Bringing Santhali Traditions to Mainstream Schooling: Lessons from Lakshmi Murmu Smriti Vidyalaya
By: Shipra Suneja, Rema Devi
1. Introduction
Knowledge of any community needs to be integrated into the education system provided to its members (Devy, 2010). Only then can one find a way of addressing the challenges that can strengthen communities instead of marginalizing them. The Adivasi communities have experienced discrimination and deprivation for a long time and several exemplary men and women have fought the systems against displacement, deforestation, issues related to land distribution, education and social discrimination. The value and importance of education in empowering communities to gain better living conditions and to deal with their low social status have been widely recognized.
The Lakshmi Murmu Smriti Vidyalaya in Bankura district, Chaachanpur, West Bengal run by the NGO, Chaachanpur Mahila Kalyan Samiti can be seen as one such initiative by two women who believed that only education could bring empowerment among the Santhali community and it would involve not merely modernization but its integration with the traditional cultural wisdom and language of the Adivasis. The school aims at providing education related to the current needs of the society and at the same time it upholds and strengthens the language and culture of the Santhali community. Through the children, the school reaches out to the community, enabling participation of its members in the school.
In order to better understand the need of a school like Lakshmi Murmu Smriti Vidyalaya and its functioning, we discuss the status of education of children in the Adivasi communities, here, briefly.
2. Education of Adivasi children
The education of the Adivasi child has undergone much change over the decades. There has been a consistent rise in the number of children going to school (Xaxa, 2014). But the quality of education and children’s experiences in mainstream schools have been of much concern. The present strategy of mainstreaming Adivasi children through conventional education is widely debated. It is generally agreed that modern education barely takes the Adivasi culture, traditions and languages into consideration. Several times, the language used for instruction and the content is far removed from the child’s ecology (Bagai & Nundy, 2009). Children also face other forms of social discrimination in classrooms that leads to their exclusion (Xaxa, 2014). Though there are examples of indigenous people reaching higher levels of employment and living standards through conventional education, the underachievement of the majority of Adivasi children, and the struggle they undergo to cope with the modern/mainstream education, is recognized globally. The reasons are manifold – language barriers, accessibility to schools, teacher competencies and interest, out of context learning in schools, conditions at home, exclusion, socio-economic status, undernourishment, poor policy outreach besides others. These issues may lead to Adivasi children either not enrolling into schools; dropping out; or, being pushed out of the mainstream education system. Even if they continue, the learning outcomes have been observed to be below par (Xaxa, 2014). In the process, the child also loses touch with his/her traditional skills and cultural practices. Lack of awareness about their rights and entitlements have also contributed to the deprived circumstances in which an Adivasi child may be growing up.
3. Setting up a community school
Lying on the banks of the Darkeshwar River and surrounded by sal, palash, ber and palm trees is Chaachanpur village, home to the Chaachanpur Mahila Kalyan Samiti. The road from the State highway meets the kaccha road that connects village Chachanpur to the rest of the region. Arunopol Seal, who is with the organization since 2012, tells us that it is only in recent years that the road has been built. Even electricity reached the village only in 2012.
Reba and Lakshmi, who themselves belonged to the Santhali tribe, started their work with the community through an NGO in Ayodhya Gram Panchayat of Purulia to promote and facilitate the development of self-help groups (SHGs). Their association went beyond financial aspects of the SHGs and included empowering women to fight against discrimination and for their rights and entitlements. But, in due course, they lost the support from the NGO, as the power structure of the village went against them. But both these women were not willing to give up their mission of empowering their community, and they initiated an NGO named Chachanpur Mahila Kalyan Samiti, with livelihood promotion as their main objective. And a few livelihood programs along with awareness initiatives were started for women.
They realized that intervention in the domain of education is a more effective way of also engaging with the community. A home school was started for the younger generation of the community in Chaachanpur with the idea of integrating the discourses of the state language and curriculum to the Santhali way of life rather than isolating children from it. They were forced to shut down the school in 2012, due to the continuing discords among the community members and the ill health of Lakshmi.
