It’s Study Time

The 100-day Marathi medium school began on December 10 and will finish on March 6. Batches of five volunteers will visit Chilati village in Melghat every week,each batch taking the syllabus forward from the earlier batch. The purpose of this school is to enable students to read and write,and even introduce them to basic calculations.

Vaibhav Dhere,a UPSC aspirant was part of the first batch of volunteers that went to Chilati on December 10. “Our task was to group the students on the basis of their reading,writing and other skills,” he says. The school begins at 7 am with physical training followed by breakfast.“We also had to impart toilet training to the students as,back in their village,they defecate in the open. They also needed to be told how to stand during the National Anthem,” he adds.

During lunch time,the teachers teach the students basic table manners and how to eat in small portions. Afternoons are reserved for sports and art activities like drawing,colouring,pottery and other outdoor activities. “This is also the time when students share their knowledge of various plants found in the neighbourhood,” Dhere says. Evenings are reserved for television. “The children usually preferred Discovery or Animal Planet or sometimes channels that showed action movies,” he reveals.

Students get a weekend off every 15 days to visit their homes. “Not only did all the students return,but we also got two additional students. They decided to join us after listening to stories from the others,” Shidore says.

Before enrolling these students,Maitri volunteers ensured that none of them were attending any school this year. “We also got consent from parents in the presence of two villagers to send their ward to the school,insured the students and volunteers and did a primary health check-up for all,” says Vaishali Kanaskar,coordinator with Maitri. Although there was no opposition from parents to send their children to this school,there was a general casual attitude prevalent amongst them. “But we told them about the concept and the purpose,and were surprised to see that mothers came to drop their children to the school,” she adds.

As Shidore says,the 100-day school will be a success when the existing government-run ashram shalas in this area improve their quality of education,and students are encouraged to study there.