VANKA Anton Chekhov

VANKA ZHUKOV, a boy of nine, who had been for three months apprenticed to Alyashin the shoemaker, was sitting up on Christmas Eve. Waiting till his master and mistress and their workmen had gone to the midnight service, he took out of his master's cupboard a bottle of ink and a pen with a rusty nib, and, spreading out a crumpled sheet of paper in front of him, began writing. Before forming the first letter he several times looked round fearfully at the door and the windows, stole a glance at the dark icon, on both sides of which stretched shelves full of lasts, and heaved a broken sigh. The paper lay on the bench while he knelt before it.

"Dear grandfather, Konstantin Makaritch," he wrote, "I am writing you a letter. I wish you a happy Christmas, and all blessings from God Almighty. I have neither father nor mother; you are the only one left for me."

Vanka raised his eyes to the dark icon on which the light of his candle was reflected, and vividly recalled his grandfather, Konstantin Makaritch, who was night watchman to a family called Zhivarev. He was a thin but extraordinarily nimble and lively little old man of sixty-five, with an everlastingly laughing face and drunken eyes. By day he slept in the servants' kitchen, or made jokes with the cooks; at night, wrapped in an ample sheepskin, he walked round the grounds and tapped with his little mallet. Old Kashtanka and Eel, so-called on account of his dark colour and his long body like a weasel's, followed him with hanging heads. This Eel was exceptionally polite and affectionate, and looked with equal kindness on strangers and his own masters, but had not a very good reputation. Under his politeness and meekness was hidden the most Jesuitical cunning. No one knew better how to creep up on occasion and snap at one's legs, to slip into the store-room, or steal a hen from a peasant. His hind legs had been nearly pulled off more than once, twice he had been hanged, every week he was thrashed till he was half dead, but he always revived.

At this moment grandfather was, no doubt, standing at the gate, screwing up his eyes at the red windows of the church, stamping with his high felt boots, and joking with the servants. His little mallet was hanging on his belt. He was clasping his hands, shrugging with the cold, and, with an aged chuckle, pinching first the housemaid, then the cook.

"How about a pinch of snuff?" he was saying, offering the women his snuff-box.

The women would take a sniff and sneeze. Grandfather would be indescribably delighted, go off into a merry chuckle, and cry:

"Tear it off, it has frozen on!"

They give the dogs a sniff of snuff too. Kashtanka sneezes, wriggles her head and walks away offended. Eel does not sneeze, from politeness, but wags his tail. And the weather is glorious. The air is still, fresh, and transparent. The night is dark, but one can see the whole village with its white roofs and coils of smoke coming from the chimneys, the trees silvered with hoar frost, the snowdrifts. The whole sky spangled with gay twinkling stars, and the Milky Way is as distinct as though it had been washed and rubbed with snow for a holiday. . . .

Vanka sighed, dipped his pen, and went on writing:

"And yesterday I had a wigging. The master pulled me out into the yard by my hair, and whacked me with a boot-stretcher because I accidentally fell asleep while I was rocking their brat in the cradle. And a week ago the mistress told me to clean a herring, and I began from the tail end, and she took the herring and thrust its head in my face. The workmen laugh at me and send me to the tavern for vodka, and tell me to steal the master's cucumbers for them, and the master beats me with anything that comes to hand. And there is nothing to eat. In the morning they give me bread, for dinner, porridge, and in the evening, bread again; but as for tea, or soup, the master and mistress gobble it all up themselves. And I am put to sleep in the passage, and when their wretched brat cries I get no sleep at all, but have to rock the cradle. Dear grandfather, show the divine mercy; take me away from here, home to the village. It's more than I can bear. I bow down to your feet, and will pray to God for you for ever, take me away from here or I shall die."

Vanka's mouth worked, he rubbed his eyes with his black fist, and gave a sob.

"I will powder your snuff for you," he went on. "I will pray for you, and if I do anything you can thrash me like Sidor's goat. And if you think I've no job, then I will beg the steward for Christ's sake to let me clean his boots, or I'll go for a shepherd-boy instead of Fedka. Dear grandfather, it is more than I can bear, it's simply no life at all. I wanted to run away to the village, but I have no boots, and I am afraid of the frost. When I grow up big I will take care of you for this, and not let anyone annoy you, and when you die I will pray for the rest of your soul, just as for my mammy's."

