A different rote

Managed by Pune-based Shree Ramkrishna Charities,the school was started with a clear objective of providing free schooling to children who cant afford it. The school follows the state Board syllabus but gives its teachers a free hand to innovate as they teach. The school has also made it a practice to send all its class IV and VII students to the prestigious scholarship exams conducted by the Maharashtra government.

Our mission is to empower these kids with the communication and practical skills that will help them get jobs. This is value education,none of the kids here ever lie. They will always come and tell you what they did. But we know just values are not enough,they need to feed their families. Our aim is that after these kids pass out of here,some families should rise above the poverty line, says Ajja.

The school campus has clean toilets,a play-area,a small vegetable garden,a library with close to 2,000 books and magazines like National Geographic and Better Photography,and a trampoline for children to play on. Every day,the children are given protein-and-iron biscuits,an essential supplement that has helped improve the low haemoglobin levels among girls here. Apart from the classrooms,there is an assembly hall in the building,an art lab with donkey seats,a music room,a reading room and a brand new chemistry lab.

The school has 253 children on its rolls,from kindergarten shishuwadi to class VII. None of the classrooms here,except those from VI onwards,has benches. The students are free to roam about in the spacious rooms that are supervised by a teacher who is called a helper. Apart from textbooks,the school employs learning aids provided by Gram Mangal consultancy,an initiative that was started by educationists Anutai Wagh and Professor Ramesh Panse in 1982 to provide quality education in backward regions. So,small bunches of 10 matchsticks each are used to teach higher numbers to second graders,and there are instruction sheets and charts all over the walls.

Children in a class are often divided into groups depending on how they understand the subject. This way no child has to wait beyond his turn. In all classes,the children are encouraged to look around and understand their surroundings first. So in the history lab,they are taught to draw family trees, says the music teacher.

The school uses Marathi,the mother tongue of most of the children,to aid learning. English is taught mostly with the help of sounds. The language is easily understood with associations,so instead of writing,we encourage the children to listen,read and understand. Even when they are in KG sections,we use visual representations of things to arouse their curiosity,instead of telling them straight-up that this is apple or this is sun, says the music teacher.

The 22 teachers here are all honorarium workers from around Wai and usually have BEd or MEd degrees. I was once asked about the biggest problem we face here and I said,it is of finding good teachers. But then,thats a problem everywhere,isnt it, asks Ajja.