This was a setback, but it did not deter Reba and Lakshmi’s will to bring education to the children of the tribal community. A fellowship from Action Aid, to promote grassroots leadership enabled them to restart community initiatives by the end of the same year. They wanted to bring together the villagers who were in constant discord with one another to strengthen the economic and social systems of the village. A suggestion made by an elderly woman of the village of engaging with children that will provide access to their parents led them to think about setting up a crèche in the village. Mothers who came to drop the children to the crèche before setting out for work sat around for small conversations that initiated discussions on various social concerns. They organized get-togethers for the villagers on various events where they engaged in a dialogue on various social issues, including the pertinent problem of alcoholism in the village.
Mr Kajal Sengupta, of the Kishore Bharti Trust, showed belief in Lakshmi and Reba’s dream and supported the establishment of the school. The trust provided support in the form of finances and a curriculum and pedagogical framework to begin an education program with the children of the Santhali village in Chaachanpur. This led to the start of a primary school, later named as Lakshmi Murmu Smriti Vidyalaya, in the memory of Lakshmi Murmu. It provided the opportunity to several children from the village who did not have access to education because of its remote location or were push-outs from school because of language barriers and cultural out-casting. The school slowly became a space for the community members to discuss their concerns and work towards strengthening the idea of community ownership.
3.1 The school
The school started in 2015 with the hope of aligning the ideas of education of organization, as well as the villagers, so that education could be seen as a collective desire for the upliftment their community. The school plays an important role in enabling the community to be more and more collaborative in terms of ensuring infrastructural and organizational development, social and cultural cohesiveness and providing education to the children.
Currently, there are 90 children and 6 teachers in the school. Some children from the school also stay in the residential facility provided by the organization. These children (around 25 in number) are those whose parents have migrated to nearby cities; those who have been abandoned by their parents and some others who have lacked the support for education. They make use of this facility and receive food and accommodation after school hours. The caretakers are women from the community itself.
3.2 Designing the learning process – the ideological beliefs
The guiding objective for the teaching-learning processes is inspired by Gandhi and Tagore’s vision of education – to merge conventional education (Porashona) with the day-to-day life experiences (Jeevan vidhya) of the child. The school also follows Swami Vivekananda’s idea of ‘Man Making’ – sensitizing the children about their own community and to lead them to think about the entire planet. This capacity develops from nurturing all aspects of development – physical development, so that the child is healthy and participates in learning with enthusiasm; cultural development, so that the child inculcates affiliation to the community; and, social development, so that the child nurtures a sense of social belongingness and can think about society members.
3.2.1 The curriculum
The curriculum includes Santhali and Bangla languages, English and numeracy. On Sundays, children engage in drawing, arts, music and other activities to explore nature. The classes are divided as:
Probesh
This is the entry-level, similar to kindergarten. Children who come to Probesh are in the age group of four to five years. The first emphasis is on building a trusting relationship between the children and the teachers that would make children want to come to school. Then, on how children develop relationships with other children in the school, learn values of cleanliness, and respect each other. Next comes language, which is taught through pictorial construction of the scripts. The medium of communication is Santhali as several children have it as their home language. The teacher also uses Bengali for children whose home language is Bengali. In this way, children use their own language and also get introduced to another language. It is interesting how equal emphasis is placed on both, the state as well as the Adivasi, languages. This, according to the members, is a significant step in overcoming caste and language barriers. Once children are comfortable with both these languages, English is introduced.
Prorambhic
After one year in Probesh, Children move to Prorambhic, which means, ‘beginning’. It can be seen as Senior Kindergarten. A few children join this group directly too.
Grade I and II
The curriculum is provided by the Kishore Bharti Trust for these two grades. It is deeply woven with the concept of ‘Bratachari’. According to Mihir da and Kajal da (as members of Kishore Bharti Trust, fondly call them), Bratachari is a holistic way of leading one’s life. It is the harmonious integration of mind, body and soul expressed through practical actions woven into a person’s routine. The concept is introduced to the students in Probesh itself and is more articulated and practised from grade I onwards. Students make promises to themselves, keeping some core values in mind that are central to the practice of Bratachari-ghayan, shram, satya, ekta and ananda1. These values are reflected in the lessons in classes and are taught through performative arts drawn from Santhali art and culture. Everyday activities like washing one’s utensils, being responsible for one’s books are seen as part of the bratachari way of living. The students continue to practice these values in the home context as well. This is internalized with the dedicated involvement of two strong champions of Bratachari – Mihir Sengupta and Dilip Majumdar, who were impressed by the devotion and hard work done by Reba and Lakshmi to bring changes through education.