"Moscow is a big town. It's all gentlemen's houses, and there are lots of horses, but there are no sheep, and the dogs are not spiteful. The lads here don't go out with the star, and they don't let anyone go into the choir, and once I saw in a shop window fishing-hooks for sale, fitted ready with the line and for all sorts of fish, awfully good ones, there was even one hook that would hold a forty-pound sheat-fish. And I have seen shops where there are guns of all sorts, after the pattern of the master's guns at home, so that I shouldn't wonder if they are a hundred roubles each ... And in the butchers' shops there are grouse and woodcocks and fish and hares, but the shop men don't say where they shoot them."

"Dear grandfather, when they have the Christmas tree at the big house, get me a gilt walnut, and put it away in the green trunk. Ask the young lady Olga Ignatyevna, say it's for Vanka."

Vanka gave a tremulous sigh, and again stared at the window. He remembered how his grandfather always went into the forest to get the Christmas tree for his master's family, and took his grandson with him. It was a merry time! Grandfather made a noise in his throat, the forest crackled with the frost, and looking at them Vanka chortled too. Before chopping down the Christmas tree, grandfather would smoke a pipe, slowly take a pinch of snuff, and laugh at frozen Vanka. The young fir trees, covered with hoar frost, stood motionless, waiting to see which of them was to die. Wherever one looked, a hare flew like an arrow over the snowdrifts . . . . Grandfather could not refrain from shouting: "Hold him, hold him . . . hold him! Ah! the bob-tailed devil!"

When he had cut down the Christmas tree, grandfather used to drag it to the big house, and there set to work to decorate it …The young lady, who was Vanka's favourite, Olga Ignatyevna, was the busiest of all. When Vanka's mother Pelageya was alive, and a servant in the big house, Olga Ignatyevna used to give him goodies, and having nothing better to do, taught him to read and write, to count up to a hundred, and even to dance a quadrille. When Pelageya died, Vanka had been transferred to the servants' kitchen to be with his grandfather, and from the kitchen to the shoemaker's in Moscow.

"Do come, dear grandfather," Vanka went on with his letter. "For Christ's sake, I beg you, take me away. Have pity on an unhappy orphan like me; here everyone knocks me about, and I am fearfully hungry; I can't tell you what misery it is, I am always crying. And the other day the master hit me on the head with a last, so that I fell down. My life is wretched, worse than any dog's … I send greetings to Alyona, one-eyed Yegorka, and the coachman, and don't give my concertina to anyone. I remain your grandson, Ivan Zhukov. Dear grandfather, do come."

Vanka folded the sheet of writing-paper twice, and put it into an envelope he had bought the day before for a kopeck … After thinking a little, he dipped the pen and wrote the address:

To grandfather in the village.

Then he scratched his head, thought a little, and added: Konstantin Makaritch. Glad that he had not been prevented from writing, he put on his cap and, without putting on his little greatcoat, ran out into the street as he was in his shirt …

The shop men at the butcher's, whom he had questioned the day before, told him that letters were put in post-boxes, and from the boxes were carried about all over the earth in mail carts with drunken drivers and ringing bells. Vanka ran to the nearest post-box, and thrust the precious letter in the slit …

An hour later, lulled by sweet hopes, he was sound asleep … He dreamed of the stove. On the stove was sitting his grandfather, swinging his bare legs, and reading the letter to the cooks …

By the stove was Eel, wagging his tail.

EPILOGUE

From Nineteenth century Vanka to Twenty First century India is a long way both in time and distance. And yet, Vanka touches us, not just because a great author has written a very heart rending story. The fact is, there are millions of Vankas in today’s India.

Child labour today is not like the feudal guild apprentice described in Vanka. In many ways it is much worse. It persists mainly in Africa and in Asia - except China and Asian Tigers countries. Though practically abolished in the advanced capitalist and socialist countries, in smaller numbers it probably exists every where. Also, beside labour, there are child soldiers and child prostitutes. In all, it still remains a major problem.

Child labour abolition programmes all over the world will not be able to abolish it, but can certainly make people aware of the problem. The efforts of bringing children back to school and mainstream will regain their importance when other forces of social change join hands. This little book is a small contribution to this process. 

With the current crisis that capitalism finds itself world over, winds of change again are raging. A new generation of activists will soon be taking up all these issues, once again, with new energies. This book is addressed to them and dedicated to them.

FLAT BED DUPLICATOR – A TOOL FOR DEMOCRATIC PRINT MEDIA

This essay describes the experience of the author Ms. Usha Rao, in the use of low cost print media. She herself has moved on to organic farming and Philip Byrne, who manufactured these machines, has moved to England.

My first experience with the Flat-Bed Duplicator (FBD)

It started as an interesting new thing to try out. I like to learn new things and I like to use my hands and see whether it comes out well. With great excitement and sense of achievement I watched the first print – of the illustrated nonsense rhyme, come out – clear and dark – of the home-made low cost FBD.

