Friday, May 8, 2009

Fieldwork around Ludhiana


First I would like to apologize for the lack of posts in the past few days. Through a combination of power cuts and traveling I have found it difficult to find time to write anything. I hope to make up for it now with a long post.

Over the past few days I have visited numerous villages and schools in and around Ludhiana continuing my work of interviewing volunteers. Once again I have been amazed by the success of the Parrho Punjab program in improving learning levels for young children. I have found that this success is rooted in ability of the program to fundamentally change the classroom dynamic within the schools themselves. A volunteer named Rajdeep shed some light on the subject for me. When I questioned her on how the classroom has changed since she was in primary school she told me that teachers in the past used the method of, "teaching with a stick". Insolent children would receive a rap across the knuckles for misbehaving. In a society where it is easy for children to skip school due to a lack of effective monitoring for absenteeism and community support for education it seems obvious that such draconian punishments would make a child not want to attend school. The volunteers of Parrho Punjab on the other hand all emphasized to me that they were explicitly told in their training not to harshly scold the children. They should be treated like a "delicate flower" one volunteer expressed to me. The parrho Punjab program now has children eager to learn and thus far the only drawback I have found is that the daily two hour classes make it difficult for teachers to complete their assigned government syllabus. Clearly further integration of the government mandated syllabus and parrho punjab methods could alleviate this problem.

On wednesday I attached myself to a Pratham team and followed them as they visited villages without volunteers in an attempt to drum up support for volunteer work. The first step was to visit the democratically elected village head, (known as a "Sarpanch"). After we sat down in his home, (which was equivalent in size to an average east village duplex apartment if you have ever lived in New York) we were offered tea and began the process of convincing him to allow us to canvas for volunteers. 

At first he seemed reluctant and we thought we may have to continue without his support, but the dogged Pratham workers eventually began to break him down. They told him that education was for the good of the entire community, not only the children. They also mentioned how volunteers after some time in the classroom grow in self confidence. This I can personally attest to as many of the teachers I have spoken with during my interviews mention how their volunteers began as shy and unsure of themselves. After a few months these same volunteers are vocal and opinionated with serious goals of continuing their education so as to become fully qualified teachers. Soon the Sarpanch saw the value of volunteer work and even put forth his own daughter as a prospective parrho punjab recruit. He also referred us to some other young women around the village who could also be considered prospective workers. The mother of one of these girls proved more difficult to convince. She thought that all this traveling and exposure to the outside world could be dangerous for her child. I could somewhat understand her concerns as her daughter may have travel a few kilometers away from home to work in a school. This would mean either walking or hitching a ride to her destination. Other, more conservative families refused to even let us into their house. A shake of the head and mumbled refusals greeted us when we enquired about the availability of the daughter for volunteer work. This was promptly followed by the door being shut in our face. To display the contrast in opinon to our work, after one angry refusal we knocked on the neighbors door and were welcomed inside. The grandmother who spoke with us said that all her grand daughter did was sit around the house and that it would be good for her to get out and grow in experience. Less than five feet apart I was able to view first hand the conservative and progressive faces of India. 

I also visited the city of Chandigarh to sit in on a meeting between the Pratham Punjab team and government officials. The purpose of the meeting was to establish a framework for the upcoming year. This included modifying the existing structure so as to make it more efficient and hammering out a budget for Parrho Punjab. Everyone involved were interested in expanding the successful program to more schools, which I have been told is in great contrast to when they initially attempted to implement the parrho punjab system. It required almost a year of work in schools and in government boardrooms for Pratham to convince the education officials to fund and support their work. As I look around the offices now, Pratham created Parrho Punjab material lines the walls. Clearly they think very highly of the program these days. I must sign off now as I have to finish off the report I was brought here to write. Ciao
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www.readindia.org
www.pratham.org.uk
www.prathamusa.org
www.pratham.org

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