Grade III and IV
The state syllabus is taken up in grade III and IV that equips students to enter the public school system. Even though the school is till grade IV, the teachers and members of the organisation remain constantly in touch with their students after it and children who have passed out of the school often drop in and help in functions or spend time in the school during their holidays.
3.2.2 The pedagogy
Even though the class grades are specified, the school allows flexibility to the teachers to decide which class suits a particular child based on his/her current learning status and when the child is ready to move to the next class. Children are given several opportunities to express their abilities and hone them. The focus is on children developing an interest in learning and not really on competing with each other. The teachers ensure that the family members of each child are also engaged in the education process by constantly visiting them, trying to understand the family circumstances and their distinct strengths and weaknesses. Several opportunities to have community gatherings in school are created so that parents, for one reason or the other, keep visiting the school.
The teaching-learning process effectively integrates both oral and aural forms of expression and communication that Adivasis have followed traditionally. Stories are extensively used in the classes and lessons are introduced through stories. The teachers make a conscious effort to enable learning through nature, the context in which the child’s life is embedded. For example, seasons are explained through the realities that any village child is exposed to – the fruits, flowers, festivals that are experienced by the child locally.
For teachers, it is not simply ‘teaching’ the children but engaging with them emotionally and guiding them through daily experiences of life. Two of the teachers are alumni of the school, who joined back to work with the children as they found it most satisfying. They stressed that the most important aspect was the bonding between students and teachers that forms the basis of all interactions. The teachers are addressed as Dada and Di, the way children addressed their elder siblings at home. Teachers also receive regular mentoring by the Kishore Bharti Trust to build up their capacities to engage with children in a more collaborative manner.
3.3 A day in school
The daily routine of the school is in alignment with the objective of learning by doing; inculcating dignity of labour; and, building life skills. The day starts with the residential children participating in cleaning the school and living spaces. Then, they take bath followed by breakfast. The day-scholars join them, and the school day begins with the morning assembly. Children practice Bratachari where everyone takes the oath to value equality, knowledge and honesty. They pledge to work in collaboration with each other for their village, country and for the larger universe with love that does not distinguish between self and the other. This is followed by daily prayers.
After the assembly, children move to their respective classes where the teaching-learning process is enriched with stories and varied activities using local materials available. The classroom teaching is also inspired by the Bratachari practices where the attention span of the child is considered, and the focus is on bettering life skills and strengthening community values. Everyone takes part in all school activities whether it is cleaning the school premises, distributing food, washing dishes or taking care of the vermicomposting set up by the students themselves. Older children guide the young ones in these activities. The school is considered as an extension of their homes and the homes an extension of the school.
3.4 Community involvement in school
Another way in which the school ensures that the community is a participant in the child’s learning is through the school committee which is constituted of teachers, parents and other members of the community. These committee members form an integral part of the decisions made in the school. The committee members also join the teachers during regular home visits and are active in any cultural and other events in the school.
3.5 Parent-Teacher meeting
Parents are invited to school every month to discuss the learning outcomes and progress of their children. This is also combined with cultural events to exhibit various other talents of children to the larger community. The alumni also takes part in these cultural events. According to the school members, parents have expressed their happiness over the positive changes in children, their interest in studies and other activities in school. Even if they may not fully understand the pedagogical processes, parents are confident that their children are learning and receiving effective education.
4. Bringing a change
Even though the school is only a few years old and it would be too early to evaluate how ‘successful’ it is, there are several indicators, as pointed out by Arunopol, that clearly suggest that the school is bringing meaningful education to the community. The few years have provided immense learning, according to him, for a shift from working for the community to working together with the community. Over the years, the number of students has increased and there has been a consistent strengthening of the engagement with the community. Parents’ contribution in the form of a small fee amount or as their labour for infrastructure development also shows how they have developed trust in the school.
The members believe that in many ways the school has also enabled the strengthening of bonds between families in the village and rejuvenated the feeling of community through the children. They have been able to integrate modern education with Adivasi cultural practices into the school system. Indeed, the strategy of reaching out to the community through the school has proved to be effective in their experience. Children, with their experiences in school, are able to influence the minds of the community members towards the importance of education.