Post creation, many things happened. Philip Byrne worked on an improved convenient design and produced them in numbers. I helped several groups to learn its operation, to put it to use, in many different situations. All in all, it proved to be extremely useful.

The Flat-Bed Duplicator

Basically is a substitute for the cyclostyling machine. Operationally it is like screen-printing minus all the chemical processes. Instead, an ordinary stencil is used.

The principle on which the FBD works is very simple. So also is the construction of the duplicator.

·        The basic structure consists of a wooden frame – 8” x 15” on the inside. The wooden pieces are 3/4” wide and ½” thick.

·        Screen cloth is fitted to the frame.

·        The frame is then hinged (from the outside) to a flat board slightly bigger than the frame. The frame moves up and down on the hinge like the lid of a box. When at rest, the cloth surface faces the board.

·        There is an arrangement to fix the stencil below the screen cloth. When inked, this sticks to the cloth.

·        The paper is stacked below on the board.

·        A squeegee or roller is used to press out prints.

·        Duplicating ink from the tube is squeezed onto the screen cloth. When pressed with a squeegee, it spreads over the length of the cloth, goes through the porous cloth and through the cuts in the stencil, makes home in the paper below to give us our print. The frame is lifted to remove the print and feed the next sheet of paper.

           

         

 FBD at M. V. Foundation

M. V. Foundation is committed to elimination of child labour, and believes the best way to do it is by ensuring all children are in school. Come summer and they are busy conducting residential camps for girls and boys who otherwise work at home, graze cattle, work as agricultural labourers etc. In 3 – 4 months these children in the age group of 6 to 15 are helped to join mainstream schools from class 2 to class 6 depending on the scholastic competence accomplished.

All these children are first generation learners and there are many things about studying and schooling that are alien to them and their families. M. V. Foundation’s camps have succeeded in bringing them into school. One of the methods has been the use of children’s own language with content drawn from their lives - for the initial two months - then gradually moving onto standard prescribed texts.

A great amount of learning material - stories, songs, riddles, and anecdotes - all articulated by these children are printed and used as education material. To print these in relatively small numbers for immediate use, the flat-bed duplicator was used. A topic discussed in class on a particular day was available on the following in print – as worksheets, as reading material, as part of the child’s own growing textbook - a collective creation of the entire class. This helped tremendously in creating a live, interactive teaching-learning environment. Even children given to roaming free and wild felt at home with a hitherto alien activity of disciplined application.

           Cyclostyling Machine vs. Flat-Bed Duplicator

What does this duplicator have to recommend for itself as against the cyclostyling machine?

1.      Investment: A very basic and functional duplicator of this kind can be self made at a very low cost

2.      Print Order: I have managed to print 200 copies off a stencil. After which, the stencil developed wrinkles. A commercial shop in Harda has used it to print 1000 copies off a single stencil (hats off to them!). That speaks of the range and scope for developing the skill.

3.      Working together: The best part I like about using this duplicator is that it provides a very nice opportunity to chat with a friend. It takes two to print with the FBD easily. At a pinch, one can do it alone

4.      User control: Better alignment adjustments are possible with FBD. There is less scope for making that kind of a shift in the cyclostyling machine.

5.      Designing according to need: There is scope for making variations in the design and improving the design. Philip has tried a few. As more people use it and work on it the designs will get better.

A Dream

Once, while working with an NGO, I had a dream that every community worker, working with 5 villages, should have a duplicator and print a newsletter for the five villages in the local language with the involvement of local people.

Most NGOs bring out their newsletter in English. It is sad that the experiences they gain by interacting with people are written in another language and made inaccessible to them.

The flat-bed duplicator has great potential in making printing democratic.

You may write to me if you need help in learning to use the flat-bed duplicator.

Post Script:

This article was written in the mid nineties. Technologically, computers and photocopiers are common place today. However, its relevance may reestablish as application of low cost appropriate technologies could become a necessity in the near future.

-T. Vijayendra.

