Teaching skills

[sajiv]

CHENNAI: "Achcha hai." [It's nice]. This was the phrase that visitors from Chhattisgarh here to learn the Montessori methods of teaching kept repeating for a series of questions on Chennai, their train experience to the city and their stay here.

Well, it's not easy to describe the big city with a sea and electricity. Especially for those who have come from a place that has no electricity, no roads, no telephone network and no proper school to speak of.

Sundarbatti, Gautam, Sunita, Birajbatti and Sahdev, from Balenga Para village in Bastar district spent the last week at Vruksha, a Montessori school here, because they are part of a movement that is changing the face of the education in the tribal village of 50 families.

They said that learning the new teaching techniques is not easy. But they were confident that they will pick up the required proficiency before they head home.

The Imlee Mahuaa Naee Taaleem Centre for Learning that caters now for a fraction of the children in the village was founded by a top-notch city-based chartered accountant Prayaag Joshi and Smitha Thomas and believes in providing children with relevant education with a vocational component.

The aim is to provide children with an education that will allow them to choose if they have to remain in the village or go out for higher education and employment. Basically, to create students who are as good as the best those come of A-grade city schools.

The vocational component – imparting hands-on training in local handicraft making and selling them at the local market will ensure that the children are not taken away from school, believes Prayaag Joshi. "We cater to a small group of people. Once children complete their education here, I am confident that they will be able to converse freely in English and Hindi and they would have picked up computer skills in addition to their knowledge of handicrafts," he adds.

Prayaag quit practice in the late nineties.With Jabalpur-based Smitha's support, and the help of local Non-Governmental Organisations, they began hunting for a suitable location. Of the villages recommended by the NGOs, they chose Balenga Para, a single tribe village (Muriya Gonds), from where the nearest road is three-and-a-half km away.

The school is just over a year old and has 15 children. Prayaag says that the school would be able to accommodate a maximum of 50 children and 12 teachers over the next decade or so.

The model could be replicated in other villages near by, if someone comes forward to do it.

[dhoni]

for some cannot have skills and experience to join school or college
this teaching skills should allow them to have knowledge