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Tamil Nadu
MAKING A DIFFERENCE: Meenakshi Umesh (centre), principal, Puvidham Nursery and Primary School and G. Madhavaraj, correspondent, with the children of the school in Dharmapuri on Wednesday. DHARMAPURI: For the nearly 145 children coming from around Nagarkoodal village in Dharmapuri, Puvidham is much more than a school. Located about 20 km away from Dharmapuri town, the alternative school run by the Puvidham Rural Development Trust provides a rather interesting learning experience to the children, who, till some years ago, knew nothing but acute deprivation. With the district largely considered barren and unfit for agriculture, livelihood issues continue to top the list of challenges people here face. Consequently, a considerable section of the labour migrates to neighbouring districts or to places such as Bangalore and Coimbatore in search of jobs. PovertyWith poverty sucking in children’s dreams of going to school, many children tend to work for that one possible extra meal. With one hurdle leading to another, hope could seem quite remote for most, but not for Meenakshi and Umesh. The couple, who had been practising organic farming, came to the village in 1992 and has been involved in re-energising the area ever since. Ms. Meenakshi is an architect and Mr. Umesh, an engineer from IIT-Madras. They met during their stint in Auroville near Puducherry, and later, decided to pursue their interests together. That was when they considered purchasing some land. “We had about Rs.50,000 and could only look for land in areas that people had given up on. We heard about this village in Dharmapuri and almost instantly decided to move there,” recalls Ms. Meenakshi. The area that looked dry and discouraging has gradually acquired a promising shade of green in these 16 years, thanks to the efforts of the couple that persistently planted and nurtured saplings. And during this process, the couple who worked with the community also saw the compelling need for a good school in the area. And thus were born the Puvidham Nursery and Primary School and the Puvidham Learning Centre. For them, building a school meant everything from conceiving an institution in concept to giving it physical shape. And this is where Ms. Meenakshi’s architectural background came in handy. With significant experience in alternative architecture, she decided to build a school that was not only environment-friendly, but also gave children a lot of space, both physically and mentally. The school, housed in a spacious campus, has tastefully designed structures as classrooms with minimal use of concrete. Interestingly, one of the bigger rooms has a large dome almost entirely made of bricks. “I was a bad student in class VIII,” Ms. Meenakshi declares. As a high school student, she was asked to write an essay on her ‘dream school’. “I had said there would be no teachers, no punishments and no examinations...I wanted to have a lot of fun at school.” DustbinThe essay found its way to the dustbin as her unimpressed English teacher tore it. “But today, Puvidham is modelled on that dream school,” she says. The school offers education till Class VIII in English and Tamil medium. The curriculum and teaching methodology is largely drawn from the Montessori system of teaching. The once-reluctant villagers, who later got into organic farming in the region, slowly started seeing a point in sending their children to this school. “We started with three children,” she smiles. Children learning through song, dance and activity evoked interest from the community. Correspondent of the school G.Madhavaraj is one of those from the community who saw promise in this initiative and decided to be part of it. “I was very young then and saw this as an opportunity to learn to speak English,” he laughs. He pursued his BBA through correspondence and simultaneously worked on his language and communication skills to be able to teach children. “It is a lot of learning ... everyday.” Today, he takes care of a host of things including administration work, renewal of licence, classroom teaching and clay modelling classes. Rani Chathurmugam, a teacher, says the learning practices are not just creative, but very wholesome. “As teachers, we are learning everyday. It has been amazing.” About seven teachers, most coming from the village, are part of the school. With the teachers, children also participate in the upkeep of the school, by watering the plants, cleaning the floor after lunch and arranging their books on the shelves. Ms. Meenakshi is now concentrating on building additional blocks at the school’s hostel where children of most migrant labourers stay. “We did not want the children to lose out just because their parents went elsewhere in search of employment,” she says. Parents, depending on their occupation could pay a token amount say a day’s wages, as the fee for the year. The initiative is funded primarily by Asha for Education, an action group working towards enhancing basic education in India. “I love it here,” says Pavithra, with an adorable smile. About two feet high, the Puvidham student speaks with great confidence and a sense of responsibility. “My parents visit me once a month, otherwise I am here. I want to study well and go to college,” she says, tapping her kolattam sticks playfully. More details about the school are available at: www.puvidham.net.
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