents. Irepeatedly assured them that girls and boys could studytogether in an institution like our school, setting aside theirsocial values which had become barriers. There was a lotof compulsion from my side, and it made girls come to theschool. Thus, both ‘husband’ and ‘wife’ used to studytogether. Such compulsion is necessary many times, butwith a little persuasion, the compulsion can becommunicated differently.

When I was at Manavadar, there were many Muslim girlsin my school. After their Class IV, many girls used to comewith their parents for their leaving certificates. I wassurprised, and asked the parents where they wanted toput their children. I was shocked to learn that the girlswould not be allowed to study further. I was very unhappy;the girls had to give in to this ridiculous social barrier, whenthey themselves would have loved to play and learn. Istarted a routine of evening home visits. I tried to convincethe mothers, but their beliefs did not change. I did not losemy courage and went again and again, talking about thesame issue. I cited the examples of many highly-educatedMuslim women, all to no avail. Then I reworked myapproach. One girl’s father was the Taluka DevelopmentOfficer. Now I had a target, since he advocated girl’seducation as part of the government’s educational agenda.Here I had hit the right spot. He made his daughter resumeher schooling. The girl studied up to Class VII in our school.This was an example for others, and a major breakthroughin my educational practice.

Importance of Education: Habit of Saving

When I was at Manavadar, there was a boy in my classwho was considered a problem child. The teacher whotaught this class before I took charge used to make thischild sit in the HM’s office. There were three othermischievous students who were also made to sit with him.I felt very sorry for these children, since they had madethemselves very comfortable outside their own classrooms.After I took charge, I called them firmly and compelled,rather forced, them to sit in the classroom. I saw that theyhad no interest in the activities going on in the classroom.And one of the four always disappeared from the schoolafter the recess. He used to sell goods like tomatoes in themarket, earned some money, and spent it on a movie almostevery evening. There was also some money for snacks. Iobserved his daily routine for a long time. Persuasion didnot work. The habits were so deeply rooted that the boydid not show any sign of improvement. I decided to trysomething else. I called that boy and told him, “Sharif, I

DIVYABEN R BHATT 1

Teachers as Transformers : Innovative Primary School Teachers at Work2

teach you, so I am your Guru. And you owe meGurudakshina (Note: refers to a tradition of paying a debtto a teacher, followed in traditional Indian education, andis a widely understood term). So, you should give me fiverupees every fortnight.” He not only agreed to give me themoney, but within a short time he began to give me tenrupees every fortnight. Soon he started to give me tenrupees every week. The other three students also joined inthis. I opened bank accounts in the names of these students.When the total reached a substantial sum, I told theirparents and the other students about the incident and howthe saving experiment had worked. Sharif was quite takenup by this, and gave me five rupees every other day. It wasonly after this sense of achievement was visible, that Igradually tried to draw him towards study. He did comeback but did not go in for higher education, which was myaim. But it did him good, because he is a well-known fruitmerchant today, with a good reputation. I have written astory on this experience, and it has been used in a teacher’smagazine for inputs on changing student behaviour.

Personal Beliefs are Important

When there was a state-wide agitation on anti-reservation,I was in a remote place where strikes did not have muchimpact. I was present on duty; other teachers of my schooland teachers in the nearby villages were also on duty. Thegovernment declared that those teachers who were on dutywould get double pay. Some absent teachers manipulatedthe records to mark themselves present! This greedannoyed me. As a message to such teachers, though I waspresent, I refused to accept the extra money. I personallybelieve that a teacher should stick to certain fundamentalbeliefs, so that one’s image as a professional is notdestroyed. For this lesson, I am indebted to a teacher inmy childhood. He taught the art of cultivating faith instudents so as to inspire them and help them overcomefear. And I have experienced this in my life with my ownstudents. Speaking the truth is the best way to overcomefear. For example, I made students mark out the textbooktopics they have learned, and encouraged them to be honest

about it. When I taught a lesson, I made the students circlethat particular lesson in the textbook’s contents. I ensuredthat they could monitor what was yet to be covered just bylooking at the contents. Once we had a school inspection.The Education Supervisor was a very strict person, knownfor examining everything minutely. When he came to myclass, he asked some formal questions to the students. Thenext piece of conversation between the officer and a studentwent as follows:ES: How many lessons have been taught in Gujarati by yourteacher?Student: Sir, those lessons are circled in the textbook thatis in your hand.ES: You must have circled the lessons because your teachersmust have told you to do so.Student: Sir, the lesson is circled only when the teacherhas taught that lesson.ES: How many lessons have been taught?Student: Sir, ten lessons have been completed and theeleventh is half completed.

ES: Your teachers must have asked you to say so.

Student: Sir, we have learned not to tell lies. We will talkabout only what is done.

I could see the child got tremendous satisfaction by justspeaking the truth and showing off some work donesystematically. I have used the same principles in my otheractivities, Garba, drama, youth festivals, eye camps,medical camps, and so on. I have specifically tried to solvethe problems of girls and women, relaxing the constraintsof my understanding and capacity to the extent possible.But resources have never been a problem. The smallamounts needed have always come from the people. Asthis money has been used well, I have gained respect insociety, and so my educational work goes on without anyroadblocks.

