“Education ought to be geared towards sustainability”
Arvind Kaul is instilling the Quality Circle (QC) spirit in villagers of Uttar Pradesh by opening Shiksha Kendras in the rural areas. An innovative methodology is adopted in imparting education to the village kids. Besides this, he is also promoting organic farming. Tuhina Banerjee speaks to him and finds out about his campaign.
You started Quality Circles in Imamganj in the late 1990s. What difficulties did you face initially and how did you surmount them?
My first exploratory visit to Imanganj was on January 26, 1993. The initial challenge was gaining personal acceptance by the villagers. The question in their minds was what do I stand to gain at their cost.
What helped here was the initial introduction provided by a factory worker Sant Saran (himself a QC Member) who came from the same village. I spent six months socialising and spending time with the villagers. This helped gain personal acceptance.
The initial challenges were that unlike the city folk who live in a digital world, (world of opposites) e.g. day – night, problem – solution, the rural folk see life as a continuum. It took me a while to understand this and see that the ‘problem after next’ may arise once the initial solution is installed. I saw wisdom lay in putting in seeds in the initial solution so that the ‘problem after next’ did not arise.
I got time from them to conduct training in the concept and operation of quality circles. Once I had gained their acceptance, we willingly met for four consecutive days from 10.00 p.m. till 2:00 a.m. for the training. As a significant number was illiterate; all notes/reading material was cast in pictorial form. It was tough to pictorially represent “prosperity”.
What made you discontinue the initiative? When did you resume it?
I had worked in Imamganj from ’93 to ’99. By that time, my son Kartik had turned a teenager. He is speech and hearing impaired and hence, he was worried that he may not find employment and therefore, I ought to provide for him in place of spending my earnings on rural quality circle activities. This is what made me discontinue.
I resumed in Nov/Dec 2015. Kartik graduated in 2011 and got employed immediately thereafter. By 2013, he was married and settled. In Nov-Dec 2015, when I happened to visit Imamganj I found it radically different. In place of progressing, it had regressed. Village politics had taken its toll. The village folk were split along every conceivable line. The biggest split was around politics (Mayawati’s supporters vs. Mulayam’s supporters).
How did you reinvent your campaign? How forthcoming were the villagers?
I appealed to volunteers to come forward. Folks from 50 out of the 70 households came forward. However, when the occasion arose to put in effort and time, the volunteers started dwindling. By April 2017, only one volunteer was left. The choice was whether I quit or continue. It was at this time that I came across a quote that the only difference between winners and losers is that winners don’t quit. I decided to continue. Fortunately, a kid of the erstwhile Quality Circle Shiksha Kendra of Imamganj, came forward to volunteer. He was now a grown-up farmer. These two volunteers recreated the erstwhile Quality Circle Shiksha Kendra. By 2018, another ex-student of the erstwhile Quality Circle Shiksha Kendra, created a Shiksha Kendra in the village where she was married and is now resident. The movement has since grown organically and now covers nearly 14 villages with one Quality Circle Shiksha Kendra each run by about 40 volunteers.
Why did you focus on education this time? What have been your achievements and accomplishments? How do you motivate the kids?
The focus was kept on education as the school kids came from homes across social and political divide. It was beginning to patch the divide. The school progressed steadily in terms of getting children more interested in studies. Instilling the Quality Circle concept, spirit, philosophy in children is easier. There are chances that it will stay with them when they grow up as opposed to imparting the concept to grown-ups.
Our education philosophy was: All education ought to be environmental education geared towards sustainability. The purpose of education is to leave the world a better place. In the long run, the only way to win is to ensure that there are no losers. Competition has to give way to cooperation/collaboration now. There is also love for nature and environment. The volunteers have been able to wean away children from learning by rote and the habit of mindless copying. We have nurtured talent of children in arts and crafts using local material and been able to sow seeds of love for the environment (nature)/love for trees.
How do volunteers get motivated?
The volunteers joined because they love to teach and love children. That is their essential qualification. The volunteers share the same belief, that the purpose of education is to leave the world a better place than what one found. Further, they believe that they can and need to do their bit. Volunteers render selfless service and play a crucial role for society. All volunteers meet at least quarterly to discuss and decide the forthcoming joint events. Yet each volunteer has complete autonomy to run his / her Kendra. It is great for promoting innovation. There is no fee. No admission formalities either. Children can and do get admitted on their own. There’s no requirement of text books.
Tell us about Safalta, the monthly newsletter. How is the teaching carried out?
I publish Safalta every month. It is for, of and by the kids, volunteers and the folk of these 10 villages. It carries news, articles, pictures and links to videos about them/by them. Seeing ones work or reading about oneself or ones work in glossy print has its own charm for all of us. The volunteers and the kids are no exception.
Safalta serves as the text in the class. Safalta is used for reading aloud in class, dictation, comprehension, Environmental Science, learning Hindi etc. Children have a 40-minute period daily where if any person from the village voluntarily wishes to teach a trick or skill and the local volunteer is agreeable, I provide the material equipment and the interested children get started. If this is not happening, the children play during this period either on their own or games led by the volunteers. They get to enjoy a lot at school. This serves to attract them to the school. Most of the teaching is through games invented or innovated by the volunteers. It could be maths, tables, English, spelling, EVS, Hindi, General Knowledge etc. It keeps the children glued. They have tons of fun and laughter while learning.
One of the big attractions is a Deskit. It is a very light weight schoolbag integrated with a writing table. When the child has over 80% attendance consecutively for two months, they receive deskits. It is a big a motivator for children.
Do volunteers take them out?
Yes. Children get excursions based on attendance. It could be the Zoo, or the Airport or the science museum at Lucknow or a visit to Ayodhya. It is very exciting as many of the kids haven’t travelled more than a few kilometers from their homes. Most had their first train rides on such an excursion. Kids are granted attendance in school for serving as helping hands in the fields of their school mates’ parents at harvest time or paddy transplantation. This is one of the erstwhile QC projects being emulated by children.
Does technology figure in?
Ofcourse. We have a big WhatsApp group. Good work done by kids / volunteers gets appreciation from the WhatsApp members. There are others (besides the rural volunteers,) who are well-wishers of the movement. Many of these people are based outside India too. Appreciation coming from them is very meaningful. This happens on a daily basis.
Children get to use the computer and the internet at the QC Shiksha Kendra. The Kendras have state of the art computers (8 GB RAM and 1 TB HDD with internet, colour monitors, sound facilities and printers).
Four Shiksha Kendra’s are equipped with state-of-the-art LCD Projectors. Children get to watch movies of their choice. The videos they perhaps enjoy the most are videos shot by the local volunteers where the children get to see and hear themselves. Such facilities are not available elsewhere locally.
What is Plant Hope and Happiness scheme, which became so popular?
Children, who had 80% attendance during pre-monsoon months of May and June 22, became eligible to take part in Plant Hope and Happiness. The objective of this scheme was to plant the seeds of love for trees in the child’s heart. The scheme was posted on the web and anyone who wanted to get a tree planted by a kid could request for the same. About 150 trees have got planted by children. The children learnt lessons on measurement and geometry in making the bamboo tree guards. It was great fun for them. Those kids who are able to protect and nurture their trees will receive token amount of Rs 75/- every quarter. The local volunteer is supposed to take a geotagged photo of the sapling as it grows and it can be viewed in the Plantation Gallery.
The kids get to interact with the people who requested for trees, through video messages and feel happy as appreciation is coming to them from people they never knew.
What about sport and other extra-curricular activities?
Children have free access to lots of indoor and outdoor games. They can form their own small groups and play simultaneously. We have started an annual cricket tournament (named after a friend Jal Khodaiji). Serves to enthuse the young lads.
We have an annual singing competition. The children enjoy practicing and participating. The token material reward goes to the individual winner but the monetary award is shared in the form of a utility item for all the kids of the Kendra or a picnic or party. We plan to start an annual chess tournament.
You have also involved the villagers in organic farming. What has been the results like?
Two farmers of Imamganj have ventured. I have indemnified one farmer against any loss that he may incur. Many farmers of Imamgang are watching and all volunteers from other villages are also watching. The organically farmed paddy crop is doing very well. It was done under the guidance of Shoor Vir, an organic farmer from Binjor.
How do you carry out the entire project?
The simple answer is I work very hard, through the 40 odd volunteers in the villages and some outside the village. I hold quarterly meetings with them and chalk out plans.
What are the other development works you have undertaken in the villages?
Besides the QC Shiksha Kendras, we have skill training that any volunteer or village folk can give on voluntary basis. Tailoring classes for girls/young women. Telemedicine and additional income generation through card board box making.
What’s your roadmap for the future?
Leave an endowment and try to see that a council emerges. And have Education sevak or mentor/ Agriculture sevak or mentor/ Women Affairs sevak or mentor/ Environment sevak or mentor.
The writer is a freelancer who specialises in lifestyle and wellness issues.