Gandhian schools hit by lack of funds,teachers; may face closure

Three months ago,Mohandas Gandhi Vidyalaya in Rajkot,where the Father of the Nation completed his high school education,got a jolt in the form of a 25 per cent cut in grants,citing ‘poor performance’ of its students.

Now,the Gujarat Kumar Vinay Mandir (within the Gujarat Vidyapeeth),founded by Gandhiji,faces closure after having survived without any government grant for the last eight years. Gujarat Vidyapeeth Registrar Rajendra Khemani has written to the school authorities stating the possibility of closure. Despite no grants coming,the pay of the employees had somehow been maintained at par with the government scales by the Vidyapeeth.

Khemani said several representations were made to the government to bail out the institution. “But there has not been even a general review in the last eight years,which was to be done every three years. This is all part of a larger conspiracy by the government to ensure closure of Gandhian schools. All the ashram shalas across the state are in a pathetic state,” he alleged.

While funds and shortage of teachers are the major challenges for these schools,Gujarat is the only state where so many ashram shalas have survived. As many as 500 ashram shalas alongwith uttar buniyadi shalas (secondary and higher secondary Gandhian schools) have faced between 10 and 50 per cent cut in grants in the last few years. The number of gram vidyapeeths (colleges) in the state has gone down from 25 to 14 in the last two years. Ten higher secondary-level uttar buniyadi shalas out of 85 have closed down recently.

“The surviving ashram shalas live only on the High Court cases fought against closures,” said Arvind Desai,Secretary of the South Gujarat Ashram Shala Federation.

State Tribal Development Commissioner Shahmeena Husain,whose department oversees the ashram shalas for tribals (there are separate ashram shalas for SCs and OBCs),sees the cut in grant as the last resort to make these schools perform better.

“Apart from performance,we also look at how the students are treated in these schools. There are ashram shalas where students have only rivers to bathe. In such cases where there are no basic facilities and no improvement after giving a deadline,we have to take decisions on cuts in grants. We support shalas by linking them to drinking water and sanitation schemes. But most of these do not even have the Gandhian spirit,” she added. “True,most of them have lost their essence because they operate like any other school. But the government’s disinterest in schools that follow the Gandhian ideology is also possibly because of its inclination towards privatisation. We have to follow the government syllabus. So there is very little room left for teaching Gandhian ideology. This will ultimately lead to closure of such schools,” said Khemani.

While the Gandhian schools started with the ideology of ‘learn through doing’,the five compulsory crafts of spinning,weaving,carpentry,dairy and kitchen gardening are no longer being taught in most of the ashram shalas as they now follow the regular syllabus of the state education board.

The education department has taken the recruitment of staff for the ashram shalas into its own hands since last year. Jaisinh Dabhi,Secretary of Gujarat Nai Talim Sangh,said,“The new merit-based process of recruitment has only resulted in delays in appointment of teachers. Many of the shalas do not receive grants on time. That apart,the Rs 600-monthly grant allowed per student for a year for food,clothes,soap,electricity and fuel bills is insufficient.”

The Saffron-backed Eklavya schools and nivasi shalas function in direct contrast to the ashram shalas. They receive a grant of Rs 1,000 per month for each student. “Our teachers and wardens get paid between Rs 1,500 and 2,500 while the ones in Eklavya schools get between Rs 6,000 and Rs 10,000. To deter ashram shalas,our students who score marks at par or better than others are not included in the state board merit list although they take the same examination,” rued Desai.