Shikshayatan was born from a deep desire to work for India, with children and in a rural setting. To go where there was a crying need for a good school.
The dream began 10 years before we set up Shikshayatan. It was a time that was spent in learning and experimenting with different pedagogies, working with low end schools to KodaiKanal International School [IB], working with parents who wanted to teach their children at home and avoid high tuition costs.
We read philosophies of Russell, Montessori, A.S.Neill, Steiner, Jiddu Krishnamurthy, Swami Vivekananda, as well as Gandhiji and his Nai Talim among others before settling on Sri Aurobindo and the Mother as our guiding philosophers.
For our teaching technology we adapted from Dr Glenn Doman [Philadelphia, USA] and his methodologies.
When we left Mumbai for Arasavanangkadu we thought that we were pretty equipped to teach, having worked at different levels yet we were taken aback by the challenges that met us.
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In 1994, when we commenced Shikshayatan, the village was so economically backward that most of the children suffered from malnutrition. Red tinged hair was common as was primary tuberculosis. Even adults rarely, if at all, took a bus to the nearest town.
It was obvious within a month that we needed to invent our own pedagogy to suit our own circumstances while all the time it should be replicable anywhere in the world; that the method should have space for the brain-injured while ensuring that the brightest are given greatest opportunities.
Thus began, very humbly, QuadSeek - the name we gave our own brand of pedagogy.
Shikshayatan Today
Shikshayatan Middle School, Arasavanangkadu, [AVK] is in Thiruvarur district, Tamil Nadu, is state of the art school that provides free education to underprivileged children of AVK and near-by villages. Children learn in a nurturing environment of freedom and joy, without pressure, at their own pace and without the fear of home-work or examinations.
It is affiliated to the State Board of Tamil Nadu, Tamil medium.
Other than learning, the school provides nutrition supplements, books, stationery, art materials, uniform and field trips and charges no fees for any of these.
Shikshayatan has an extraordinary campus. A road that is half a kilometre long leads only to the school. All around are green rice fields. Set in the centre are three acres of garden, fruit trees and an acre for games and sports, a campus that is noisy with birds and children. The world is shed whilst walking down the half kilometre; entering the campus is like entering an island for children and staff alike.
Every class is named and every name has a reason. When a government official told Raghavan, "All schools have classes in a row. Why does your school have to be different?" Very polite, insta reply from Raghavan was, "The toilets in the bath space are in a line." The satire was lost.
The school has its own, very personal deity, Sri Vidyaganapathy. The day begins there, with a puja performed by the children and staff together.
The school hall is called "Ensemble"- 'together' in French. It acts as a video screening place all through the week; a hall for visitors to give talks; a place for all to meet to decide field trips / video-photo talks on field trips... "Go to Ensemble" is normally greeted with a big cheer.
The pre-school has its own small campus. The two classes, "Sruti" and "Suhas", each have their own special front also named. The classes are set apart from the main school frame, they have their own yard of mango trees and flower patch.
The primary block too has its own space; with its own play park and garden. The classes are Tobias [named after the child of one of our first donors]; Sagar, Ganga, Yamuna and Ponni. We see a lot of movement and flow of thoughts and ideas among the young ones, hence names of rivers seemed most appropriate for that group.
The middle school block named after Mr Hamied, is called Hamied block. This block is more like a facilitation centre for it houses the school library, "Takshila". The science laboratories are named Catalyst and Gravity which have a classroom attached. The humanities have two laboratories, "Timeline" and "Discovery", with their 'classroom attached'. Math and computer lab, Infinity, houses all the math teaching and learning materials, 10 computers and has a large classroom attached for 'lectures'. "Expressions" is the English language laboratory with 10 computers and a large classroom attached.
The art block consists of "Mozhi", the Tamil language laboratory with 8 computers; Ananda, the open classroom for music and dance. Lalitkala, a large stage, is at the end of Utsav that acts as an auditorium and indoor play ground. There is an art shack, "Oriole", for children to do self-directed art work.
The kitchen and dining hall are Annapoorna even as the extra classroom is Periwinkle and the stock room is Dahlia.
Inside Classrooms
Every class has its own library. Books are checked out of Takshila every month. Fair number of story books and information book are stocked to suit every child. Children are encouraged to read in silence if they finish their work ahead of others.
Classes are technology smart with their own computer connected to a smart television.
The seating in the classroom is informal; children can change places to suit their activity / levels / be near friends... The tables can be rearranged to suit group tasks or individual work.
Children are also expected to keep their class neat and clean, though there are non-teaching staff to do the cleaning.
By and large the classrooms are children friendly - the windows are low with space to sit on it and watch birds or the people working in the fields.
Further,
We have Anugriha Railways with an engine and two coaches which shunts over 20 feet of track.
A sensory garden Sentire; to go there all adults have to ask permission of children.
Time and personal learning inclinations have always been given the greatest consideration at Shikshayatan. We believe strongly that every child has to participate in the design of his education. To this, a school day has two learning segments. The first is the formal learning set up by the Tamil Nadu Education Board. The second is where every child chooses to learn in-depth a theme that is self-created or one offered by a teacher. Loosely termed "club activity", the children love the special time. The special features of the clubs being,
they are open across ages, from age 7 to 13
a club is open for only 2 months; it is dissolved and reopened for further 2 months only on request;
it is based on sign-up if the club is proposed by a teacher with not more than 15 to a class
if a learning space is designed by a child, an adult is around to help along when asked;
in the course of a term a child can sign-up for 2 activities. At the end of the term, after a review, a child may continue to the next level;
if it is found that a child is extraordinary by levels of concentration or intensity, the club is opened for the year. If it is deemed a method to avoid any other activity, the child is given the heave-ho!
For many children, their club activites become hobbies and, later, passions for many.
Anugriha Charitable Trust- 2/194 Anugriha Arasavanangadu,
While the club activities took care of academic and personal choices in learning, we knew that if they are to be thinking and decision-making citizens, participation in school administration was the only solution.
Over the years, experience being passed on, the councils learnt to work in tandem. Generally, the children take care of each other - a culture they bring from their home where the older ones look out for the younger ones.
When we had a discipline issue we suggested a discipline council too. After many general body meetings we were told that they did not see how a discipline council was going to control behaviour or attitude. "We do not need a book of conduct. We are aware of what we may do or not do. We shall not step out of line."
We accepted the ruling. Interestingly, we rarely, have any problems.
Being children, they do do some fool things, then mostly Aruna goes and does the bad cop act. One volunteer asked, "Why do you express something that sounds like a rule that no one really follows?"
"I have made my thought public, that is what matters. For the rest, they will work around the thought but never step beyond it."
The rules passed are like 'only two monkeys on a tree', 'if chocolate wrappers are found in the play area the wrappers will be sent home', 'lonesome footwear found will be dropped in the non-degradable bins'...
Some of the major decisions taken by children have always been difficult. Coming from the socio-economic background there is always a question of whether the money for festivals should be spent more on eats or gifts; if older children are given gifts that are 'lasting', like books, it would mean less money for the younger set. Would that be fair? They work out the answers after many meetings. To the last dilemma they came up with plants for all and books only for those who really love to read.