5. Challenges in community-building and preserving traditions
Bringing the community together for the very purpose of collective ownership was termed as a major challenge for the organization. Reba di points to the major shift in community living that has taken place over the period of time. Even though development in the forms of roads, connectivity, employment schemes such as NREGA, person-oriented welfare schemes, such as PDS have supported people, it has also reduced the interdependence among them, which the Adivasi community, previously, thrived upon. Community ownership in a general sense is reducing and so it has become more and more difficult to get the community together. Even though school becomes a common ground for people where they can discuss the issues of the community, and take up developmental issues, but it has been challenging to sustain any form of commitment towards it.
Another major challenge regarding the curriculum is to integrate the syllabus provided by the state with the local contextual needs of the community. The school makes efforts to ensure that the learning takes place outside the textbook as well, but the use of textbooks is more limiting than supporting the understanding of the Adivasi life. The English language has become an important bridge between the Adivasi community and the others and therefore, is slowly becoming an integral part of the curriculum. Teaching English is seen as a challenge because of the alienated context of the language and the fact that teachers themselves lack expertise in the language and skill to teach it.
Even though teachers receive regular training in engaging children actively, they tend to slip into traditional forms of teaching, like rote learning that they have experienced. This, according to the members, has remained a continuous challenge. Also, young teachers tend to not stay for long with the school, which makes it difficult to sustain the change in pedagogy.
Many parents, community members and even a section the advisory committee are fixated on the idea of ‘modern western education’ where reading and writing of English are seen as the main educational goals. It becomes a major challenge to convince parents, at times, of the curriculum and pedagogical practices followed in the school.
Reba di and the (late) Lakshmi Murmu have often challenged the patriarchal status quo existing in their community, and that has sometimes led to discords with certain members of this village. This has continued to be a challenge even though people have become more accepting of the organization.
6. The way ahead
Reba di reflects deeply when asked what lays in the future for the school. She says that the future is not in developing the school physically or expanding it but, as it has always been, a space to learn for children who do not have many opportunities or support systems for education; a space for children to grow independent in their thinking and also commit to the development of their community. She wants the students and the extended community to take ownership of the school so that providing education is not only her or the organization’s endeavour but a collective effort made by all members of the community.
7. Some reflections
Laxmi Murmu School was started by two passionate women ousted by their own community for speaking against the ills of the system. They believed that the education of young children is a way through which one can deeply influence the new generation and enable it to engage with the old generation. The school stands as an exemplary effort in bringing the Santhali traditions and the mainstream education together so that learning does not feel like an alienated concept and children are able to appreciate their own culture as well.
Several aspects have contributed to it:
- To reduce the gap between Adivasis and other cultures it was ensured that children speaking Bengali and Santhali as their first language study together and learn each others’ language. This was believed to provide a common platform for discussions among the communities to question boundaries of caste and religion. This practice is indeed one of a kind where the language that has been given an inferior status on various public platforms, is given equal status by providing opportunities to the majority to learn the language of the Adivasi as well.
- The school has become a safe space for children to engage with each other, and for parents of both communities (Santhali- and Bengali-speaking) to respect and collaborate with each other.
- The pedagogical practices that the school implements go beyond textbooks – it weaves in the local context of children, their experiences and effectively brings in the concept of Bratachari to inculcate values of working together, for each other.
- Within this structure, children also go through the conventional forms of learning that parents also expect from the school. It is not always simple to bring both these aspects together. The organization with the support from Kishore Bharti is constantly working towards integrating the conventional forms of education with the ideas of learning that they closely believe in.
It is, therefore, very important that the various processes of the organization are thoroughly documented. It will help other such organizations to learn ways of building collaborative grounds for Adivasi cultures to thrive along with other cultures instead of having isolated spaces for Adivasi children or them facing isolation in mainstream spaces.
Acknowledgements: We are grateful to members of the Chachanpur Mahila Kalyan Samiti, Kishore Bharati Trust, students and teachers of Lakshmi Murmu Smriti Vidyalaya for sharing their experiences with us. Special thanks to Rebi di, Arunopol Seal, Mihir Sengupta, Kajal Sengupta, Dilip Majumdar for providing us valuable insights into the working of the organization. We appreciate the effort of Ankita Sanyal, (M Phil Fellow in Development Practice, Ambedkar University, Delhi) who coordinated the village visits and agreed to give some photographs of the school for this article.
AUTHORS
Shipra Suneja, Faculty, Azim Premji University
Rema Devi, member, Field Practice team, Azim Premji University. She supports coordination between practice organizations and the Practice Connect team. She has worked with various civil society organizations across India on various aspects of social development.
