Purusottam Singh Thakur

Hi Purusottam Singh Thakur is basically a journalist having more than 20 years experience in both print and electronic media which includes NDTV India. He loves to be called a rural reporter as his mentor P Sainath did. Now he is with the Azim Premji Foundation where one of his important job is to write on good practices in schools ,inspiring stories of teachers,communities etc under reasons for hope. his contact mail id: purusottam.thakur@azimpremjifoundation.org purusottam25@gmail.com

Friday, 27 November 2015

Chandanpur school

छत्तीसगढ़ का एक पहरिया आदिवासी स्कूल
पुरुषोत्तम सिंह ठाकुर
हम जिस स्कूल की बात करने जा रहे हैं वह घने जंगलों के बीच स्थित एक पिछड़े जन जातियों की गाँव में है। गाँव का नाम चंदनपुर है जो छत्तीसगढ़ के धमतरी ज़िले के आदिवासी विकासखंड नगरी में मौजूद है। और स्कूल है शासकीय प्राथमिकशाला, चंदनपुर (कोर्रा) और वह जन जाति हैं कमार।

जंगलों के बीच भी रहने वाले इन कमार आदिवासियों के लिए एक कमरे का एक स्कूल है जहां बच्चे पढ़ने आरहे हैं। स्कूल में बाउंड्री नहीं है अभी शौचालय जरूर बन रहा है। अभी यहाँ 2 शिक्षक है, जितेंद्र कुमार ध्रुव और टेकराम साहू । जितेंद्र ध्रुव का तो यह पहला नियुक्ति है जो यहाँ 2013 में आए जब की टेकरम पिछले साल शिक्षकों की युक्तियुक्त करण के तहत आए।

हमने बच्चों से यूं बातें की कि छुट्टियों में क्या किया ? उनमें से ज्यादातर ने कहा बहुत खेले । उनमें से कईयों ने कहा चूहा मारा, चिड़िया मारा । कमार चूहा और चिड़िया भी मार के खाते हैं और बच्चे भी बचपन से इस काम में पारंगत होते हैं।
और एक यह स्कूल गये थे तब गर्मी का दिन था और एक दो बच्चे ही आए थे। तब शिक्षक जितेंद्र ध्रुव गाँव की ओर निकल पड़े बच्चों के घर की ओर । कक्षा दूसरी के एक छात्रा को ढूंढते हुए गाँव के पास ही वह महुआ के पेड़ के नजदीक पहुँच गये । वह छात्रा ने कहा की उसकी नानी आज गाँव गई है इसलिए उन्होने कहा की आज महुआ तोड़ने चली जा इसलिए आई है। ऐसे ही ज्यादातर बच्चे महुआ तोड़ने चले गये थे।

हमने शिक्षकों से चर्चा की और स्कूल के बारे में शिक्षकों का नज़रिया जानना चाहा । इस पर शिक्षक जितेंद्र ध्रुव ने कहा की, “ आप देख ही रहे हैं स्कूल में यूं तो बहुत सारी परेशानी हैं और कुछ कुछ अब दूर हो रहा है। मुख्य परेशानी है शौचालय का जो इस साल बन रहा है। और दूसरी है अहाता की वह भी अगर बन जाता तो यह स्कूल आकर्षक लगता और बहुत सारी परेशानी लगभग 
दूर हो जाता। ”

और पढ़ने लिखने के हिसाब से देखा जाये तो ?

“ पढ़ने लिखने के हिसाब से देखा जाये तो गाँव और स्कूल तो पिछड़ा हुआ ही है। क्योंकि पिछड़े जन जातिओं के बच्चे हैं जो उच्च शिक्षा प्राप्त ही नहीं कर पाते ।
हम लोग अपने तरफ से अपने शिक्षण कार्य में नए नए नवाचार कर रहे हैं, जिसके चलते बच्चे भी अब आसानी से हम से घुलमिल चुके हैं। अब अपनी बातों को हम से शेयर भी करने लगे हैं । 

