“Ki Jaana Main Kaun…..” Bulleh Shah (1680 – 1757) Sufi Poet and Philosopher

Dear friends with great trepidation, anxiety and at the risk of being ridiculed, allow me to introduce myself. I'm Rajesh and have recently taken up the Wipro fellowship. Creating a subjective pen portrait of one’s personality is not an easy task. It is always difficult to remain bias free. Therefore, one’s construct of her/his own self should be tested and validated by others. Some researchers claim that in educational theorising, practice and research, the experiences of ‘self’ are a source of knowledge and a valuable pedagogic resource. There are others who question the subjectivity of the reporting process and the representativeness of the story. Nevertheless it is useful exercise to identify one’s subjectivity.
As I write down these words a hazy recollection of the movie ‘Scarface” which had Al Pacino in the leading role in this movie runs across my mind. “As long as I remember I always wanted to be a gangster” Pacino mumbles in a baritone voice. I wish I could also say something as dramatic as Pacino “As long as I remember I always wanted to be a ‘Piaget’ or more sinister sounding say ‘Vygotsky’”. But friends my interest in education stemmed from the humbling experience of being humiliated or punished for not doing homework or taking interest in studies. It is not as if all my teachers were monsters who were always ready to spank or rebuke at the slightest pretext rather I feel that according to a few of them school was a racecourse, they were jockeys whose task was to make the horses i.e. the students win the race. Needless to say they gave me a slim chance of winning the great middleclass dream of having a respectable job, getting married and settling down.
The hustle and bustle of big cities have always irked me so after doing my management and getting married it was my wife who initiated me in development sector. Both of us then decided to run a small school for the rural children in my native village. However this step offended my father since he was not only the first person in our village who was in state administrative services and was called ‘Sahab’ but he also saw this move of ours as regressive. And wonder of wonders the villagers started to naturally call me “Masterjee or M’aadh S’aab which antagonized my father no end. After running the school for four years from a small fee (80/- per student)we decided to shift to doing job in development sector as not only money was a problem but also we felt there was a lot to learn. After a small stint in an NGO as a Project Coordinator on an inclusive education project my faith in development sector started wobbling and I luckily managed to join Digantar (more details at www.digantar.org) in 2004 where my faith was again restored. I have been working ever since n Research and Documentation unit in TARU (The Academic Resource Unit). In Jan 2010 I got an opportunity of working with WIPRO as a fellow. Under this fellowship I intend to document the Shiksha Samarthan project using a qualitative/mix method research approach.
A few words about Digantar who might be unfamiliar with the organization:
Digantar (the word Digantar means a change in direction) has its genesis in 1978 when dissonance with the prevailing education system prompted a small group of individuals to start a small school for underprivileged children. A tiny school in 1978 with eight children soon became the focal point of this endeavour. The teachers of this school were trained under the late Shri David Horsburgh, a leading educationist and teacher-educator at Neelbagh, Kolar District who also guided the school in its initial years.
This small group also realized that in order to make sense of education and its role in society one has to locate various educational activities into a general theoretical perspective. Hence from its very inception, the teachers of Digantar School approached educational theory with actual problems cropped up during their practice and did not take pedagogical principles for granted without actually testing them in the classroom.
Thus, a coherent vision of education started to take shape in which good quality education was not only seen as a fundamental right of every child but also as the most potent means of creating a just and equitable society. Slowly a consensus emerged that the aim of education should be to develop rational autonomy, sensitivity to all, democratic and egalitarian values, dignity of human life, capability to work, and respect for labour and simultaneously enabling the child to be a self-motivated and independent learner.
In 1986, this small group felt that the rural children especially the underprivileged had none or limited options in terms of getting a good education. Subsequently a project called Alternative Elementary Education Project (AEEP) was conceptualized with support from Ministry of HRD. Under this project three more schools were started ‘under the trees’ in adjacent villages. Local communities provided active support to these efforts. The approach used seemed to work and soon caught attention of other individuals and organizations working in the field of elementary education at state and national level. Digantar subsequently registered as a nonprofit organization in 1987 under Society’s Registration Act 1958.
