Rustic Lessons

Despite abandoning all the luxuries for three days,the students call the whole learning experience as ‘cool’ and don’t mind going through the same process again. Today,Tanvi Sambhare,a 16-year-old,who never entered her kitchen in the past,can now make a chapatti on her own. And 15-year-old Ashish Todi,who donned the role of chief mason,knows the exact combination of water and cement required for building a wall. And if needed,Mohit can easily fill 20 buckets of water.

The excursion got together the students of two completely different worlds. Symbiosis School is a six-storey building,spread across three acres,with world class facilities like a digital library,recreation hall,a multi-cuisine canteen,air-conditioned classrooms with projectors and smart boards,laptops for senior students,jamming room and so on. All this and more is justified by the fee structure that ranges between between Rs 1 lakh to Rs 5.5 lakhs per year,depending if you are seeking an admission in a primary or senior section. The Bhimashankar Prathamik Shala,on the other hand,had just two classrooms with a leaking roof,broken blackboard,a handpump in the name of drinking water. “Since I could converse with them in Marathi,I learnt that the students have been using the same uniforms for the past four years. They even lacked proper notebooks and pencils,” said Shreya Pathankar,a Symbiosis student.

According to Madan Mohan,CAS co-ordinator at the school,the main purpose of incorporating such an activity in the curriculum is to bring the children closer to the realities of life. He states that the school has succeeded in doing so at least to some extent. He gives an example of a Symbiosis student who used to get Rs 30,000 every month as pocket money. “After he met and interacted with the village children,he realised how fortunate he is. Once he was back from the village,he told his dad that ‘I don’t want a single rupee as pocket money’. This was a great achievement for us,” he says.

Sharing some of the experiences of the rural excursion,16-year-old Hanumant Ramesh,one of the students who visited Bhimashanker in January 2010,says,“Though initially a bit discomforting,the experience taught us to be independent. Apart from our assigned tasks,we all pitch-in for activities like filling water,cooking,collecting wood for fire etc. There was no choice; if we didn’t fill water,we couldn’t have a bath. If we didn’t cook,we stayed hungry.”

The biggest challenge that the students faced during the excursion was the language. While the children at the municipality school spoke only Marathi,the Symbiosis students either spoke fluent English or fumbled Hindi. “After a period of time,we all got used to each other and managed with gestures,” says 16-year-old Mohit Mittal.