पहले मौसम के अनुरूप बच्चों में दादखाज खुजली होती थी लेकिन अब समय समय पर यहाँ जो आने वाले एएनएम और एम पी डब्लू से इन बच्चों का नियमित स्वास्थ्य परीक्षण और दवाई मुहैया करवाने से वह कम हुआ है और स्वच्छता आया है।
बच्चों के कपड़े के बटन वगैरह टूटे हुए होते थे तो हमने स्कूल में सुई धागा और बटन भी मुहैया कराया।

बच्चों को नेल कटर देकर हम उनका उंगली पकड़कर नाखून काटे हैं तो अब धीरे धीरे सीख रहे हैं बच्चे नाखून काटना। अब तो बच्चे स्वयं ही बोलते हैं की सर नेल कटर दो नाखून बड़ा हो गया है। ”
शिक्षा में गुणवत्ता सुधार के लिए क्या कर रहे हैं ?

“ गुणवत्ता सुधार के लिए डेलि होम वर्क करवाते हैं। उन्हें बार बार बोलने के बावजूद होम वर्क करके नहीं आते हैंऔर हमें पता है की घर में ऐसा माहौल भी नहीं है , इसलिए प्रार्थना के बाद हम होमवर्क करवाते हैं।
बच्चे दातुन करके नहीं आते थे, तो प्रार्थना के बाद हम अपने सामने में नियमित रूप से दातुन करवाए हैं।

यह जंगली इलका है इसका भी हम बच्चों में शिक्षा शिक्षण में भरपूर उपोयोग कर रहे हैं। हम उन्हें कक्षा से बाहर लेकर वातावरण के बारे में बताते हैं। यूं तो स्थानीय  पेड़ों के बारे में पक्षियों के बारे में जानकारी उनकी तरह से पुख्ता है पर उस पेड़ों और पक्षियों के नाम वह अपने स्थानीय भाषा में जानते हैं जिन्हें हम पुस्तक के भाषा में बताकर जानकारी देते हैं। क्योंकि वस्तुओं का प्रत्यक्ष अवलोकन भी जरूरी है तो बच्चा अपना सही समझ बना पाता है, वह दिमाग में स्थायी रहता है उसे भूलते नहीं हैं।
 “ यहाँ कोई भी जरूरत हो स्कूल का तो गाँव वाले और पालक पूरा सहयोग करते हैं। जिस से हम को भी प्रोत्साहन मिलता है ।

हम अब इन बच्चों के भाषा भी कुछ कुछ सीखने लगे हैं। जब उस में से कुछ शब्दों का प्रयोग करते हैं तो बच्चे भी काफी खुश होते हैं। ”
अब आपको अच्छा लग रहा है ?

“ अब धीरे धीरे अच्छा लगने लगा है। नालों में पानी भरजाता है, 2 किमी दूर मोटर साइकल छोड़ के आना पड़ता है है पर अब धीरे धीरे हम यहाँ रमने लगे हैं और यह स्कूल और गाँव अच्छा लागने लगा है।

शाला इतिहास पंजी के अनुसार यह स्कूल गाँव वालों के बार बार मांग के बाद 8 जून 2006 में चंदनपुर गाँव के ही एक ग्रामीण रतिराम कमार के घर में शुरू हुआ और छ्गन लाल विश्वकर्मा शिक्षक के बतौर नियुक्त हुए, इस प्रकार कूल 16 बच्चों से यह स्कूल शुरू हुआ। लेकिन दुख की बात है की 2 महीने भी पूरे नहीं हुआ था की शिक्षक इस्तीफा देकर चले गए। इस प्रकार पिछले 8 सालों में इस स्कूल में 10 शिक्षक नियुक्त हुए जिनमें से 5 शिक्षक इस्तीफा देकर चले गए। ”

अब लेकिन इस स्कूल में 2 शिक्षकों का टिकने इस गाँव के बुजुर्ग मयाराम की उम्मीदें जग गई है। उन्होने कहा की यहाँ अब माध्यमिक शाला की जरूरत है क्योंकि यह एक तो जंगली इलाका है दूसरी यहाँ बारिश में एक तरह से रास्ता बंद हो जाता है जिस से बच्चों का आना जाना मुश्किल हो जाता है। तो अब प्रशासन और सरकार की बारी है की वह इन बच्चों के लिए माध्यमिक शाला खोले और गाँव में कम से कम अच्छी रास्ता मुहैया कराये।


A school of a tribal village need more attention !