Reference

Low-Cost Printing for Development, Vol. 2., By Jonathan Zeitlyn, Published by Cendit, C1 Soami Nagar, New Delhi 110 017

SELECT LIST OF BOOKS ON EDUCATION

Politics of Education

  1.   Letter to Teacher   by   School of Barbiana    

  2.  Danger School by IDAC    

  3. How Children Fail   by   John Holt 

4.       Social Character of Learning by Krishna Kumar  

  5.  Political Agenda of Education by Krishna Kumar      

  6.  The State and the Child in India by Myron Weiner      

  7.  Compulsory Education and Child Labour by Myron Weiner      

  8.  Facts against Myths - Child Labour by     M.  Kamat 

      

Child Centered Education

   9. Divaswapna   by Gijubhai 

10. Tottochan by T.  Kuroyangi

11. Summerhill by A. S. Neil

12.  Preparation for Understanding by Keith Warren  

13.   Teacher by S. A. Warner

14.   Child’s Language and the Teacher by   Krishna Kumar

15.  To Children I Give My Heart by V. Sukhomlynsky

16.  The Open Classroom by K. Margaret     

17.  How to Use the Blackboard by David Horsburgh

18.  The Blackboard Book by Eleanor Watts

Vision of Education

  

19.  On Popular Education by Leo Tolstoy

20.  Tagore - Pioneer in Education by  Elmhurst 

21.  Basic Education by M. K. Gandhi

22.  The Story of Nai Talim by  Marjorie Sykes  

23.  On Education by Mulk Raj Anad      

24.  Road to Life by  Anton Makarenko 

25.  Book for Parents by  Anton Makarenko    

BEGINNING IN THE MIDDLE

Begin in the middle and go on till you reach the beginning. – Chinese Proverb

This paper was presented at a conference of NGOs working for elimination of child labour. It argues for the importance of middle school or Universalisation of Elementary Education as against mere Universalisation of Primary Education.

All know the Indian Constitution guides states to provide free and compulsory education up to the age of 14. However, when implementing this policy, the emphasis is always on providing schooling up to the age of 11 only or what is generally known as Universalisation of Primary Education (UPE). This has been the practical goal of almost all state Governments and of international agencies such as UNICEF. The argument has been that, first things come first and one cannot extend schooling upto age 14 unless UPE has been achieved.

The argument put forth here is that: both in theory and practice this will limit education to the primary level, that too, of a very poor quality. Further, hundred percent capacity building for middle school level education is a must to achieve UPE and abolish child labour.

Children have been known to start working as early as the age of three. A significant number of girl children start work from the age of six or seven. However, the great majority of child workers belong to the age group of 11-14. So, even if schooling upto the primary level is available to all children, majority of working children continue to work because there is no middle school for them.

The capacity of the Indian school system at various levels is roughly as follows:

Installed capacity for primary school - 50%

Installed capacity for middle school - 25%

Installed capacity for High School - 10%

The percentage of children passing out of high school is 50%. These of course are average figures and a great deal of variation exists given - regional, urban, rural, gender, social grouping considerations. What it infers is that, 75% of children in the age group of 11 + have no option but to become a child worker.

Given this, talking about abolishing child labour is meaningless. The situation is even worse if one looks at primary school education in this context. The fact that there is no middle school available for 75% of the children has a tendency to lower the pass percentage of the primary school. In fact it will tend to equalise seats available in the middle school. This of course will not happen only at class V level, but will be seen down line. That is why there is such a high dropout rate at class II and class III levels.

This makes primary school itself a token affair, particularly in rural and poor communities. The total enrolment drive at class I is also meaningless as everyone knows that by class II and III most of them will drop out. The fact of the matter is: both enrolments and dropouts are on paper only. As elicited in the earlier article, 'The Teacher and Child Labour', this lowers the quality of the primary school and the standing of the primary school teacher in the community.

For any school education to be possible, schooling for 11-14 year olds or at middle school is an absolute must and not something that may or may not follow primary school. In fact, it is entirely possible to conceive of significant self-learning taking place at home and in the community up to the age of 11. But it may be rather difficult for scholastic learning to occur without the assistance and support of a formal institution like school, library, or other learning facilities beyond age 11 or 12.

Starting school at an early age is relatively new in the history of education. Till the 19th century most schooling began after the age of 9, 10 or 11. In India, children went to a Gurukul around this age for a period of 7 years. Sixteen years of schooling is a phenomenon of the 20th century. The firming of this phenomenon is in a round about way also linked to the emergence of nuclear families in urban areas. Here the requirement of jobs and government jobs at that, in the colonial context, gave rise to early schooling.

Presently the system has little to do with the requirement of learning by children. For example, children learn language and communication skills mainly in the community. Even practical arithmetic is learnt in shop transactions. However, the emergence of primary schools became a role model and demand for early school became a universal demand. In fact the camps run by M. V. Foundation illustrate this very well. Here 9, 10, 11 year olds pick up the primary school curriculum requirements within a matter of months. This is possible because these children have been developing their learning abilities outside schools.

