Republic Day
Thursday 26h January was India's Republic Day, or Independence day. Ecoles De La Terre  has 5 schools and the tradition is that the director visit all 5 schools on that day to unfurl and salute the flag of India and join in the singing of the national anthem. I was very lucky to take part in this day and visit all the schools with him. It was just great to see the kids all lined up in the school uniform, with hair all combed and oiled, trousers pressed and shoes polished and just so excited to have a fun day. Each school had drawn a map of India on the earth around the flag pole and adorned the map with scattered flowers and photos of Mahatma Gandhi. Some of the kids did song and dance performances which were eagerly applauded by their class mates and conveyed by loudspeaker to the the rest of the village so that everyone could join in the festivities; whether they wanted to or not. All the schools were brick buildings with either mud or concrete siding, tin or straw roofs and a mud courtyard with some flowering plants. There were no benches or tables in the class rooms and all the children sat on mats on the floor. The school had anywhere form 2 to 5 rooms with holes in the walls where windows should be and a covered veranda, cool and breezy which is ideal for the intense summer heat but not so good in the cold. School would have 200 to 500 children in classes and a few teachers to do the job of many.
As the visitor I had the chance to sit and talk with some of the teachers and one head of the village who informed me that lack of good health facilities was a problem for many families. One school had a health centre next door and was teaching basic health care and disease prevention to the people in the area. Another, rural school was lucky to have a plot of land next door so part of there curriculum is to teach the kids farming and animal husbandry skills and also used the milk, vegetable and fruit to have school meals. In the village there is a big concern that many kids will leave for Indian overpopulated cities so this school is trying to teach a respect for the land, income generation through farming as well as healthy diet. Just having the school does not fix the problems of village life but it is a good solid foundation and focal point to encourage all the villagers to participate in the development of their village and their kids future.
One thing I did notice this week while doing the data entry for the kids exam results is that attendance is not consistent. For example out of 114 days for a term, kids were coming to school anywhere from 40 to 90 days. Comparing this to the kids marks I saw that out of a possible 450 marks the top mark was 350 while most were scrapping by with 150-250. I was a bit frustrated to think of the work that goes into creating these school and that they are free and yet the parents were not insisting on good attendance, so how could a kid even begin to get good marks. I chatted with some local friends and the director of Ecoles De La Terre to find an answer. In the past kids have just not gone to school, many if not most adults over 25, while they may speak several languages to interact with tourist, are illiterate. Children traditionally worked in the fields, in the home or gone to work to add to the family income and since in the rural areas the government school is far from the village, with impassible roads during monsoon, kids just did not go to school. Bihar has shown me that education is truly a luxury and all too often for most people putting food in your mouth and just surviving comes first. Now NGO schools in Bodhgaya and the surrounding area have only been functioning since the late 90's and what they are attempting to do is change a complete way of thinking about the value of a child and education as an investment for the opportunity at a better income and better life. Many parents never went to school and can simply not conceive of the value of an education, so no wonder they do not push their kids to attend class. There are mechanisms in place to report why a child does not attend class such as being ill, but needless to say this week I will be concocting some ideas for getting parents more involved.
Understanding this gap in the parents education I realized that in many ways just getting a kid to be in class in Bihar, far less take exams and get into college, which many of the older students are now facing is a fantastic accomplishment. 10 years is a very short time and parent will only begin to see the value of an education when the older children get jobs, now this will take at least another 5 years. Since the school term will be ending soon Rajesh the director has been consumed this week working with teachers in getting the older children passed their exams and accepted into college. So it take time to change a mind-set but Ecoles De La Terre seems to be performing miracles on a shoe string.