Since then, Digantar has been running four schools under Alternative Education Project (AEP). This Project was in a sense was first move of Digantar as a voluntary organization in a larger educational world. At present, the AEP programme reaches out to 665 children (386 girls and 258 boys) through three schools running in the immediate rural neighbourhood on the outskirts of Jaipur. These schools offer free education to children till Senior Secondary. The organisation has developed its own teacher’s training programme for running this kind of school along with curriculum and text books till elementary level.
Digantar in its Present form
Besides Alternative Education Project, which is core programme of Digantar, organisation is implementing three major projects in government schools for providing quality education to all. Shiksha Samarthan project with support from WATIS is being implemented in 100 schools of Phagi block in Jaipur District and other two programmes are in Baran District of Rajasthan. Quality Education Programme which is being implemented in 78 schools of Baran district is a collaborative effort of Digantar, Vidya Bhawan Society, Udaipur, ICICI Centre for elementary education (ICEE), Pune and Rajasthan Shiksha Parishad. The Sandharbh Shala project also being implemented in 44 schools of Baran district with support from SDTT aims to address the issue of educational marginalisation of Sahariya tribal children through action research and by promotion of good quality education.
Idea behind these initiatives is to bring changes through genuine capacity building of schools and institutions such as Cluster/Block Resource Centres and District Institute of Educational Training etc. While collaborating with government Digantar tries to put forth the point that there are no quick-fix solutions in Education. In order to provide quality education to all, one needs to augment institutions and develop a shared vision of education among the teachers and other functionaries.
Digantar is also doing ‘The Early Literacy Research Project (ELRP)’ with support from ICEE to study Hindi teaching in government primary schools. This research is largely qualitative and is being carried out under the guidance of Dr. Caroline Dyer, Senior Lecturer, University of Leeds, U.K and Rohit Dhankar, Secretary, Digantar.
TARU (The Academic Resource Unit) provides continuous academic support to Digantar’s various project and other government and non-governmental programmes in the form of research studies, need-based training programmes, teacher education programmes, curriculum development and evaluation of Digantar’s own programmes and other organisations as well.
Shiksha Vimarsh is a bimonthly educational magazine in Hindi which seeks to initiate a dialogue on education through articles on contemporary educational thought and practices, policies, problems, case studies, researches and book reviews. The Resource Support Unit (TRSU), provides logistical and administrative support to all Digantar’s programmes and projects.
Besides implementing programmes directly at the grassroot level, Digantar is also participates in ongoing educational discourses. Some major moves in this regard and other notable contributions of Digantar are as follows:
• Lok Jumbish Sahaj Shiksha from 1995-1999.
• Alternative Schools of Rajeev Gandhi Prathmik Shiksha Mission, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh.
• Janashala Programme, Ministry of Human Resource Development, New Delhi.
• District Primary Education Programme, Ministry of Human Resource Development, New Delhi.
• Digantar also participated in formulation of National Curriculum Framework-2005 along with other organizations.
• Team members from Digantar were involved with preparation of (i) 'Source Book on Learning Assessment' at Primary Stage being prepared by NCERT and (ii) Preparation of Hindi Text Book of NCERT for class 10th.
• Digantar along with Eklavya and Vidhya Bhawan Society, Udaipur has worked with SCERT, Chattisgarh in areas like textbook development, teacher empowerment and curriculum development including curricular reform for D.Ed course.
• In November 2007, on request of SSA and UNICEF Digantar developed a training package on perspective building of 28,000 newly appointed government primary school teachers in Rajasthan in December 2007. The organization also trained 64 KRP’s from all over Rajasthan on the use of this training package.
• During the year 2007-08, Digantar took up a challenging assignment of preparing workbooks for class I to V in three subjects namely Mathematics, EVS and Hindi to enrich the utility of textbooks being used in schools of Rajasthan. The Rajasthan government has introduced these workbooks in the academic session 2009-10.
• Digantar is collaborating with Tata Institute of Social Sciences and other partners in running MA programme in elementary education. Digantar with Eklavya and Vidya Bhavan Society is also developing this programme in Hindi.
• Digantar organises a programme in Foundations of Education. This programme has been designed to provide inputs of an academic and professional development through a six-month intensive course in foundations of education.
I personally feel that Digantar is a no-frills, minimalist organization trying to make a sincere attempt in making a dent in the present educational scenario.
Regards
Rajesh
Wipro Fellow