These men are making Palghar's kids love school, like 3 Idiots' Phunsukh Wangdu

Vidyankur centre at Dadhare village in Wada is currently preparing 34 students for the SSC exams next yearApril is the cruellest month in Wada taluka of Palghar The famous opening line of TS Eliots magnum opus The Waste Land comes to mind as one negotiates the gravel roads of the tribal belt Its 1145 am and the only stretch leading to the village of Dadhare a few kilometres by road from Wada has been shut for the last three months Repairs are on and locals inform that the alternative route to this tiny hamlet is by having the car swim through a pebbled river bed before hitting a dirt track where tyres have more often than not collapsedPralhad Vitthal Kathole 39 drives his Swift Dzire through this quagmire daily as he leaves his home in Dadhare Palghar to work at the nearby Zila Parishad School Baliwali Only during this month of the year said to be the hottest and driest in Wada do ZP schools mdash they otherwise run from 10 am to 5 pm mdash begin early in the morning and wrap up before noon These timings give Pralhad an assistant teacher at the Baliwali school enough legroom to focus on his experimental learning centre Vidyankur Set up just a few houses away from his own it is redefining the education space in the regionPralhad left and his brother Kishor Kathole are the force behind the learning centre PicsSneha KharabeThe birth of a school Five years ago Pralhad an educator with a Masters in Elementary Education from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences had a brainwave He wanted to help the tribal children from Wada mdash most of whom were firsttime schoolgoers mdash tide the barriers that prevented them from completing schoolingHaving been born and brought up in Dadhare 85 km from Mumbai he was aware of how lack of access to quality education proved to be a major impediment for villagers for whom agriculture is the predominant source of income While there are some Zila parishad schools in Wada which run from Std I to VIII there are only two senior secondary government schools where children can complete Std X says Pralhad adding that both these schools are situated at a distance and require kids to trudge 135 kilometres daily This has resulted in several of them dropping outStudents are seen applying concepts they have learned in maths and science on a plot of land in Dadhare village which Vidyankur has rented from a farmer for Rs 10000 annuallyI was mostly concerned about the young girls from these tribal hamlets Marriage was the only recourse for them after leaving school he says pointing out how early marriage in the region has also been responsible for the alarming number of malnutrition deaths in Palghar Its a vicious cycle he addsTo counter this Pralhad started Vidyankur in 2013 which functions out of two defunct ZP school buildings in his village His motivation for this centre came from a master plan instituted by the state government nearly 10 years ago where they had shortlisted a few model villages in the region including Dadhare where senior secondary schools could be set upVidyankur hopes to provide better opportunities for girls in the tribal belt who marry right after leaving school Early marriage is also the reason for the alarming number of malnutrition deaths in PalgharAware of the potential of such a school Pralhad started building infrastructure for it including creating a library of books for which he invested Rs 10000 Two kids from the village were asked to help him curate the list I wanted them to decide what they wished to read he says From Marathi translations of Satyajit Rays Feluda series to Arthur Conan Doyles Sherlock Holmes and academic books Pralhad stockpiled almost every kind of book But the government did a Uturn and scrapped the project he recalls Dejected but not defeated he went ahead and built upon Vidyankur creating an informal school from Std VIII to X which followed the state curriculum but employed novel ways of learningPrahlad with three of the teachers at Vidyankur mdash Roshana Kathole Mohan Shanware and Lavesh BhoirClassroom of experiments When the sun is not too harsh the teachers at Vidyankur mdash Roshana Kathole Mohan Shanware Lavesh Bhoir and Sandip Bhoye mdash take the students out into the field which Prahlad has rented for Rs 10000 a year from a farmer Its just a stones throw away from the centre On the farm they learn mathematics alongside biology and chemistry while teaching the kids how to sow seeds and till the land We are only connecting education with the lived reality of the child explains Pralhad adding that the knowledge base of tribal children is more in harmony with nature compared to other groups including nontribal rural and urban communitiesBridging the gapPrahlad cites the Kothari Commission 19641966 which states the importance of integrating practical work with general and vocational education and application of classroom knowledge in secondary educationThe students are believed to have done all electrical fittings and have made furniture for their computer labHowever before starting the programme Prahlad and his teachers had observed that many students who had joined Vidyankur lacked basic literacy and numeric skills despite nearly eight