SUNILKUMAR S BHATT 2

Our primary school is situated in a tribal village. As a classteacher, I felt that the recess timings of our school weremore of a hindrance than a help. I did not get an adequatelylong and continuous stretch of time, when I could engagethe children. Almost all the children’s parents werelabourers. Children went home just after noon for a veryshort break. The parents returned around that time andthen started to cook. The children would wait at home andcome back to school very late. Again, at 1.30, they got downto the mid-day meal. I wanted to change the timetable. Inour school, we hold a meeting at four o’clock on the lastday of the month. Every teacher is given a topic whichneeds to be discussed. Once I took up the idea of abolishing

the 12.15 recess, and replacing it with a practice whichallowed children to go out in pairs to the urinals or to thedrinking water pot. My colleagues did not like thisproposal. But, as the HM, I overruled them. Gradually, Imanaged to ensure continuous presence in the school from11 in the morning to 1.30 in the afternoon. Surprisingly,this pattern, once it worked, was welcomed by the parentsand even by those teachers who had opposed the idea. Asecond benefit was that irregular absence (disappearingfrom the school for the rest of the day) was no longer aproblem. A little information about the monthly meetings.I know that meetings are common in organisations. Ithought of instituting this mechanism to bring about some


The children have made this activity a source of income aswell. They sold these toys in a fair that is held at ShriNandikeshvar Mahadev temple at Jitnagar, two kilometersfrom the school. These children come from very poorfamilies, but the income from the sale is saved. Suchactivities, along with control over the timetable, haveabolished the problem of irregular attendance.Added to the above are my efforts in music and puppetry.Though I am not a musical person, I developed certain basicskills and this has helped us in creating a fun environment.I provide all the teachers with jingles, puzzles, songs, actionsongs, poems and other literature for musical activities.Every Saturday, I sing action songs with children. We makemasks of various kinds. Puppet shows are held in thepresence of the members of PTA, VEC and MTA. Lessonsare taught by dramatising them in the form of puppetshows. The cumulative impact is that we were able toachieve almost 100% presence in the school. The teachersalso felt motivated with the increased presence of children.We are still using these techniques for sustaining children’sinterest and to increase their participation. In addition, wehave started to use Punjabi Bhangra dance, Sanskrit poems,and Rajasthani, Marathi and Assamese songs.

Student and Community Co-operation

Once during the mid-day meal, some students got into afight. I was disturbed. I began to sing a Bhajan before ourmeals. Secondly, once all the children are served their food,I made every child offer a couple of morsels to his or herneighbour; the act would be reciprocated by the other child.Then everyone would start to eat. This has had a goodimpact.

With the formation of VEC, PTA and MTA, we realised theneed to get support from the community. In order to achievethis objective, I thought of a new method. We began togather at the school at four o’clock on the last Sunday ofthe month. When we ring the bell, all the children gatherin the school, and we go to a street or place that is pre-decided. Now, importantly, we hold a meeting there. Thisis also accompanied by a cleanliness drive. Due to theseefforts, the village community stands by us wheneverrequired. The key to community co-operation is makingthem realise that the school is a local institution, a part ofthe community and something that builds the future of theirchildren. Now we invite some well-known personalitiesof the area (doctors, lawyers, social workers, retired HMs,President of District Panchayat, farmers) to these Sundaymeetings, so that they can share their knowledge and ideaswith the children.

professionalism and an element of monitoring into theteachers’ work. I made the junior-most assistant teacherthe President of the very first ‘meeting’. Over time, themodalities of conducting the meetings have beenstreamlined. Now, one week prior to the meeting, theagenda book is circulated among the staff members.Whenever the meeting is held, the agenda is read out inthe presence of all the participants and discussions held.Finally, the minute book is signed by all the members. Forexample, the meeting held in December 1995 had thefollowing points on the agenda.1. Discussion about the syllabus.2. Preparing a new register for dead stock.3. The nuisance posed by an insane man in the village.4. Review of the newspaper bought by the school.5. Review of irregular children.6. TLM evaluation.7. Vande Mataram.Such meetings help in resolving problems co-operatively,discussing new concepts and approaches to teaching, andtaking up creative activities. The outcomes are noted inthe minutes book and they are reviewed in the next meeting.A teacher is President only for one meeting. Thus, everystaff member is made active and given an opportunity tocontribute. A sense of team work has been created. Theminutes book helps in monitoring, since properdocumentation about the work done and work pending ismade.

Making Low Cost and Effective TLMs

The roots of my liking for TLMs are in my childhood, whenI was very good at making toys and painting them. TLMsare easily damaged when children use them. Therefore,multiple low-cost copies are necessary. When I visited ruralfairs, I was struck by the toys made of plaster of paris. SoI used a plastic toy mould and substituted plaster of parisfor clay. The inside of the plastic is oiled and then themixture poured in. The mould can be reused wheneverneeded. Children enjoy learning and making such toys. Inaddition to plaster of paris, we have used jute strings andpieces of jute. For the colouring, we make natural dyes inthe school itself. I had learnt the art of making natural dyesas a child. I have taught this to the school children. Theyhave to make the dye and paint the toys themselves. Thedye is not harmful, and children enjoy the activity. Ofcourse, the scope for teaching many things in the processis immense. The models made by the children (differentanimals, birds, vegetables, fruits, dolls and maps) aredisplayed in the school. The students and teachers of myschool—and also since this technique has spread, of myCRC schools—make such toys now on their own at theirhomes and in the schools. What better results could I expectfrom my efforts?