A school of a tribal village
 need more attention !
By Purusottam Singh Thakur/ Chhattisgarh
“Our students even come to school without brushing teeth, so on regular basis we taught them how to brush the teeth by “daatun”( Daatun is the small branch of a few specific trees which is used in rural India for brushing the teeth and cleaning the tongue ), ” says Jitendra Dhruv and Tekram Sahu, the teachers ( shikshak - panchayat) duo of the Primary school, Chandanpur.
Chandanpur is located in a remote place and surrounded by forest. It is 6 km away from the Nagri-Dhamtari road and 106 km from the Raipur, the state capital of Chhattisgarh.  The village comes under the most backward and tribal populated Nagri block of Dhamtari district. It has a population of 95 as per the 2011 census and all belong to the Kamar tribe which is comes under PVTG (Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group). Kamars makes their livelihood by making bamboo baskets and through agricultural work. Traditionally they also make mahua liquor for self-consumption but now some of them also sell it as the nearby villagers visits to have liquor in some places.
There is a one-room primary school in the village where a total of 13 students are enrolled including 7 students in class one, no students in class two, 4 students in class 3, no students in class 4 and 2 students in class 5. There are two teachers (shikshak – panchayat) in the school; one of them is trained and the other one is untrained.
“We provided a nail cutter to cut their nails but they were not acquainted with it so we showed them how to use it. Now they ask for nail cutter and do it on their own. We are also keeping button, thread and needle in the school, so that the students can use it to replace the buttons on their shirts which have fallen off.” said Jitendra.
“They don’t do homework at home, and we know why they don’t because they don’t have an environment at home so we provide them time just after the prayer to complete the same.” said Jitendra Dhruva. “We are so friendly with them that, now they are sharing their problems, experiences and also asking questions.” he added.
Jitendra Dhruv is an assistant teacher and he belongs to Gond tribe. He started out as a teacher just after he completed the 12th class whereas his colleague Tekram Sahu is a trained teacher. They are young and energetic but we observed that though they doing their best, they need some capacity building and more exposure to the recent pedagogical methods of teaching.
But what the teachers appreciate about the students is that they are good and they have very good knowledge about their surroundings and environment. They can identify various trees and plants. But one problem is that though they know the names of the plants and trees and their use in their language, the teachers explain the same in the bookish language.
In our last visit we have seen the teacher visiting village to locate a student who was absent. She was a student of class two. When the teacher did not find her at her home, he went to a nearby jungle and located her under a mahua tree collecting mahua flowers. From her we came to know that since her grandma had gone to some relative’s house she had been collecting mahua for last two days in her place. So the teachers too understand the role of the children in their family.
The teachers face a lot of problems to reach the village, especially in the rainy season. The school is just 8 years old; it was established in 2008 and started in a mud house of a villager. But interestingly in these 8 years, 10 teachers joined the school and 5 of them have resigned and left! One can imagine one possible reason why they had to resign and was because the remoteness of the school was the issue.
But the two teachers who are there now say that when they joined they were little shocked but now they are fine despite the odd situations. They are interested to do something special and are willing to put in extra effort for this.
 The teachers appreciate the villagers too. “The villagers are very co-operative. All the villagers attend the SMC meeting and help in the development process of the school.”
“The school has been established here after our long demand and persuasion. And after the establishment of this school our children are going here but now we need a middle school as the nearest one is 6 km away from the village and to reach there you need to go through the forest.” say Mayaram Netam, the founder of the village.  
Let us hope one day these children of a lesser God will attract the attention of both the administration and the NGOs working in the field of education and they too will have a quality education.
( EOS)

The author is associated with the Azim Premji Foundation and the story have been written to create a better environment for quality education.  









