So dear readers,
Let us get into the meat (or, if veggie, perhaps the fermented tofu) of why we are in India. For those of you unfamiliar with the story of the Gilly Mundy Memorial Community School (GMMCS), let me give you a brief overview…
Gilly Mundy was a passionate campaigner for equality, justice and human rights, known principally for his work at the Newham Monitoring Project in the ’90s. He was a dedicated force on the Stephen Lawrence inquiry, in addition to many other less noteworthy, but equally vital causes.
The story of the School, and how it came to be built in Gilly’s honour begins in 1955 with Gilly’s Grandfather, who effectively started a village when he moved his family from Rajasthan to an area of Haryana that pretty much resembled a desert. However, this shrewd elder realised that the new canal which runs through what is now the village of Buwan Kothi would create a large amount of fertile land from this desertish area. This proved a very astute assessment, and the houses of his and his family’s descendents are now an established part of the village community. The village sits snuggly in the area of India known as the Bread Basket – the collective name for the farming heartlands of northern India. The innumerable fields sit upon a vast former sea bed, which accounts for the very flat nature of the expanse of Punjab and Haryana.
Let us fast forward from the above history/geography lesson to Christmas eve 1995. Over 30 europeans have descended on Buwan Kothi to celebrate the marriage of Gilly and Debbie. The guests are so touched by the kindness, generosity and warm hospitality of the village community that they decide, as they sit around a giant bonfire on the day after the marriage ceremony, to create a charity dedicated to ‘helping haryana’s rural communities build a sustainable future’.
Things moved slowly at first, but by early 2007 things were really taking shape. The group decided on the calling the charity the Buwan Kothi International Trust (BKIT), and the relevant charity formation applications were made.
However, tragedy struck on 17th March 2007. Gilly, now working for the charity Inquest, suffered an aortic aneurism and died at his desk. In keeping with the way he had served throughout his adult life, Gilly wished to be a full organ donor…and the family now know of at least 13 people who benefited from Gilly organs.
During this period the approval of BKIT’s application for charitable status was approved and the charity number came through on the day Gilly was cremated.
Check:
To honour Gilly’s memory, the members of BKIT set about a hugely successful period of fundraising that gave clear testimony to the way Gilly had touched so many lives. Having explored the possibility of upgrading the village’s existing school (vetoed by the govt) the group purchased some land just outside Lehrian village (approx 4km from Buwan Kothi). Gilly’s father Mota dug the first sod of the foundations in august 2007 and work on the school building continued apace thereafter. The school’s first principal, Mr Nammalvar, was appointed in January 2008, and in April 2008 just over a year after Gilly’s death, the school began operations with just 50 pupils.
Fast forward to the present (a mere 3½ years) and one now finds a school of over 350 pupils with ample sports grounds, a library, a science lab and a computer room. The main challenge now facing the school is that it is somewhat a victim of its own success. The school’s first principal Mr Nammalvar left earlier this year to be replaced by Mr Sharma. Mr Nammalvar’s great gift to the school was that he was a modernist and a passionate advocate for a child-centred approach to education – something which certainly runs counter to the traditional Indian approach of ‘if the child does not understand, beat it harder’. This more nurturing, child-centred approach fitted exactly with the vision of the type of education the GMMCS aims to provide (the school’s motto is ‘Education with a Difference’).
Sadly, Mr Nammalvar’s somewhat ‘ignore it and hope it’ll go away’ method of dealing with the administrative and financial aspects of the school’s running meant that when he left, it became clear that the accounts and book-keeping (not helped by an accountant who was apparently more inept than sedated sloth) resembled a thousand piece jigsaw after a baby has attempted to complete it by feeding half the pieces to the dog and secreting the other half in its nappy.
Enter Principal Sharma…whose military bearing and stiff moustache give the instant impression of one who is very capable of taking and righting a sinking ship even as doomed as the Titanic – one imagines he’d have given Leonardo Di Caprio a slap and told him to stop moping around after some girl who was clearly out of his league and to start bailing out water.
The appointment of a new chief clerk combined with the dedicated work of the Principal and Kevin & Janet (two of the UK’s BKIT trustees) mean the school’s financial and procedural administration is now sailing in the right direction.
