A Rural Education: Video Blog #1

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This week marked the end of classes and the completion of reports and presentations. We celebrated our new found freedom by drinking sweet lassis (a sweet yogurt drink) and spending time out in the streets of the Pink City with local Jaipurians.

Instead of writing, I've posted a video that was taken by friend and former MSIDer Renee at her NGO internship site this past fall. I get a kick out of it every time i watch it, so maybe you will too.
The public education system is a concerning issue in Rajasthan (and in most parts of India) especially when it comes to schools in the rural areas. Though the issue is quite complex, one of the problems is that the teachers themselves are not from the villages, but instead are placed there by the government. People who have visited these schools have found that many of the teachers show little interest in teaching and use the same lesson plans over and over...as if reciting the alphabet is all you need to speak in English. Th parents of the villages, who would often rather have their children at home to help with work, become even more hesitant to send their children to school when they see they aren't getting much out of it. And to be the student, and know that your teacher would rather be anywhere else but there teaching you, will certainly have its impact. There are however, many teachers and activists working to change the way these village school are run. In my visits, I ran into several teachers that seemed very committed to their work who expressed great difficulty in dealing with inconsistent attendance of students (often due to migration), huge age discrepancies in classrooms, and being themselves understaffed to manage it all. So as you can see there are many complicated factors coming into play here...all of which have their own list of solutions that continue to be debated. One can only hope that these debates begin to evolve into more steps towards action.

If anyone has question about what you see, I'm always more than happy to try and explain. I say "try" because much of this i feel i don't understand. so if you really want to hear from someone with some deeper insights, i can connect you with a fellow MSIDer who might know.

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Photos

Gao NSC 254
school facilities vary drastically depending on where you go. This particular school had an excellent infrastructure with brilliant paintings like this bordering the walls of some classrooms.

Gao NSC 271
a less inspiring educational environment than the last

new friends in the library
I had the opportunity to sit with these girls (11th and 12th graders) in their school library on one of our site visits....making me realize how similar these girls are to girls their age around the world. I always enjoy these experiences...

mid-day meal
one government scheme ensures that children who go to school get a meal free of charge during the day. one young boy serves "Kitchery" (a seasoned rice and potato dish) in the picture above to fellow students of all ages

secondary school
a large school located in Javad village....giving you a look at a typical secondary school in a larger village. Not having secondary schools in smaller villages, children commute several kilometers by foot to get to class everyday.

Biodiversity presentation
we visited a school in a small town (large village) to give a day long presentation on the local biodiversity using both hindi, english and local terminology. The infrastructure of he school was impressive, equipt with computers and screen projector.

desks
this particular classroom has desks, something you don't often see in schools out in rural areas. some curious girls come to greet me.

students
curious uniformed students gather round