  


Thursday, 29 October 2015

Single Teacher school, Batanharra

Single Teacher school, Batanharra

    Nagri Block, Dhamtari, Chhattisgarh
    Purusottam Singh Thakur
    Azim Premji Foundation


    Of all blocks of Dhamtari district, Nagri is the most backward, most populated by tribals, and covered with forests. The condition of the tribal schools in this remote part of India is in no way different from that of those in many tribal areas of the country. Primary School, Batanharra is run by the Department of Tribal Welfare, Government of Chhattisgarh. Batanharra is 60 km from Dhamtariand 17 km from the block headquarters, Nagri. It is located in a remote and jungle area. There is no pucca road; we reached the school through a jungle route from the district headquarters (Dhamtari) by bike.

    When we visited the school one afternoon, we found the students doing some task on their own in an openmandapThey greeted us with “Good afternoon, Sir” and some of them bent to touch our feet despite our protests (in Chhattisgarh, students normally greet teachers and elders by touching feet). When we asked about the teachers, they showed us into a classroom; when we went inside we found the teacher surrounded by students as he corrected their books.
    It was time for the mid-day meal, so he came out of the class and the children assembled in the open mandap with their utensils after washing their hands at the hand pump. We have seen some other schools where the school authorities complain that there is no dinning space for children; here we saw the solution in a mandap. The mandap has been built by the villagers themselves and is being used for several purposed including teaching, as a dining space, for School Management Committee (SMC) meetings, children’s meeting, and so on.

    It is a small village under Ghotgaon Gram Panchayat with a population of about 700 villagers and less than 100 households. This is almost a 100% tribal village and people are dependent on both agriculture and forest produce for their livelihood.

    The school has a strength of 64 students which comprises of 29 boys and 35 girls.
       
    The school has a boundary wall, but there is problem of water, hence they are not able to maintain a kitchen garden, explains Head Teacher, Mr. Puranikaram Netam. The school building is dilapidated, and this is a big problem in the rainy season. The Cluster Academic Co-coordinator (CAC) has assured the school of sending the proposal to the authority for repairing the building. Mr. Netam says the government is providing free study materials like books and school uniforms.  

    The sanctioned number of teachers for the school is three but it has been a single teacher school for long. This is obviously problematic for the school as the students are deprived of subject-specific teachers. “Since there are 5 classes and I am covering all the classes, we are not able finish the chapters in time. I am not able to maintain the CCE documents and many other things which I should have done. Official as well as academic work is both getting disturbed. So I am very worried about it.”says Netam Sir.

    Not just the teacher, the villagers and the SMC (School Management Committee) are also worried about this. “We have been to the Collector to apprise him of the situation and demanded immediate postings of teachers. The Collector assured us that this will be done within a week, but all in vain! We are still waiting, and weeks have passed.” says Anil Kumar Som, member of the SMC and a member of the Halba community.

    “We are obliged to Netam Sir. Despite all odds he regularly comes to school and teaches the students, and he is trying his best to build the future of our children,” explains Ramchand Taram, another villager and a member of the Gond tribe.

    We observed that despite all these odds, Mr. Netam, the HT, regularly comes to school; he had taken only 4/5 days of leave in all of last year only because he was not well. In his absence, the middle school teacher managed the school. He says, “My school is a single teacher school, so I cannot afford to be absent when it’s not very urgent. Because students are regular, they are very active, they participates in cultural and sports activities. They are always ready to learn and are very affectionate among themselves.”

    The school may not be a model school based on different parameters set by educationists and the norms of RtE Act and NCF, but after visiting the school and meeting the students, teacher and parents, one cannot say it is not a good school. In a remote pocket, a school with a teacher who is regular and sincere and who has great concern for students and people is a definitely a good school at least in the eyes of the villagers.
     

    School development in Agricultural fund/ Hindi /published in Gaon Connection

    This story in Hindi was published in Gaon connection.