USHABEN J DAKI 3

When I did my secondary education, I had to go to a nearbyvillage. This was considered a daring act at that time. The

community was very conservative and very few children,especially girls, could go out of the village for education. I


had to face a lot of criticism. It was at that time I decidedto do something unique. I completed my higher secondaryeducation by staying in a hostel and then underwent myteacher-training course. My experience in primaryeducation is limited, but I will describe my experiences inShantipara, a fairly large village. This village has fourschools, three on the outskirts of the village and one in thevillage. I was put in one of the far away schools. Most ofthe people belong to the Ahir community. Thoughconsidered a ‘backward’ community, in recent times therehas been a lot of awareness of education among the Ahirs.Their main occupation is agriculture. In spite of therelatively good condition of the schools, traditional beliefsand customs sometimes caused irregular presence ofchildren in school. This had an impact on the organisationof activities like the prayer assembly. I decided to introduce,in the assembly, children’s songs and action songs. I alsorealised that with the advent of television, many peoplewatched serials with interest, and were curious about whatwould happen in the next episode. The serials did a goodjob of creating suspense, which motivated the audience towait for the next episode. Children also like suspense. Ithought of taking up a story which could proceed like aserial. I searched the school library, and finally chose JivramJoshi’s well known series, Adukiyo Dadukiyo which is fullof suspense, thrills and adventure. It was an apt tool formy purpose. I started to tell stories from this series andsaw to it that I ended a particular episode at a point wherecuriosity of the children was aroused. I did this for sixmonths.

As expected, children’s regularity increased. My objectiveswere being achieved. Children began to come in time atthe time of prayer assembly, and were absent only onspecial occasions or during festivals. They wanted to know,“What will happen tomorrow?” Such interest also increasedtheir imaginativeness. New words, new ideas andadventures were developed, but there was a wide variationamong the children. But one thing I noticed was that inspite of this variation, there was some logic or system totheir speculation. Sometimes even the teachers requestedthat the episode be postponed to the end of the day, sincesome other important school work had to be done duringthe story telling time.

After this experiment, the children demanded a new story.I was a bit worried, since I had not seen the initiative as acontinuing one. Then I thought of using the Mahabharat.One goal was to choose a story that is long enough.Secondly, children though familiar with the broad outlines,were not that familiar with the detailed stories. There wasa lesson in Class V from the Mahabharat. I also realisedthat the current generation was not being told these storiesin their homes in detail; the assumed familiarity with ourancient epics had to be cross checked. The Mahabharat hasserved me quite well. I have realised that for generatinginterest among children, such long stories told in an‘episodic manner’ are more effective that short stories toldeveryday.

Special Attention to General Knowledge

Since the children were farm based, their exposure to theprint and electronic media like newspapers and televisionwas limited. I realised that their knowledge of the outsideworld was poor. My husband and I used to identify tenquestions on general knowledge every week. We saw to itthat these questions were in consonance with the level, theunderstanding, the interest and the curriculum of thestudents. They covered subjects like contemporaryincidents, geography, science, and sports. I used to writeall these questions on the blackboard so that the childrendid not make any mistakes in spelling. The children weresupposed to find out answers to these questions duringthe week. A test was held the following Saturday. Theanswer sheets were checked and the students were givenmarks like in any other examination. Then, the childrenwere expected to write the correct answers in theirnotebooks. I found that this activity generated curiosity tolearn new things, especially from the older people. Thechildren have now developed the habit of reading booksand newspapers from the library. The parents haveappreciated this activity and motivate their children in theirefforts to learn new things. One change I have introducedis that at the end of four Saturdays, that is, at the end offour rounds, I give a prize to the child who scores thehighest.

I came across one more problem in my initial days. OnSaturdays I found the presence of children less than thatduring the weekdays. One reason I found was that sincethis was a half day, children took it lightly. I thought ofusing a BalSabha. I used to give the children a subject onMonday. Any child who wanted to present something wasto register his or her name with me by Friday. Thisprogramme consisted of many activities like children’ssongs, action songs, elocution, story telling, mimicry, andso on. This was just entertainment and the children likedit. Gradually Saturday attendance was almost full. Alongwith this, of course, the students developed different skillsin stage performance. It also helped me understand thehidden potential of children. The activity became so popularamong students that if I forgot to give some topic, childrenreminded me.

I have taken up a few other activities, which may not havea direct relation to the school, but which helped me showconcern for the community. Vacation was the best time tomotivate children to get involved in activities which theycould enjoy and perhaps specialize in later on. Once Iannounced a Mehandi competition before the vacation.Children practiced during the vacation and a competitionwas held when the school reopened. Though I did not repeatthe activity, I have noticed girls who started learning atthat time, have continued with their practice. I also startedcoaching for Bharatnatyam for girls. I regularly conductmany cultural programmes and organise celebration ofvarious festivals in the school. Ultimately, if the school is anice place to go to, attendance, enrolment and retentionare not problems.


I am the HM of Juna Padar Primary school, Ghogha taluka,Bhavnagar, Gujarat. I joined as a teacher at Lakadiya villageof the same taluka in 1976. After working here for a shortwhile I was transferred to Nana Khokhara village. Here Iserved for five years and developed as a teacher. The impactof the Bhagawad Geeta and Swadhyay activities has helpedmy educational activities. I have made knowledge, action,devotion, service and honesty as the principles whichwould guide my life and educational activities.

At Juna Padar, initially I was the only teacher. The schoolhad Classes I to IV. The total population of the village was351 and the village was very backward socio-economically.The total number of enrolled students was 24, and onlyseven or eight students used to remain present in the school.Not a single villager paid any attention to the education ofthe children. Very soon an order to close this school camefrom the government. I simply observed the situation ofthe school and the village for a few days. The village cattlewere kept in the school premises. About 65 children ofvillage were not coming to the school. I decided to acceptthe challenge.