The M. V. Foundation camps also underline the fact that if formal school is not made available to children beyond this age group, they will end up as working children with little scope of improving their knowledge base. A formal middle school is a must whether one goes from a formal primary school channel or from a primary school level skill base learnt in an informal setting.

The absence of middle school is mainly a question of resources. A middle school requires a building with several rooms, trained teachers with proper salaries etc. The state is reluctant to allocate resources for children of the poor unless there is pressure from the people as demonstrated by Kerala.

Therefore, the advocacy programme for elimination of child labour through education must include universalisation of elementary education (UEE) instead of universalisation of primary education (UPE). Without this there is a danger that the programme with all good intentions, may not succeed.

HOW TO IMPROVE HANDWRITING

Form is an usher to content. -  Mao Tse Tung

This essay was developed to train teachers in the summer camps run by M. V. Foundation.

In the school system, the poor face a lot of difficulties. Their schools have poor resources in terms of well trained teachers, library space and the number of teachers. In such circumstances, the poor can adopt a number of valid strategies which can give them some advantage in passing examinations.

All our examinations are written examinations. So presenting oneself in the written form is an important skill. The written form has some advantages and some disadvantages. The fact that you cannot use your voice, facial expressions and body language makes the demand on the written form more severe.

On the other hand, name (usually there is just a number), caste, dress, colour, gender do not come into the picture. Very often, examiners have preconceived notions and biases about these matters, and it affects their judgment. These considerations generally do not work in favour of the poor. Thus, on the whole for the poor - in the present situation - the advantages of a written examination are more than the disadvantages. So in education, the poor must concentrate on writing regularly. Even if they have to copy answers from guidebooks, it is better than just reading them.

In the final analysis of course, real understanding of the subject is very important. However handwriting is of no less consequence. It provides the first impression. Very often, an examiner on seeing a beautifully written answer paper straight away decides that the student ought to get good marks or at least pass!

Handwriting

In improving handwriting we have to understand two things: the first - what is the purpose of writing, and second - what is good handwriting.

Writing can have many purposes. It helps us to think, clarify thoughts and communicate thoughts to others. It is the last purpose we are interested in. Our handwriting should be such that others can read it easily. It should be legible.

So what is good handwriting? It is that which serves this purpose best, that is - it is very easy to read, clear and legible.

Many children, when unsure of the spelling, deliberately write in unclear scribbles. Their, a, e and i can all look similar. However, an examiner is not fooled, and so, unclear handwriting never serves any purpose.

For legibility, the best example is the printed book. There are six elements to its high legibility.

1. The printed page has margins at the top, bottom, left and right. These are at fixed spaces in a book.

2. The lines are straight and parallel and distance between them fixed.

3. Each letter is written separately or 'printed'.

4. The distance between letters and words are fixed.

5. The inking is uniform.

6. The letters are beautifully formed and retain the same shape and size no matter how many times repeated.

Of the six elements of good handwriting four are about organising space and only two are about actual writing, i.e. about inking and about forming your letters nicely. Thus, the major part of improving legibility is to organise the spaces on the page correctly. Even if the handwriting is bad, legibility can be increased to make it almost 100% legible by organising spaces correctly.

Of course there is a need to put in efforts to improve inking and letter shapes. The first is relatively simple. Nowadays with ball pens and good quality pens it is not much of a problem. For improving shape of letters, handwriting needs to be analysed. First, ensure the relative size of alphabets i.e. the height, width are correct and uniform. Then study the individual letter. Find out which alphabets look bad. Ask friends/peers to identify and improve upon them. Then concentrate on them one letter at a time. In a few days the handwriting will improve dramatically.

Rough & Fair Work

Many people first write a "rough" work version and then copy it out to a fair version. Often in their 'rough' work they write in a hurry, in poor handwriting, short hand, do not follow any of the principles of good handwriting. Thus, their rough work looks bad, illegible; sometimes even to the author.

It pays to have neat work everywhere, including in 'rough' work. This is a good habit. If the rough work is neat, one can make corrections on it neatly and there may not be any need to copy it out again. One can 'cut' & ‘paste’ that is, cut a paragraph and paste it on a fair copy without needing to copy out the whole work.

In mathematics rough work, students often make mistakes because the work is not done neatly. On the other hand, some examiners check the rough work also and if the work is neat and method correct, near full marks are awarded even if the final answer is incorrect.

  

Exercises for Good Handwriting: Tips to Students

Exercise 1

Write using a ball pen.

