Gandhian schools face closure

The alma mater of Mahatma Gandhi and a school founded by him are now near-wrecks and no different is the plight of over 1,100 schools spread across Gujarat.

The alma mater of Mahatma Gandhi and a school founded by him are now near-wrecks and no different is the plight of over 1,100 schools spread across Gujarat. These schools,known as ashram shalas,follow the Gandhian ideology. They have been hit by everything from cuts in government grants to no teachers wanting to teach for a pittance to the governments preference for privatisation.

Two 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 students. Now the Gujarat Kumar Vinay Mandir within the Gujarat Vidyapeeth,founded by Gandhi,faces closure after having survived without any grant for the last eight years.

Gujarat Vidyapeeth Registrar Rajendra Khemani said several representations were made to the state to bail out the institution. But there has not been even a review in the last eight years,which was to be done every three years. This is part of a conspiracy by the state government to ensure closure of the Gandhian schools, he alleged.

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 the original 85 have closed down. The surviving ashram shalas live on the High Court cases fought against their closures, said Arvind Desai,Secretary, South Gujarat Ashram Shala Federation.

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. There are ashram shalas where students have only rivers to bathe. In such cases,we have to take decisions on cuts in grants, she added.

True,most of them have lost their essence because they operate like any other school. But the governments disinterest in schools that follow the Gandhian ideology is 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, said Khemani.

While the Gandhian schools started with the ideology of learn through doing,the five compulsory crafts of spinning,weaving,carpentry,dairy,kitchen gardening are no longer being taught in most ashram shalas as they now follow the syllabus of the state education board. Jaisinh Dabhi,Secretary of Gujarat Nai Talim Sangh,said,Many of the shalas do not receive grants on time. The Rs 600 monthly grant allowed per student for a year for food,clothes,soap,fuel bills is insufficient.