There has, however, been a trade off. In taking the necessary steps to get the school ship shape and Bristol fashion, Principal Sharma has utilised a slightly more authoritarian approach than many of the teachers and pupils had been used to. The result was a large turnover of teaching staff…and a growing atmosphere among the students of high tension, fearfulness and despondency.
Enter us – two eager white-faced youngsters (I still feel young despite what my increasingly hoary locks might suggest) with a style some might call hippyish…suffused with a desire to see the grossly outdated western educational paradigms give way to something more befitting the era of i-phone rather than the era of Victorian parenting techniques, an era sadly to which the clone factory of standardised education still harks back at present.
Compared to my last visit it is refreshing to see there are at least some male teachers now on the teaching staff. It is perhaps less refreshing that the male teachers appear to be mini-me versions of the principal, who mix with female teachers to about the same degree as oil and water. Overall though, the teaching team seems far more coherent as a unit than was the case back in 2009. The school still faces the seemingly interminable problem of marriage – namely that many young female teachers of marriageable age seem to take up a teaching profession as a temporary undertaking simply to enrich their ‘wife-to-be’ CV. As soon as a suitable marriage is arranged, they are swiftly removed to the kitchen and bedroom of their new husband, where they merely teach themselves how to cook food and have babies for the rest of their lives.
If the above sounded a little like it came from the Jeremy Clarkson school of journalism, let me state out right that of course there are merits to the arranged marriage system and to India’s overall obsession with marriage, but it is heartbreaking to see hugely capable young women cede to social custom and let atrophy the fine minds and fruits of a good education many have received simply to obey their side of a marriage contract that is these days becoming more and more like a business transaction with every dowry that is arranged.
Even more heartbreaking than the plight of the female teachers is the plight of the female students at the school…and indeed those who have left the school. Shortly after our arrival we received a letter from a female student welcoming us back to India…in the letter the student described how her time at the school was some of her most enjoyable in memory, and that she was lamenting having been removed from the school by her father and placed in a renown girls academy because the school was not famous enough. This story would not be so upsetting were it not for the fact that there is good reason to suspect that this move was only orchestrated so the educational CV of the student in question would look more accomplished once it was time to seek a husband. I recall many discussions with the student during my last trip wherein she revealed that there was no point in her having dreams or ambitions because in the end she would simply have to do what her father instructed. The nods of agreement from other girls in the room during this conversation suggested she would not be alone in facing such a future.
I appreciate I have digressed slightly from outlining the aims and intended actions of our time at the school, but I felt it important to give a sense of some of the constraints we and the teaching staff face.
Of an equally upsetting nature is the evident fear that has been ingrained in the students toward speaking their mind and to cultivating independent thought. It is clear that the authoritarian atmosphere that has for one reason or another been created is having a seriously detrimental impact on the students’ psychological health.
Thankfully it is not too late to turn around this oil tanker, and Mr Sharma has certainly demonstrated his awareness of the importance of the child centred approach, even if at times his actions seem to directly contradict his speech. He is certainly to be commended for having removed 40% of the written assessment that the nursery children have to sit in accordance with CBSE education board requirements. (Don’t worry, you read that correctly. It is my sad duty to report that one of india's main educational bodies believes it is a good idea to begin standardised testing of students at just 3 years of age)
In light of such evidence, we are aware that such a needed cultural change is unlikely to take place overnight, and as such are committed to ensuring we set ourselves small, achievable goals that we are confident can have a definite catalytic effect on the wider culture.
Key in this endeavour will be demonstrating that a more child centred approach can help information retention and can actually aid rather than hinder the efforts of the teachers to ensure the students have completed and comprehend the core elements of the syllabus.
We have set about two undertakings that we hope will be of significant value. Fan and I will be observing and then mentoring a selection of teachers, so that we can identify and share best practice and, where such measures are appropriate for the achievement of the syllabus requirements, make demonstrations of what collaborative learning looks like.
Our other action will be to initiate an after school club that can begin the process of breaking down the traditional pyramid-hierarchy boundaries of student-teacher-principal. The more all three elements can begin working together, even on small projects like discussing what a school sports day should look like, the more each party will see the benefits of truthful communication and collaboration.