years of elementary education Without these skills any kind of intervention wouldnt have progressed much says PrahladTo bridge the gap Prahlad with the assistance of his brother Kishor Kathole 35 mdash who also teaches at the another Zila Parishad School Kolim Sarovar mdash started an eightweek remedial programme Tests developed by Quality Education Support Trust QUEST which has its headquarters in Wada and is helmed by Nilesh Nimkar were used to identify students levels and to break them into groups to provide needbased inputs Following the programme which takes off at the start of the academic year in June students are integrated into regular classesPrahlad explains the ease with which children understand basic mathematical and scientific concepts if they are combined with farming fishery poultry and even construction and weldingDeepali Vasudev VakadeAlgebra on the fieldEighty per cent of the tribal community migrates for six months in the year to be employed as construction labourers in the city We divide the students into groups of three Before this they are already taught the Pythagoras theorem Now they go to the farming plot and each group is asked to measure a 2 sqmarea of land where they will make their bed What they are basically doing is internalising the knowledge he saysAlso when we distribute the seeds we show them how to measure the length and breadth of each seed with a vernier caliper and micrometre screw gauge and ask them to find the average size of the seeds In this way the biggest and smallest seeds are taken out and the averagesized seeds are then sown into the soil bed They are also taught to identify the soil measure the exact number of seeds required for the plot and the distance that needs to be kept between seeds which is actually a concept of density he addsWe keep changing the approaches to teach the subjects says Prahlad Every 15 days Kishor and he sit down with the four teachers and discuss possible solutions to tackle problem areas Our aim is to ensure that each student absorbs understands and articulates what is being taught in the classroom says KishorSimilar integrative approaches are used for other subjects The students have been taught how to do wiring and carpentry using concepts of physics and geometry and have surprisingly done all the electrical fittings and made furniture for their computer laboratory called Picademy The lab was launched in August last year with the help of two volunteers from Madanyu an outreach programme of Cambridge University UK Alumni of the 1992 batch of Raja Shivaji Vidyalaya in Dadar East purchased four pocketsized Raspberry Pi which is a series of small singleboard computers developed in the UK for the laboratoryThe volunteers from Cambridge also trained the students over a period of 10 daysThe road ahead Ashwini Ravindra Baraf 15 who lives in the neighbouring village Kolim Sarovar has aced computers and is also being nudged to teach other kids I want to become a doctor she says reticently when we meet her at her home mortifying her mother Vandana who cant fathom the idea of a girl having a job Who will pay for her education she interruptsThat currently is the fate of most students despite all the education they are receiving says Prahlads brother Kishor On an experimental basis we hope to soon start an extra year post Std X where students will be trained by professionals from the industry in order to help them find jobs in the mainstream to supplement farming says PrahladThe fear of whether these students will do well at the SSC exams has well been put to rest especially after their consistent record During the year 20132014 the centre had eight students in Std X out of which six passed the SSC exam Last year there were 33 students and Vidyankur secured 100 per cent resultsOne key problem area for the Kathole brothers is funding but the annual grant of R2 lakh that they receive from the alumni of Raja Shivaji Vidyalaya has helped them stay afloat We also need to pay the teachers a fee of Rs 5000 per month and additionally register our students for the SSC exams says Prahlad adding that the registration fee amounts to at least R2000 per child The more imminent threat is from the state government which has sent them multiple notices for running an illegal school But its just a learning centre for kids he saysFrom what one sees in the classroom the prospects look bright for Vidyankur Deepali Vasudev Vakade 15 who is preparing for next years SSC exams along with 33 others reveals how she struggled with basic concepts in maths while at a ZP school in Wada I used be afraid to ask the teacher because I thought she would yell at me in front of everyone Here the teachers dont go ahead if everyone has not understood the subject she says in Marathi She refuses to talk about her dreams of joining the police force in front of the class but later whispers this into her teacher Roshanas ears Her friend Preeti Bhagde says she wants to become a lavani dancer Nobody is talking about marriage yetAlso ReadMaharashtra teachers continue to wait for their February salaryCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and also a complete guide on Mumbai from food to things to do and events across the city here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates