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Balamitra Schools - Tribal Nature Schools |
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Education is a privilege to many children in India, and particularly so to the tribal children living in the interior hills and remote forests. Lack of even primary education facilities forces many children either to walk long distances, crossing streams and forests to attend school, or to remain illiterate. In the state of Andhra Pradesh the literacy rate of tribal people is 22% and that of tribal women is 8%. Dropout rate among tribal children is highest in the primary level itself (73%) and among tribal girls, 89%.
Primary education, which is the fundamental right of every child in India, is absent in many tribal hill-top villages. Besides, the quality of education is not only poor but destructive of traditional cultures and makes them culturally degenerative and economically incompetent to face the mainstream society.
Contrary to popular belief, education is one of the foremost expressed needs among the tribal communities and it is the government which is unable to fulfill the demand.
Tribal Nature Schools: The tribal way of life is close to nature and imparts a culture of traditional knowledge systems and skills to its children, which are symbiotic with the ecology and forest life. Only, the lessons are not through the text-books. Science, language, medicine, calculations, geography, philosophy - they are all taught orally, spiritually, culturally and socially.
The greatest challenge of education in the tribal context is to bring about a balance in imparting literacy skills which enable them to deal with the mainstream society, to help them gain competence to enter into mainstream professions and occupations while strengthening their cultural identities and knowledge base which is so strongly linked to land and nature.
Samata has initiated Tribal Nature Schools (Balamitra Badis) in 40 tribal villages in Vizag district, with the active involvement of local community based tribal organisations. Local tribal educated youth who have completed high school education are selected as teachers. Community is closely involved in the day to day functioning and decision-making of the schools, the construction of school infrastructure, the enrollment of children and all other school activities.
We have set up a Centre for Learning and Tribal Education in Visakhapatnam in order to extend educational training, documentation, curriculum development and promotion of tribal artisan skills to tribal children of the Nature Schools. Under this programme, the Centre has a model school cum training center. Currently we have 15 children studying and living at the Centre.
At present the Centre focuses on primary level education and is working on curriculum development to include agriculture, farming, traditional occupations and knowledge systems, improved methods of these livelihoods along with the mainstream educational, literacy and language components. The teachers are being trained in simple ‘alternative’ methods of teaching primary level education. The concepts and methods of teaching are also drawn from the inspiration of the Waldorf education system, however, in a very indigenous form to make it relevant for tribal children.
We are exploring the natural material found in the forests including plants, seeds, wood, mud, bamboo, nuts and other rich resources to provide the tribal children with a vast resource of play and work material in the class-room. The children are learning to use natural mud and dyes to paint, make clay models, using bamboo, jute and other reeds for weaving and craft items, are learning to play the traditional musical instruments along with the traditional songs. Pedagogical lessons are also being taught in these methods.
We have about 850 children between the ages of 5 and 9 years studying in these schools. The tribal children studying here come from communities like Khonds, Bagata, Nookadora, Konda dora, Valmiki, Kutia and other tribes. The teachers are also from these tribal communities.
Appeal for Assistance: To pursue this endeavour, we need the assistance of friends and well wishers, who dream with us in promoting tribal knowledge and tradition through the beautiful medium of education. We appeal to all for contributions in any form that can facilitate this process. You can help us through:
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