Choose your paper or notebook with care. It should be ruled. A comfortable spacing of lines is about 8 mm or 1/3 of an inch. Draw margins. The left and top margin should be 25mm or one inch. The right and bottom margins should be 16 mm or 2/3 of an inch. Though not fixed, they should be same on all pages.

Exercise 2

Copy a page from any book or newspaper on to the page marked with margins. Check for improvement in legibility. Give it marks on a scale of 1-10. You may ask your teacher, a friend or peer to grade it. Repeat 5 times.

Exercise 3

Copy another page. This time, write each letter separately. Grade it. Repeat 5 times.

Exercise 4

Copy one page. Print each letter separately. Keep the distance between words as one letter width. Try to write each letter with uniform height and width. Repeat 5 times.

Exercise 5

By now your handwriting will have improved a great deal. Now it is time to examine which letter you write badly. Seek help to identify these letters. Choose one letter to improve. Copy it 100 times.

Copy a page from a book keeping this letter in mind. Repeat 5 times.

Exercise 6

Repeat exercise 5 with the next poor letter. Go on till you have finished with all letters.

Now compare your original paper and grade yourself finally. Congratulate yourself! 

PEDAGOGY OF THE POOR

This paper was presented at a workshop for organisations in India working towards abolishing child labour. As a rule, purists and great educationists like Tolstoy, Tagore and Montessori believed in running their own model school. Some believe in demanding from the welfare state equal rights. While every one agrees that discrimination against the poor exists in the school system they do not agree on a solution to this problem. This essay tries to resolve the issue by suggesting a pedagogy that explicitly addresses the situation of the poor

The poor are poor because they are oppressed and exploited. The poor are also poor because they are poor. The poor struggle to survive and to liberate themselves from oppression and exploitation. In both the efforts, education plays a vital role. By and large, the poor have to depend on the State for education. However, education provided by the State is structured by the forces which exploit and oppress the poor and keep them poor. Therefore, to evolve a strategy for the poor, we have to first understand the strategy of State.

The Project of the State

The strategy of the State in education can be understood in terms of: (1) Schooling. (2) Certification and (3) Learning.

(1) In schooling, the modus operandi adopted by the State sends a message that only those who have education through school have any knowledge and skill. So those who do not go to school or fail in school are ignorant and useless people. Thus the State undermines the skill and knowledge base that people gain from life and work. They make first generation educated children ashamed of their parents and their background. By not providing resources for education of all children, the State keeps more than half of them out of school. This sends a message that they are not good enough for school.

(2) The objective of certification in schools is to underscore the divide between the rich and the poor. Here the State fails poor children. Examinations are not used as a method of assessing children - providing them an opportunity and challenge to prove themselves, but primarily to throw them out of the education process.

At a higher level, the policies of reservation are used to further undermine the poor. Reservation is not seen as an achievement of the poor in their struggle - a policy of positive discrimination to correct an historical imbalance. It is seen as a concession, an act of mercy towards the undeserving disadvantaged. The people who achieve something in their life through reservation policy are seen as second grade people who do not deserve what they have achieved. They are often insulted and humiliated.

(3) In teaching and learning, the State's objective is to create a model of a 'good' person as that belonging to urban economically sound classes. The content of education material provided by the State is full of direct and indirect messages that tell the poor that their life, knowledge, skills, language, beliefs etc, are not good enough. The education material provided thus makes schooling an alien endeavour, discouraging them from attending school. If and when they do attend, it tends to fail them. And finally, those who do pass and succeed are made to feel ashamed of their background.

Pedagogy of the Oppressed

All that has been said above has been said by a large number of educationists, notably by Ivan Illich, Paulo Freire, The children of the school of Barbiana and, in India, by Dr. Krishna Kumar and others.

In the present set up of society, a genuinely good education is not possible for anyone - neither for the rich nor for the poor. Only a genuinely free, democratic society that treats all its citizens equally - free from gender, class, caste and ethnic biases can provide such an education.

Meanwhile, several strategies are available to counter this situation. They range from model experimental schools to projects that try to enroll all children in school and create a lobby in the state education process for correcting the situation.

Model Schools

The work of model schools is extremely important. By concentrating on a few children these schools have given us practical examples of what good education can be and should be. There have been hundreds of such schools in the last 150 years all over the world. The most famous ones are those that were run by Tolstoy, Steiner and Montessori.

In India, Tagore, Gijubhai Badheka and several basic schools run by Gandhians stand out. More recently, David Horsburgh’s school – Neel Bagh, schools run by the Krishnamurthy Foundation and a large number of experimental schools run all over the country are good examples.