I felt that a close relationship with the villagers was theonly remedy for these problems. I tried my best to helpthem in their socio-economic activities. I met the eldersand discussed the problems of the school and tried to makethem understand the severity of the situation. With the helpof the female members of my family, I arranged a meetingof the women of the village and they were also exposed tomy concerns. The villagers blamed the teachers who hadworked in that village earlier. I heard them out patientlyand assured them that the experience would not berepeated. In exchange, all the villagers promised to sendtheir children to the school. Next day I visited each homeand filled the admission forms on the spot. Seventy eightchildren were enrolled at one go. This was a breakthroughand since then the school has made step by step progressover an 18-year period.

Initially I used to go to the homes of those students whodid not come to the school on time. If the child was notready, I waited for him, and did not leave the place withoutcarrying him with me. The children from the surroundinghamlets used to walk to school. If some child was absentfor sometime, one of my colleagues or myself would go tothat place and bring the child on a cycle or motorcycle. Allthe teachers and students used to bring some food. We used

to sit together under a tree and have our lunch together.We also arranged to start a Bal Anganvadi for children upto five years of age. After Class V, the girls used to quitstudies. We kept track of these girls, and as new classes(VI and VII) were introduced, we enrolled them and theyresumed their study. We also arranged to send these girlsto a high school some distance away. A Bal Mandir wasstarted under the title “Lav-Kush”. We appointed a ladyteacher as an honorary worker for this activity.

Once the enrolment went up, I contacted variousindividuals, the gram panchayat, industries, and the localbank for donations for the school. The villagers contributedthe physical labour to build a room. We also created ourown source of income in 1988 by starting a garden nurseryin the school. Today our school has got very goodinfrastructure and physical facilities. During the 1980s wegathered Rs.1,85,000 from various sources for the physicalfacilities. In 1990 one individual created a fund in someone’smemory and the amount was deposited in bank; from theinterest, bright students are given prizes ever year. Wereceived cash prizes from the government for attractingout of school children from the surrounding areas to ourschool, in 1986, 1987, 1989 and 1990. The total amount ofRs.15,000 was spent on infrastructure.

The school has also undertaken developmental activitieslike being part of the Gram Rakshak Dal, informing farmersabout modern techniques of farming, facilitating a Farmer’sTraining Camp, training women in reducing wastage ofgrain, participating in NCC and NSS camps, arranging forgovernment support to physically challenged people, andconducting a number of literacy and medical camps.

I have founded various informal groups like YouthAssociation, Bal Sanskar Kendra, Mahila Satsang Mandal,and Ramapir Mandal. With their help we got a bore wellmade and installed three hand pumps to solve the waterproblem of the village. We also got a bench made at thebus stand. I am a member of the Development Committeeof GokulGramYojana, and we mobilised a lot of facilitiesfor the village. This village is an example of communalharmony; half the village is Muslim and the other half isHindu. Social occasions are celebrated together. I also keepRoza and accomplish the Roza in the mosque. I must acceptthat whatever efforts I have done for the development ofthis school have been inspired by the philosophy ofSwadhyay of Dada Pandurang Athavale.

POPATBHAI R DEVLUK 4

DHANRAJGIRI H GOSWAMI 5

I started my teaching career in 1986. My father HimmatgiriOtamgiri, a retired teacher, has been my source of

inspiration. He guided me through my initial years as ateacher. I have also been influenced by Shri Manubhai


Pancholi “Darshak” and Dada Pandurang Athvale. Thegirl students of Sindhaj Girl’s Primary School (Kodinar,Junagadh, Gujarat) where I have spent many years (from1993 to 2001), have been a source of motivation. Theyalways persisted with the activities I started, andcompleted them successfully. The school was establishedin 1992, but when I joined, I found that the enrolment ofgirls was abysmally low. I thought about the problem andcame up with the idea of introducing various “cards”.

Presence CardI introduced a ‘Presence Card’ in 1994 for the lower primarylevel. I used to give one such card to each girl who remainedpresent regularly. The girl who gathered ten cards wouldgo to the upper class without any testing whatsoever. Ofcourse, there was a no-detention policy at the lower levels,but there was a minimum attendance requirement.Regardless of these policies, the girls felt that getting 10presence cards was a big achievement.

Birthday CardAnother card was the birthday card, which was given to agirl on her birthday. This generated a sense of respect forthe school and the teachers among the students, since theybecame aware of their birthdays. This may sound verysimple, but recognising birthdays in such difficult contextsmotivates the girls.

Absence CardA third card was the “absence card”. It was sent to theparents of girls who remain absent for a long time. Theintention was to sensitize parents about absenteeism andto motivate them to send their girls to the school regularly.The card provided information about the exact number ofdays attended and not attended by the child.Pravesh Din Card (Enrolment card)Sindhaj Girl’s School was the first panchayat school in thestate to introduce ‘enrolment cards’. Such cards were sentto the parents of the girls who were in the relevant agegroup.

For our school development activities, we designed thefollowing rules.

From where will the money come?

Ø When enrolling in Class I, instead of Shreefal and Sakar,cash of Rs.10 to be donated.

Ø Profit from the notebooks, pen and other stationarythat students purchased.

Ø After Class VII, the passing out students shall give adonation of Rs.10 as Gurudakshina.

Ø Collection of old books from children and selling themto generate money.

Ø Donations from retired teachers.Ø Funds raised from the community during the Republic

Day and Independence Day celebrations.

Where will the money be spent?Ø Giving prizes or presents to children.Ø For electrification, fans and other school requirements.Ø For study material to needy children.Ø To buy useful implements like a sickle.Ø To sponsor various study visits of the children.