To provide us with some information that can guide the formation of our club…and shed light on how we may best perform as mentors for the teachers, we recently conducted a questionnaire for the teachers. Some of its noteworthy findings were as follows: (it is perhaps best to note that a fair contingency should be allowed, as it may be the case that not all respondents fully understood the questions)
- 61% of teachers would be happy to work for less pay
- Encouragingly 38% of respondents thought the teachers main job is to learn from the students
- Less encouragingly, another 38% felt the teachers main job is to discipline the students
- The sense of team is very strong, with 100% agreeing or strongly agreeing to the statements, ‘I feel supported and encouraged’ and ‘I feel I have a good team around me’
- Giving evidence that the school has perhaps grown quicker than it might have expected, 55% felt that more classrooms was the first area the school should look to improve. 33% felt that they lacked the necessary materials to do a great job.
To the more open ended questions there were some telling patterns of response as well as some amusing responses. To the question, ‘what one thing would you suggest to the management committee to improve the school’, greater consultation scored very highly, followed by the expressed wish that the management committee should not interfere in the academic side of the school – the clear suggestion being that the management should seek first to understand before sticking its nose in.
The one slightly concerning/amusing response – depending on your feminine empowerment stance – was the response of one teacher to the question ‘if you had all the money in the world, what would you do?’ the response: ‘act according to the wishes of my husband.’
Two closing notes to wrap up this more educative blog instalment…
The first is an image that has made itself known, relating to the CBSE board’s apparent approach to educating children in its affiliate schools: I cannot escape from the idea that teachers and students parallel to a worrying degree with the supervisors and workers of a Henry Ford style factory shop floor. The teachers (supervisors) are constantly stressed, trying to ensure their workers (students) achieve their production quota (requisite number of text book exercises). In terms of depth of learning…I dread to think. The syllabus allows for a maximum of 1hr on each topic, such as different sentence types, or different types of rainfall. The students and teachers often appear to be in a race to assure eachother they understand the current lesson so they can race on to the next section of the text book and complete it just in time for the students to cram the entire term’s shallow learning into a week of revision. In addition, students are assessed every week – which seems to me a way of guaranteeing they can regurgitate the needed rote learning from their short term memory…and then forget it just as quickly so they can take on board the next lot of data.
If we shift the metaphor of their educational process to a more culinary one where knowledge is food…one can see that the teachers job is to force feed the students at a rate which allows them to be constantly stuffed, yet never quite so overfull that they projectile vomit it all back up again. Students are thus always loath to consume any more…and never have the slightest chance to digest the vast majority of the knowledge they have been filled with.
On a happier note, it was a real treat to have Harry, Ajay and Anu visit the school last Saturday. They spent the day with us and at the end of the day Harry delivered a training session for the teachers based on understanding how students learn and on maintaining the highest standard of performance as a team.
The training did not begin well, with the teachers either not understanding Harry, or being too timid to raise their hands to acknowledge they had understood. Having enlisted Mr Sanjeev as translator, the momentum began to build and one could see the pennies dropping by the way the teachers smiles and nods of appreciation increased in frequency as the training continued. I’m glad to report that on their return to school on Monday morning, almost all the teachers I asked about the training had taken away at least two points that were still firmly lodged in their understanding.
On a personal note, Harry’s visit was significant for a number of reasons. It transpired during our return trip from Myanmar, whilst waiting at Bangkok airport, that Harry had known Gilly when he was working for the Newham monitoring project, yet was unaware he had passed away, as their paths had not had cause to cross for some years. The news hit him for six a little. The fact that he is now in the role of mentor to me, and that I have a long-standing relationship with Gilly’s school is either providential fate or massive coincidence – depending on one’s perspective.
What I hugely valued was hearing Harry describe Gilly’s qualities and virtues as a servant leader. I had of course read of these in the newspaper articles, but somehow to hear them live from someone who knew him and knows great leadership when he sees it made the experience all the more moving.
I will sign off now, as we have a sure to be interesting meeting with Mr Deepak, the new sports teacher, on how to run an effective inter-house athletics competition in January. I say ‘sure to be interesting meeting’ because from what I have gathered so far, Mr Deepak’s English vocabulary appears to range broadly from ‘yes’ to ‘sir’ and back again.
Stay tuned.
Huge love.
xxx
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