However, while they can inspire, groom and create present and future educationists, they cannot be models for mass of the children. For them, all children are the same. They do not take into account caste, class, gender, ethnicity, and poverty etc. - a reality of the real world.

The Project of the Poor

The project of the poor in the field of education cannot be defined in terms of learning alone. It has to encompass all three aspects of the education process, that is - schooling, certification and learning. The three aspects have to be integrated so as to maximise their gains in the larger project of survival and liberation.

Thus schooling implies for the poor- schooling for all children. Its objectives:

(1) To liberate themselves from a situation of child labour. This in turn helps to generate more employment for adults and increase their wages.

(2) To open a path for themselves for freedom from caste bondages. The collective of the school where different caste children come together opens this path. Later, when they succeed in passing examinations, it opens to them paths for employment other than their caste trade/employment.

Thus it combines the twin objectives of survival and liberation.

Certification

Purists often say that one goes to school to learn and not just to pass examinations. But in the real project of education it is passing the examination that crucially determines whether the project of the exploiting classes is succeeding or the project of the people is succeeding.

The privileged have all sorts of advantages in passing an examination. The entire context of the examination is class oriented in terms of language, images, and contents.

The poor have to resort to all sorts of methods to cope with this situation. Often they take recourse to simply copying and cheating. It should be noted that even the privileged often take recourse to this.

However, rote learning (popularly known as “by-hearting” in Andhra Pradesh!) from guides and guess papers is the most common method. Very often, poor children have to work extra hard just to pass the examination.

There is a lot of scope for using a judicious mix of practical vision and principles of pedagogy from the great masters. We can call this the pedagogy of the poor. Below are some ideas that have been tried out in M. V. Foundation camps with great success.

Pedagogy of the Poor

(1) All examinations are written examinations. Hence to pass examinations, writing practice is the most important exercise. Writing also helps in memorising better. Copying answers from good guide books coupled with some understanding of the subject goes a long way in helping students pass examinations.

(2) In writing, the quality of handwriting can make the difference between passing and failing. Richard B. Gregg, a Gandhian economist, who wrote a very practical book on education, spelled out the principles of good handwriting. It has been used very successfully in M. V. Foundation camps.

(3) Modern language teaching methods say that the first book a child should use should be her/his own book. This has been said in the context of children's drawings and their own captions. In M. V. Foundation camps, this was transformed into producing books of children's own songs and teaching them reading with the help of these books.

(4) In mathematics teaching, the logical sequencing of topics is absolutely crucial. And within the topic, practice exercises are to be arranged as per small incremental rise in difficulty of solving. The Education Planning Group of Delhi has done excellent work in this area and the same has been used in M. V. Foundation camps. More recently, some of the innovative methods of P. K. Srinivasan have also been used.

(5) Libraries provide a source of self learning and entertainment. In education, the library is the most democratic institution. Here knowledge is available on tap and not from top! In camps, the library is the most popular place. It is kept open at all hours so children can read at any time. A careful selection with the assistance of many knowledgeable persons has allowed them to have a good collection at a fairly low cost.

These are just some of the examples of pedagogy used. Here the word pedagogy is used in its narrow technical sense of the term.

There is a larger sense in which pedagogy has been used. In M. V. Foundation camps, it refers to the commitment to teaching and learning and creating a learning situation.

In the camps, children are brought from their villages by education activists. Some of these activists also become 'teachers' in the camp. Now the activist feels that it is his/ her responsibility that these children are successfully enrolled in schools. In the entire process of convincing the parents, taking care of children who are homesick in the beginning, s/he becomes attached to the children. Or rather, children with their natural affection transform an ordinary youth into a responsible person. Also, once the children are settled down, they become very deeply committed to learning because they know that it is their one chance of getting out of the drudgery of child labour.

The camp itself, with ready food, electricity, play, dance and music provides a learning situation in which a lot of self and mutual learning occurs.

The camp also creates a platform for teacher training. It is often asked - how do ordinary youth succeed in becoming good teachers and achieve such results? The answer is, the camp itself provides a self learning situation for children as well as for youth activists.

First, the requirement of a good teacher is that the teacher should love children and vice versa. Second, the teacher should provide the space for self and mutual learning by the children. Both occur in the camp situation. One can say children train teachers.

Both requirements are of course supplemented by providing teachers with reading materials such as Divaswapna, Letter to a Teacher, Tottochan. Many other works of Gijubhai are available in Telugu. Myron Weiner's lecture, Myth & Reality about Child Labour by CACL have been very helpful. Dr. Krishna Kumar's books have been translated into Telugu and Myron Weiner's larger work is also available in Telugu.

