Innovative education

Innovative Education

Education was one of the first and foremost programmes of RLEK initiated with the Van Gujjar community. In the past, because of their nomadic lifestyle and the fact that the community resided in deep forest areas, the Van Gujjars had been deprived of the benefits of any of the educational programmes of the government. The fact that the community migrates to the higher Himalayas for six months in a year was seen an in impending factor to the initiatives. RLEK therefore came up with an innovative education programme wherein the teacher volunteers of the organisation in fact migrated with the community members to the highlands and continued the education programmes. The Van Gujjar community looked upon these volunteers as family members and the volunteers in turn helped the families in their day-to-day chores and within a short span of time the programme made significant progress.

Between October 1993 and December 1995, RLEK had made 21000 adult Van Gujjars literate under the National Literacy Mission (NLM) of the Government of India. RLEK's intervention has been recognised and commended for its innovative and challenging experiments in the Adult Literacy Programme. RLEK has been awarded the UNESCO-NLM award for literacy for the year 1998 for its "innovative literacy programme." Rotary International has also commended it for its adult literacy programme and child education for the Van Gujjars.

There was a lot of thought behind the initiation of the literacy programme initially with the adults since this approach is in sharp contrast with education programmes in other parts of the globe where chidren's education programmes are the first to be initiated. However, RLEK has been following a novel philosophy and maintains that sustainability of children's education programmes can be achieved if adults realize the importance of education for their children and wholeheartedly support the same. RLEK's adult education programme helped in the growing realization that education was all-pervasive and had a key role to play in even in their pastoral lifestyle. The misconception that education would lead to the disruption of their trans humantic existence was obliterated. Thus, there was a growing demand from the community for children's education.

Children's education was again a challenge for RLEK with this nomadic community. An ingenious programme for providing formal education to children was designed and two schools were opened. Through these schools, RLEK is providing quality education to Van Gujjar children and at the same time, the constraints arising out of transhumantic lifestyle were taken care of. The curriculum has been designed in a way that though the schools close during the period when the community migrates yet the working days of the schools are equal to, if not more, than those in other formal schools.

Another foray into children's education was made when RLEK collaborated with the Government of Japan under their Grant Assistance for Grass root Projects for setting up three schools for children in the hills and a hostel for children at Mohund. These schools are being set up in remotest of remote villages where there is no access to schools for children.

For enabling quick and easy assimilation of knowledge books and materials for the literacy programmes are context specific i.e. examples from their day-to-day life have been used. For adult literacy programmes three primers titled 'Naya Safar"(Parts I, II and III) have been developed by RLEK.

In the year 2000, RLEK organised a Literacy Fair (Van Gujjar Unaupcharik Shiksha Mela) at Mohand in Saharanpur district. In consonance with its policy of transparency, at the Literacy Fair, thousands of Van Gujjar children exhibited their literacy skills before social activists, journalists, social scientists and educationists and a large number of other people. These fairs also serve as a morale booster for the community.

After successful completion of TLC (Total Literacy Campaign) and PLC (Post Literacy Campaign) RLEK is now running the CE (Community Empowerment) programme with the community. The thrust of this ambitious programme is on sharpening the literacy skills of the Van Gujjars and helps them gain an insight into issues like health, sanitation, natural resources, environmental management, veterinary care and rights of the citizens under the Indian Constitution. Presently RLEK is running 43 CE centers and 5 nodal centers under this programme.

The education team is also publishing a bi-monthly newspaper, in Hindi, for the community titled, "Khoj Khabar." With primary focus on news relating to the Van Gujjar world, the newspaper also focuses on event in other parts of the country as well.

Literacy is not the mere acquisition of the 3 R's and in fact the inculcation of this knowledge and its application in ones day-to-day life is the ultimate objective of all literacy programmes. However, most of the literacy programmes, especially with rural communities, have failed to go beyond the 3 R's. It goes to the credit of Van Gujjars that within a short span of time the community has been able to utilize these skills to address some of the most critical issues confronting them i.e. lobbying for their rights and fighting off the corrupt and inefficient forest bureaucracy. Today they are capable of independently writing applications to the district authorities, lodging FIRs at police stations, and filing their nomination papers in Panchayat Raj elections.

Between October 1993 and December 1995, RLEK had made 21000 adult Van Gujjars literate under the National Literacy Mission (NLM) of the Government of India. RLEK's intervention has been recognised and commended for its innovative and challenging experiments in the Adult Literacy Programme and child education for the semi-nomadic forest dwelling pastoral community of the Van Gujjars in the foothills of northern Himalayas.

RLEK was awarded the UNESCO-NLM award for literacy for the year 1998 in recognition of its outstanding contribution to its adult literacy programme. It was also commended by Rotary International for its adult literacy programme and child education for the Van Gujjars.

In recognition of the commendable efforts made by RLEK in the field of Adult Literacy and Non Formal Education the Government of India has selected it to run a State Resource Centre, for Adult Education, for the entire Garhwal and Kumaon region. The Centre shall provide training to the various Government as well as Non Governmental Organisations (including the Zila Saksharta Samitis) and shall assist them in material preparation, monitoring and evaluation.

For the neo-literate Van Gujjars, RLEK has now started 48 Community Empowerment Centres (CECs) where members of the tribal community are provided information on issues like health, sanitation, environment protection and management, and veterinary care. Vocational training will soon be imparted to them by the RLEKs volunteers in pastoral activities as well as tailoring.

A mobile library is being operated by RLEK for the Van Gujjars to help them continue their education. Very soon, RLEK's education team will be bringing out a monthly news magazine pertaining to areas of interest of Van Gujjars.

On March 15, 2000, RLEK organised a Literacy Fair (Van Gujjar Unaupcharik Shiksha Mela) under its non-formal education (NFE) programme at Mohand in Saharanpur district. In consonance with its policy of transparency, at the Literacy Fair, more than four thousand tribal (Van Gujjars) children exhibited their literacy skills before social activists, journalists, social scientists and educationists and a large number of other people.

Today, due to the tireless efforts of the RLEK's literacy team, the Van Gujjars are capable of independently writing applications to the district authorities, lodging FIRs at police stations, and filing their nomination papers in Panchayat Raj elections (where a number of them have also been elected).

The adult literacy programme started in 1993 by RLEK soon led to the setting up of two formal schools for children of Van Gujjars - one at Dhaulatappar in Dehradun district and another at Mohand in Saharanpur district. The first school obtained recognition by the government in 1999 while the second will soon get recognised. These schools are a part of a proposed chain of such schools as the population of the children is very scattered.

Two hundred primary and upper primary centres are also being run for Van Gujjars in Pauri, Haridwar, Dehradun districts in Uttaranchal, Saharanpur districts in Uttar Pradesh and Sirmour districts in Himachal Pradesh.