In addition to the above activities, I started a newsletter todisseminate my activities to the neighbouring schools. Itwas called “Jharukho”, and I have come to know that manyof the ideas have been adopted by other teachers. In mycurrent school (Girdevli) I have started a similar newslettercalled “Manthan”. One idea I have tried here, and describedin the newsletter, is to build two rooms in the school, andcall them ‘Shabd Vatika’ and ‘Ank Vatika’. The first wouldhave paintings of the letters on the outside walls, and thesecond would have numbers. These rooms are specificallyused to teach words or numbers. Another activity is theAnnapurna Bank, a grain donation bank, created by childrenwho bring a handful of millets each. The grain is donatedto the needy. The children learn the value of donating tosociety. ‘Sanchayika’, a savings scheme, and Vidyarthi GrahakBhandar, a students’ store, are similar activities whichcommunicate various desirable social values.

All these activities, cumulatively, have improved theatmosphere of the school. The number of girls in myprevious school, for example, increased from less than onehundred to 545 over a short period of time, so that fullenrolment has become possible. In my current school, thevariety of activities, and the strong school-communityrelationship, have contributed to increasing attendancefrom less than 60% to more than to 80%.

PARSHOTTAMBHAI V KOLI 6

I have been working as a teacher in the Maroli primaryschool, Valsad, Gujarat, since 1975. From 1971 to that pointof time, I had worked in two other schools. In my firstschool all children belong to the Warli tribe. There were 35enrolled children, of whom about 10 to 12 attendedregularly. My HM and I visited the parents, but no amountof persuasion would work. One day I noticed that someprogramme was going on in front of the school. A blackmagic player was performing tricks. The villagers had a

lot of faith in him. I decided to take this as an opportunityand arranged a meeting with that man in private andrequested him to ask the villagers to send their children tothe school. His appeal affected the villagers greatly andthey agreed. However, they put two conditions: theirchildren should be allowed to graze animals in the eveningand they should be allowed to bring their younger brothersand sisters with them. I accepted these conditions and thisincreased the number of students. Once the beginning was


made I used various joyful methods like games and songsto retain the children. This helped a lot to increase thestrength of the school. Soon, regular presence in the schooltouched 60%. I worked here for one and a half years.

In the school where I am working, it took me five years tosolve the problem of non-enrolment and to bring downdropout to near zero. I tried to combine educationalmessages with the people’s religious activities. TheSwadhyay Parivar was active, and I asked them to includeeducational messages in their activity. I did the follow up,and this worked. The school building was in bad shapeand all four rooms had almost collapsed by 1979. At thattime, if the community paid 25% of the budget, theGovernment used to give the rest. We needed Rs.40,000for four rooms. Firstly, we formed a committee of parentsand went on a mobilisation drive. We got Rs.20,000. It wasnot possible to get any more money from the villagers. ThenI had an idea. Movies in those days were popular. Wediscussed the idea of arranging a few shows of a movieand it was accepted with some protest. We arranged fourshows of the movie in the village and that fetched usRs.12,000. Our school is on the seashore, and when thefishing boats were pulled into the sea after the monsoon,each boat owner paid Rs.300. We did this job with ourstudents. This created an uproar in the village, but wegathered Rs.6,000. Thus, four rooms were built.

There was no pre-primary education in our village. I formeda committee with the people, and for the Rs.15,000 thatwere needed, I arranged a “lucky draw”. A few peopledisagreed and protested. However, we did the drawsuccessfully and a good deal of money was generated for anice shed. We decided to charge five rupees per child asfees and pay a teacher from that amount. The beginningwas very good, but we noticed that 50% of children stoppedto attend the nursery within six months. The reason wediscovered was that people were not able to pay the fees.As a solution, I got a trust registered for grants from theSocial Welfare Department. I went directly to the state’sHead of the Social Welfare Department and explained mypredicament. A grant was sanctioned in fifteen days. Thatnursery is working even today.

I have been teaching Class VII for 27 years. I believe inidentifying the weak students and giving them remedialteaching. I use story/ dialogue forms and drama to teachchildren who find their regular subjects difficult. I havealso made a number of TLMs to solve the problems oflearning basic math at the lower primary level. Some ofthe toys are described below.

Educational TelevisionThis television covers 80% of Mathematical abilities ofClass I.

Raw material: A big box, gelatin paper, tracing paper,transparent paper roll, four bulbs, a board with sixswitches.

Method: Take a box that is open from both the sides. Fixtracing paper on the front side and then gelatin paper onit. This will make the screen of the television. Divide this

board into four parts with the help of a board. Fix one bulbin each box. Place the paper rolls in such a way near thescreen that they can be rotated.

Use: When one turns the bulb on, the picture in that boxwill emerge on the screen. In the same way all the boxeswill show different pictures. For e.g. If one wants to teachthe concept of zero, when the first switch is turned on apicture with three birds on a tree will emerge. Beside thisthere will also be a figure of 3. Then turn the first switchoff and the next one on. This next picture will show twobirds on the tree and figure 2. That means one bird hasflown away. In the third box there will be only one birdwhen the same method is followed. Similarly there willnot be any bird on the screen in the last picture and thefigure will show zero.

Shadow Puppet

This article can be used for all subjects extensively.Raw material: Two 5x 80 cms wooden sticks, two 5x 60cms wooden sticks, one metre white cloth, a string, mspaper.