Conclusion

Pedagogy of the poor has to be conceived as a part of a larger project of the poor for survival and liberation. This also has to be conceived in contradistinction with the project of the oppressing classes in the field of education in terms of schooling, certification and learning. Abstract ideals of education and learning where class, caste, gender and ethnicity are not considered alone cannot meet the situation. Nor will simple enrollment and cheating in examination do the trick. A judicious mix of learning from the great masters of education and practical wisdom can help the poor. The M. V. Foundation camps provide one such example.

Published in Frontier, Kolkata, August 9, 199

THE TEACHER AND CHILD LABOUR

In India, half the children in the age group of 6 to 14 do not go to school. Does this in any way affect the school and the teacher? An attempt to understand this is being made in the following essay developed while working with the Teachers’ Union. M. V. Foundation in mid nineties was working with the teachers’ union in Ranga Reddy district to get their help in enrolling children who had dropped out or never went to school. It underlines the role of a teacher in abolishing child labour and has been used in training for government school teachers. Although one will find the data dated, the argument remains relevant for a significant percentage of children are even today engaged as child labour.

In Andhra Pradesh, each district is divided into Mandal Panchayats. Shankarpally mandal of Ranga Reddy district comprises of 36 villages and hamlets. In these villages the total number of children in the age group of 5 to 14 years is 10,310. Of these, 7493 go to school and 2817 are out of school. That is, some 30% of the children are out of school. The situation here is a little better than the rest of the district due to efforts made by a voluntary organisation to send children to school.

Of the 2817 non school going children, 1964 are in the age group of 9-14 years. Among them 1251 are girls and 148 of the 713 boys are bonded labourers. However, all children are doing some work connected with agriculture or at home. In a general sense, one can say that some 30% are potential or actual child workers and about 20% can definitely be called child workers.

How do these children affect the village school and the village school teacher? Often a teacher feels responsible only towards children who are admitted to school. So why should s/he worry about children who are not even admitted to school?

The existence of child workers in significant numbers gives it legitimacy. It also provides a potential market for new child workers. So no one feels uneasy about it. If a child is not going to school, s/he can work in the farm or at home or become a cowherd or agriculture labour. In Shankarpally area, typically girl children pick flowers round the year for the market in Hyderabad and boys work as cowherds.

At school, it means, if a child is not doing well in studies or fails s/he has got a place in the work force as child labour! The market beckons the child all the time. It acts as pullout pressure. Often it begins as seasonal work (dropout) for the poor child who is not doing well in studies. Then s/he fails - leading to permanently dropping out.

This also leads to lessening of pressure on the school, the teacher and the child to do well in studies. It is alright if the absenteeism is big. It is alright if the children do not study and the teachers do not teach. It is alright if the high school results for the Mandal as a whole is below 20%!

This lowers the standard of the village school on the whole. If 80% fail, then the best student may get only 40% or 50% marks. School loses its relevance.

With this the prestige of the school and that of the teacher falls. With the prestige goes the motivation and the moral force of the teacher. A vicious circle emerges. Low performance results in lowering the prestige and morale of the teachers leading further to the lowering performance of the school.

In such a situation, no one pays any attention to the teacher’s and the school's problems. The teachers' union mostly concerns itself with issues of salary and job security. Other glaring matters of a teacher's situation such as teacher student ratio, unfilled vacancies, lack of school rooms, the poor condition of buildings, a lack of blackboards and school furniture and so on, are ignored. Things like a decent school library, science laboratory and sports facilities hardly ever get a mention among the demands. No one has any motivation to demand better schools, to enlist community support, charities etc. to improve the school at the local level. All such energies come from far off green pastures of urban middle class sensitivities, enlightened government secretaries and international funding agencies.

The initiatives must come from the community and the teacher for any significant success. The teacher and the school must gain back their prestige. For this, the teacher and the school must perform. No pressure on children to be pushed out of the school should be permitted. There should be no option of becoming a child worker. This alone can reverse the direction of the pressure. Then children and the community will make a demand on the school. This will translate into a demand for more schools, more teachers, more school rooms, better rooms with blackboard and furniture, playground and sport facilities, library and laboratory.

For this to happen, some initiative must also come from outside the school. It should be ensured that no one employs children. In this, the educated youth in the village can play a vital role. They can persuade parents to send their children to school. Various labour laws such as - the abolition of bonded labour law can be enforced. In short, there should be no pullout pressure on the child. Abolition of child labour and universalisation of elementary education is the key to breaking this vicious circle.

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Published in Frontier, Kolkata, December 23, 1995