We live in difficult times, where old forms of prejudice and intolerance feed into newer forms of inequality. New systems of control seek to take away the capacity of humans to think and act independently, to live in swaraaj or “self-rule” as Gandhi put it. BASICS aims to develop holistic education hubs that teach young people how to resolve conflict, accept and understand those who are different, and to have the self-confidence to address the imbalances they see around them. Local knowledge systems and cultures have a lot of wisdom that can help people cope with the world, and the aim of education is to help people utilize this diverse body of wisdom without being trapped in bias, rigidity and superstition. The aim of BASICS is to teach young people in a way that they can be resilient, economically independent, and contribute with their unique talents to the rebuilding of our world –“giving scope to all, destroying none.”
Vivek Vani Shiksha Kendra is an educational support centre that aims at the all-round nurturing of students from less privileged backgrounds. It is primarily an evening school for children and youth, from the middle school level to undergraduate level in the Barisha area. We do not work with very large groups, as our aim is to give individualised attention and care to the students. On an average about 15 to 20 students study at Vivek Vani each year. There is a large shed, with a library, fans and lights and a comfortable study area where they can sit and read, and also practice exercises or play. Often, during exam time, when their home conditions will not let them sit quietly for studies, they come to the shed to study for as long as they want to - it is their safe space. The non-formal school began in 2001 in the Selimpur area of Kolkata with 5 volunteer teachers. It later shifted to the Barisha area of Kolkata, where there are many families struggling to survive in conditions of socio-economic disempowerment, underemployment and joblessness.
Free tuitions for English, Mathematics, Bengali, Social Sciences and Physical and Life Sciences are imparted on a weekly basis. Students with learning disabilities who need even more extra help are given stipends so that they can supplement these classes with paid tuitions from other places as well. Generous scholarships are given to encourage some of the financially needy but meritorious students. Books, stationery and other requirements of the students, including uniforms (if requested by the students) and winter woollens are give to the young people. The classes are designed in a way that helps in the overall grooming and personality development of these children. A wide range of learning opportunities, encompassing areas such as hygiene, physical well being, self care, mental health, conversation skills and public speaking, music, dance and theatre is made available to the children. A library has been established for the students that includes both textbooks, guide books and story books, and they are encouraged to read books beyond their syllabus. The library is managed on a rotational basis by current students (supervised by the teachers) thereby helping them to develop their administrative abilities.
The students are often taken on short educational trips to places of cultural, educational and historical importance. The school also facilitates their participation in quizzes and other inter-school competitions to give them exposure to new learning experiences. The nutritional needs of the students need to be catered to, as the parents are often working as daily wage labour or on meagre salaries and have no knowledge of nutritional needs of growing children. Depending on the individual needs, health drinks, eggs and vitamin supplements and memory boosters are provided to the students. Vivek Vani Siksha Kendra also maintains regular contact with the parents and guardians to monitor the growth and development of the individual students. The safety of the children is paramount, and when classes go on till late in the evening, both teachers and parents keep in touch till the children reach home safely. The mothers of many of the students have been commissioned to make eco-friendly cloth bags for shopping, embroidered mats, etc that gives them an opportunity to earn a little extra and help their families.
Over the last decade, socio-economically disempowered students have been helped for their high school and college admissions, both in terms of financial assistance and counselling as to which course of study would suit their talents and needs. Some of our students have also been helped in getting vocational training at teachers’ training institutes and polytechnics. Several of our students have taken courses in beautician training, refrigerator and air conditioner repairing and driving. These courses have helped many of them to become self-employed. Some of our students have also been advised and assisted to embark on entrepreneurial projects ranging from home delivery services to app cab services, to create jobs in an otherwise bleak economic scenario.
One of the most important things that the diverse students learn at Vivek Vani is the importance of tolerance and respect for cultural and religious differences. The major festivals of all religions are celebrated with equal joy, including a Christmas nativity play that is now an annual tradition. Students are taught to break the restrictions of the caste system and perform rituals themselves, in their own simple way, without any mediation by priests or religious middlemen. They are taught to appreciate the wisdom that is present in all religions, and also to develop a critical and rational sense of what is necessary or relevant for their own time. The aim of education at Vivek Vani is to develop thinking, compassionate, responsible and broad-minded individuals who will work to help their struggling families as well as the larger society and planet.
The students mostly study in government schools where the student teacher ratio is so bad that there is hardly any time left for teachers to provide the necessary education in cultural and ethical matters. Vivek Vani aims to fill this gap in their personality development by ensuring that the children learn dance, music, theatre through annual workshops. The students have performed full-fledged plays and dance dramas in front of audiences and earned accolades for their confident performances. They are actively involved in the stage design, sound, lighting, and hall decoration (painting the intricate floor designs called alpana, for example) for their performances as well, and we are always amazed by the amount of creativity and initiative they have. The ethics of honesty, compassion and hard work is inculcated in them from the very beginning, not through dull lectures but through storytelling and group discussions.
Knowing how to speak English with confidence has become an essential prerequisite for jobs at all levels today. Most of the Vivek Vani students come from Bengali or Hindi speaking families, and no one in the older generation speaks English. Hence free spoken English classes have been conducted periodically and on demand for less privileged students for the last eight years at the Vivek Vani Shiksha Kendra. Students ranging from middle school students to undergraduates have benefited from the Sunday afternoon classes conducted by volunteer teachers. A range of innovative methods are used to take away the fear of speaking English from these students who are mainly first or second generation learners from homes where English is never spoken. Methods range from role-playing and debates to real-time conversation practice. Like the English classes at Vivek Vani, emphasis is laid on grammar, though the stress is more on helping the students develop confidence and flow so that they can compete with other students from elite backgrounds in job interviews or in any forum. Even during the pandemic lockdown, online spoken English classes were held by our spoken English volunteer teachers. Several of our spoken English students have gone on to crack job interviews in English, and are now working in prestigious firms where they can converse with their peers and employers in English. Our students have represented Vivek Vani at inter-institutional competitions over the years, and earned laurels. Spoken English has also come in handy for several of our girl students, who find it useful in their current work as self-employed professionals, beauticians and schoolteachers.