Method: Make an 80 x 60 cms frame out of the woodensticks and tie the white cloth on it. Tie a string horizontallybehind the cloth. Make the screen stand with the help of astand. Make cuttings of animals, trees, birds etc. out of mspaper.

Use: While using this instrument, it is better to place itnear a window so that the natural light can help. If youwant to show an elephant on the screen, put the cutting onthe string. You will find the shadow of an elephant on thescreen. Now if you want to say 3+2 = 5, move threeelephants from one end and two from the other. They willgather in the middle and make 5. This method can befollowed to teach any other suitable concept.

Educational Tree

This also can be used for any subject.

Raw material: A piece of hardboard of 60x 30 cms, mspaper, velcro strip.

Method: Cut the hardboard into the shape of a tree andpaint it. Paste velcro strip on the branches. Make leaves,birds and fruits out of ms paper and paste velcro strip onthem.Use: As velcro is used, the birds, fruits and leaves can bemanipulated as needed. This particular toy has been ofgreat interest to the children.

I have made many other toys to teach place value, additionof single digit numbers, using just hardboard and paint.As our school is near the sea, we easily find a lot of seashells. We have made various charts out of these shells.Just to give an example, we have made a chart which helpsin teaching identification of figures from 1 to 10. Write thefigures on one side of the board and stick shells before themaccording to the figure. This kind of chart can be used toteach numbers up to hundred. It also helps to teach the


concept of descending and ascending numbers. The samemethod can be used to teach mathematical tables. Inaddition to these, we have also made puzzles dealing with

I was thinking about the best way to make the model, whenthe villagers performed a religious ceremony. For this theyhad prepared some bricks. These bricks would becomesacred after their use in the religious ceremony andtherefore would have to be dropped into a river after theceremony. The villagers were preparing to load the bricksonto a tractor and take them to a nearby river. I approachedthe villagers and explained that once they dropped thebricks in the water, they would be gone for ever. But if theygave the bricks to the school, we would ensure that thebricks would be used for a noble purpose; they would alsoremain as a memory of the religious ceremony performedby the villagers. My appeal overcame the villagers’religious beliefs, and they took the bricks to the school.

Using these bricks, I made a huge hollow mountain, leavingspaces in between. The waste material of the school wasused to stuff the empty space in the structure. When it wasfilled, I made a clay layer on the entire structure and gaveit the shape of a mountain. Then I placed PVC pipesthroughout the structure (for water) in such a manner thatthey would remain hidden. Then by cutting and carvingthe structure suitably, I prepared models of differentphenomena/ natural structures like rivers, streams, caves,forests, ravines, stones eroded by water etc. This was inthe year of 1995.

Over this clay mountain, I added a layer of cement. Now itwas strong enough for children to climb over it and movearound. I have tried to make it a comprehensive model inthe sense that on both sides of a river, I have indicatedtrees and forests, and have also tried to show how a riverfinally meets the sea. The sea has models of marinecreatures.

Other TLMs

Karshanpura Primary School was a small school and hadonly two teachers. The responsibility of teaching all thefive classes was too much, and whenever some other workcame up, the performance suffered. Children who were toldto work on their own did not take much interest in it. Inorder to generate interest among them, I began to give themassignments like collecting feathers, making pictures,making toys from clay, and so on. When children were givensuch assignments, they found it very interesting andremained occupied. The experience of collecting or makingsuch articles exposed them to learning. This was reflectedin exercises given to them to draw pictures or write aboutthe material. They tried to recall whatever they had done;more importantly, their writing tended to be broader incoverage.

the organs of body. In this game, the organs of human bodyare drawn on the pieces of hardboard and they are used asa puzzle game.

BALDEVBHAI N PANDYA 7

I started teaching in 1984. After about two years, I realisedthat no teacher was ready to serve in another nearby school,Karshanpura Primary School. The reason was that the areawas dominated by socio-economically and educationallybackward communities like Thakore, Rabari, Vaghri andRaval. The school had poor facilities and was not connectedby bus. A single teacher in the school taught Classes I toIV. I decided to take up the challenge of working in thisschool.

Community Mobilization

There was a forest of Babool trees near the school atKarshanpura. I sought support from the GramPanchayat,got the forest cleaned and the lake filled. Whatever workwas left was completed with the help of the village youth.We planted many neem trees here which provide shadetoday. The area serves as a temporary shelter for bypassinglabourers. Since there were only two teachers and fourclasses, multi-grade teaching was inevitable. Handling twoclasses at a time caused many problems in completing thesyllabus, maintaining discipline, and organising culturalactivities. During the monsoon, the situation was worse,and the children had to be shifted to a temple nearby. Morethan one class had to sit in one place.

When I became in-charge of the school, the villagers askedthe District Education Committee for Class V. The officewas forced to give an additional class, but an additionalteacher was not provided. I had to run five classes withtwo teachers in all. Such a difficult situation compelled meto find out some solution, and inspired me to developteaching learning material that was suitable for mysituation. Once I started in this direction, I got more andmore new ideas. Some of these are described below.

Teaching with a Model of a Mountain

While learning different concepts in geography andenvironment, the children used to ask many questions.From where does the water in a river come? Mountainslook like what? I always felt the need to satisfy the curiosityof these children. Naturally, taking the children on a tourto visit such places would have been an ideal way to teachthese concepts. This was not possible because all thechildren were from poor farm labourer families. The parentscould not afford any travel. Secondly, whenever I drew apicture of natural phenomena on the board, children sawit with great interest and some of them tried to copy it intotheir books. I felt that if some models could be made, thesecould give children a better idea of the concepts.


