A School System with a Difference...

The college had organized an educational excursion as a part of the B.Ed programme this year to Rural Bodh in the Alwar district of Rajasthan on the 12th and 13th March, 2010. We reached Bodh on the 12th night, where we spent the night in the guest house of Bodh. It was only on the 13th morning that we got a chance to visit some of the Bodh schools. It was an enlightening experience.


The schools in Bodh are alternative schools and they give us a glimpse of schools which do not follow the regular system and structure. Bodh Shiksha Samiti evolved from experiences of collective action that helped establish a community school or bodhshala in Jaipur (Rajasthan, India). The school, initiated in 1987, was the result of a unique partnership between the Gokulpuri urban slum community and a group of likeminded men and women. These people believed that it is the right of every child to receive quality education. The concept of the Bodhshala came up when a few people realized that the rural children could not keep up with the regular schooling system. Most of the students consist of dropouts from the government schools, those students who cannot adjust to the structured methodology and discipline.

These schools are located in various villages in the Alwar district of Rajasthan. The Bodh schools follow innovative pedagogy and use creative teaching aids. The teaching aids they use help students understand difficult concepts with ease. The Mathematics teacher uses pin-boards to teach decimals and percentage to the young learners. The committee provides each school with a number of teaching aids. These concrete teaching aids are mostly for young learners. Furthermore, the teachers are so trained that they can make a teaching aid from any given situation. For example, the language teachers play language games with the students. To teach the concept of “in” and “out” the English teacher formulated a very simple game. A circle was drawn on the ground with the students standing around it. When the teacher would say “in” they would have to jump inside the circle, and when she would say “out” they would have to jump out. Any student not following the command would be dropped out of the game. This is a classic example of how a situation can be turned to the advantage of the teacher.

From the elaborate description above people might think that this is an elite school. Quite the contrary, actually. These schools are small village schools with little fund to aid them. The students consist of the children from the nearby villages. Thus, these learners have very little means. However, the teachers of the schools cater to their needs wonderfully. They take care of the students like a second parent and take care of individual problems too. The curriculum lays emphasis on complete development of the students. Thus, along with cognitive development, physical growth is also catered too. The students play everyday after their classes. Art and craft is also an essential part of the curriculum. I also saw the teachers teach them dancing and singing too. Creativity is encouraged in these schools. I believe that the big cities of India have a lot to learn from these small village schools.

It is to be kept in mind that these schools have limited facilities. But they make complete use of these facilities. Whatever funds they can collect is put to the extension and betterment of these schools. The teachers are also specially trained so that they can keep up with the innovative techniques.

Once the students have got an exposure to this kind of an education system it really becomes difficult for them to go back to the government schools where they have to follow a rigid and structured pedagogy. The Bodh schools have classes only till about 7, after which they prepare the students for the entrance exam for the government schools. However, it has been found that many students have problems adjusting in this new system. It fails me why the government is not doing anything about the conventional school system. Times have changed, new teaching styles are being given more importance, but the ones who need to wake up are busy sleeping. If people can make such a huge vision come true with not much fund available, I don’t think it should be very difficult for the nation that gets fund for education, to realize this dream.

We had a glimpse of how the school system can be like. The awareness needs to be spread, we’ve got to break free from the shackles of conventional educational system that merely increases our burden rather than reducing them.