In a science fair (1998), we presented a model for textileprinting and TLMs useful in classroom teaching. Manyeducationists appreciated the exhibits. We received prizes,and the appreciation added to my enthusiasm. Suchencouragement expanded my confidence and interest somuch that today I have an exhibition of TLMs at myresidence, open to anybody who is interested. I haveprepared this exhibition cum collection on my own andusing my own understanding.

Comet TLMIn the year 1998, the newspapers had given wide coverageto the appearance of a comet. All the villagers and childrenstared at the sky to witness this incident. But unfortunatelythis phenomenon could not be observed. Children weredisappointed by this. I decided to do something. I thoughtof preparing a model that shows this natural phenomenon.I worked on the idea and prepared a working model toshow this phenomenon. The satisfaction that I saw on theface of my children when they watched the model showinghow this natural phenomenon works, made me happy.Meanwhile our school was supposed to participate in thescience fair. I thought the model which has satisfied thecuriosity of my students should reach other students also.I sought oral permission from the DIET Principal andexhibited this model in the science fair. People welcomedit so well that the newspapers gave it coverage and moreand more people visited this show.

The Best Use of My Skills

Magic shows and puppetry are my areas of interests.According to me, the way I used my skills for educationalrehabilitation of the earthquake affected children of Kutchhas been the most satisfactory experience for me. Afterthe devastating quake, the DIET had prepared teams ofteachers that were supposed to work for rehabilitation. Wewere given Gandhidham taluka. When we went there, theschool that was allotted to our team was Antjan PrimarySchool. Not a single child was present in the school. TheHM and teachers informed us that the children were soterrified that they were not ready to come to the school.Something stronger than the fear of children and parentswas needed to bring them back to the school from thequeues for relief material distribution. We went to theplaces where such material was distributed and announcedthat the school was going to hold magic and puppet shows.There were only a few children on the first day. But I didnot lose courage. We persisted and in three to four daysthe presence reached 90%. Gradually these shows becameso popular and effective in bringing children out of thetraumatic effect that teachers from the surrounding schoolsbegan to invite me to give performances in their schools. Iresponded, and covered seven schools. The success of theseshows continued even after the rehabilitation work wasdone in Kutch.

The Mahant of a temple near my school organises yogacamps for people free of cost. I have been helping him andbrought the yoga activity into the school in 1986. When Iwanted a permanent exhibition of my TLMs, I hired a room.The Mahant came to know about this; he appreciated mycommitment for the cause and spared a room for myexhibition. This exhibition is now known as Datt NivasiPradarshan. Teachers interested in TLMs visit the exhibitionand make TLMs on their own. If needed, my help is alsoavailable. The TLMs include a variety of items made fromcoconut shell, puppets, sculptures and toys made fromwaste material. Some of them are:· Aakash Darshan: Space View. It shows the planets, the

sun, the moon, the eclipses.· Tarang Ullas Sadhan: Identification of sounds and

concepts of long, short, thin and thick.· Magical glass: Information on figures 1 to 10.· Bahurupi sadhan: Tool to teach letters and numbers.· Puppetry: Puppets for language and environment: 40

pieces.· Teaching through masks: Numbers 1 to 20.· Our Body: A model of the human body, with all the

parts detachable. The children can themselves arrangeall the parts like hands, legs, eyes, nose, ears.

· Crops of our region.· Magic boxes.· Identification of shapes, colours, birds, pictures,

flowers, currency and grains.· Identification of the month.· Puppets of fruits and vegetables: 30 pieces.· Sound identification machine: This tool has five pieces.

All the five tools produce different kinds of sounds.Children can play with them producing differentsounds and learn concepts like sound, vacuum. Thistool is made from the empty coconut shells. The shellsare cut from the centre into two parts. Small iron ballsof bicycle bearings are put inside the shells and thetwo parts are sealed again. An artistic touch is givenon the outside surface by covering it with plaster ofparis and creating some designs on it.

· Place value tool: This tool is made from an old window.There are four lines of nails in the tool. There is a pipefixed on it and a slate is made above the board. Nowa figure is written on the slate. This helps Classes Iand II children to understand and remember thefigures up to a thousand.

· Movable Bal Mitra Varg: Painting is my hobby.Whenever I thought of a Bal Mitra Varg, I felt that itshould be in such a form that it can be taken to anyplace. From this I got the idea of preparing a Bal MitraVarg on canvas. I implemented my idea on a canvas of20 metres.

LEELABEN A PARMAR 8

I started teaching in 1971. My guiding principle has beenone of Mahatma Gandhi’s sentences: “Education, real

training, lies in the exploration of the true qualities of a child.”Children are very active and so conscious efforts have to


be made to keep them connected to the activities that aregoing on in the classroom. At the same time, outside theclassroom they need warmth and care. The latter have madeit possible for me to handle some very serious dropoutcases: like a girl with a chronic illness for whom I arrangedmedical treatment, and arranging for small financialassistance to many needy girls and boys. I have found ifwarmth is shown and personal care taken, dropout is easilysolvable.

Product-Oriented Activities and Leisure Camps

In my school I emphasise product-oriented creativeactivities and involve my students in activities like makingdoormats using coconut skin, brooms with coconut leaves,cloth mats for sitting on floor, embroidered small bags,garlands, wall pieces, flags, clay models of animals andmany other things. When we display them, we try togenerate some income by selling the items. This giveschildren a focus and helps them tie up the activities withlearning in the school.

During the academic year, children find some leisure. Ibelieve that children should join a profession only afterthey finish their study, but spare time like weekends, publicholidays, and vacations, should be used to develop someskills. The idea of a leisure camp came to my mind when Iused to observe children doing many activities during therecess. I organised a 2-day camp for children. My HM andcolleagues supported me. The total number of participantswas 40. The children were studied and divided into teamsaccording to their interests and their methods of working.On the first day we had a Mass-Meal and a Village Cleaningprogramme. During the Mass-Meal, all the children sat ina circle and shared their food with each other without anyarguments. Next day all the children were left absolutelyfree to do whatever work they liked and in whatevermanner they liked. For example, some of them began topaint, some of them were carefully observing plants, somewere busy playing something and some were lost in theirmusical instruments. At this juncture, some experts andlearned individuals were invited to watch these activities.They helped us identify the special gifts of various childrenand provided us feedback on what to develop in each child.This experiment proved successful and gave us insightsinto the meaning of total development of the child. Thiswould not have been possible within the four walls of theclassroom. The feedback was communicated to the childrenin order to help them pay more attention to their strengths.We call this personalised sensitisation of the students. Someof the students have become professional singers or artists.Others have developed in other directions, but the feedbackfrom them has been very good. The experiment has beenrepeated many times.

Making Learning Interesting

I believe in having attractive classrooms. Keeping thetextbook content in mind, the rooms are decorated withcharts, paintings, rangoli, mathematical tables, projects,models of sentences and other decorative pieces made outof waste material. Thus I try to develop the spirit of learningnew things and frugality.

AntakshariA fast and effective way to learn is through rhyme andverse. The children remember things very easily if theyare taught poems, prayers, and lessons with music. So weorganised a programme of Antakshari (game in which theending syllable of a song is used as the starting syllable bythe next participant). We included in this programme songs,poems, folk songs, bhajans, with the view of improving thelanguage skills and vocabulary of the students. We testlearning levels after any such activity to assess itseffectiveness.

DramatisationI make children play roles like Rani Laxmibai, Sardar Patel,Jawaharlal Nehru, Subhash Chandra Bose. First I giveenough information about the character that is to be played.Once I feel that the actor child has enough informationabout the character, he or she is introduced before the class.Now the other students of the class ask questions and thosehave to be answered by the player. Whenever it is possible,dramatisation of lessons is done; for instance, a lesson like‘Jivram Bhatt’ becomes very interesting in a drama form.

ProjectsI frequently undertake projects so that children canunderstand things clearly and practically. I have noticedthat during such projects students learn about many smalland trivial things that nonetheless create a great impacton their learning. An illustrative list of projects which havecontributed much to learning is given below.

Primitive man- caves and weapons Class IIIAgricultural crops Class VICurrency Class VIKerala Class VIIPollution (Land/Water/Air) Class VIIIndia (States, cities, rivers) Class VIIBalanced diet Class VIINational symbols Class VIIMalaysia’s rubber business Class VIIThe irrigation plans of Gujarat Class IV

Teaching Aids

I also make and use TLM to explain concepts/themes. Someof them are listed below:

Periscope and Kaleidoscope (well known instruments); ‘Thelongest hotel’ (multiple reflection, with two mirrors facingeach other, toy tables and chairs); Solar system model withwire, cardboard and thermocole balls; Mathematicalboards, with the correct answers attached to small bulbswhich light up when pressed; irrigation system of Gujarat,which works on a similar principle of using lighting-upbulbs to identify various dams and schemes and rivers.

I have tried to make children more and more active throughthese methods. Innovative TLMs, methods like drama andprojects, make the learning process interesting. Such anatmosphere does not permit the children to leave the school.More importantly, a teacher should know the special needsof students, and students should be made aware of theirstrengths, so that all round development of children results.

This volume is a record of the inspiring narratives of primary school teachers working in our state-run schoolsin very difficult socio-economic contexts, overcoming odds with their imaginative responses to seeminglyintractable problems. Their experiences illustrate the dictum, ‘universalization has to be from the villageupwards’—efforts to ensure education for all have to counter localized and context-specific socio-economicbarriers that hinder educational performance.

About the Publisher: SRISTI Innovations

SRISTI Innovations (SI) is a Section-25 not-for-profit company set up by the Honey Bee Network to pursueseveral market-oriented activities of the Network such as publication of local language newsletters—societaleducation for inclusive development by highlighting the creativity that exists at the grassroots in India andother countries is the key focus of the newsletters, Honey Bee Newsletter, Sujhbhuj (Hindi), Loksarvani (Gujarati);and publication of books on sustainable pest management, livestock care, profiles of innovators, the editorialsof Honey Bee Newsletter and stories for children on sustainable futures, sattvik (nutritious and healthy) recipes,profiles of centenarian women, and sustainable agriculture. SI has also reprinted Hunnar Mahasagar, a bookwith 2080 recipes for self-employment, which was compiled by Gangaben Pranshankar Yagnik in Gujarat in1898, and has brought out In defense of grassroots innovators: Book on methodologies for scouting,documentation and dissemination of grassroots innovations, in collaboration with APCTT. In addition, SI helpsin the commercialization of various products developed from people’s knowledge in the SRISTI Natural ProductsLab; the income from this activity is shared with the providers of the knowledge and also used for communitydevelopment.

About the author

Vijaya Sherry Chand is Professor, Ravi J. Matthai Centre for Educational Innovation, Indian Institute ofManagement, Ahmedabad. His areas of interest include educational innovation, management of educationsystems, teacher development, the non-profit sector, social entrepreneurship and sustainable development.

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