VISIT TO PUVIDHAM LEARNING CENTRE

We (Vidhya Sridhar and Ankit Kumar) visited the Puvidham learning centre near Dharmapuri on the 2nd of Jan 2015. We travelled from Bangalore to Dharmapuri by train and then travelled to Nagarkoodal by bus. We walked the rest of the way.

Since we arrived unannounced, Meenakshi was quite surprised, but welcoming nonetheless. On the day, there were no classes ongoing at the school. The children were practising their dances, dramas and songs for the annual day celebration conducted during Pongal holidays later in January. Meenakshi welcomed us into her home and offered us refreshments.

After refreshments, Meenakshi showed us around all the blocks of the school. We firstly visited the building with the thatched roof which was originally the main teaching block. After the Kumbakonam fire tragedy, the Tamil Nadu government passed a law banning thatched roofs in schools. Hence, a new alternative building was built. However, the old building is still being used for activities and craft sessions. On the ground floor room, there were a lot of activity based games and teaching aids for kindergarten children. It also had materials required for sewing, knitting, craft work, clay work, pottery etc. Students are allocated a particular slot in their schedule for such activities.

We then proceeded to the main teaching block of the school. This building had a unique architectural design. The centre of the building was a hexagonal room with a dome shaped roof. Each side of the hexagon led to a room which was either a classroom or a science or mathematics lab. Meenakshi said they hoped to use the dome shaped roof as a planetarium at some point. The science lab had a good collection of tools and materials to demonstrate simple experiments. The curriculum followed here is not quite based on the Tamil Nadu textbooks. Meenakshi said that the five elements namely air, water, earth, space and sun form the basis of their curriculum. Across all grades, the children followed these five categories but with lessons at a varying level. Each lessons plan has been documented (to an extent) for the teacher with stories to narrate, poems for some concepts to remember and experiments to demonstrate. (Meenakshi has shared this curriculum with me. She is open to ideas and welcomed suggestions/improvements on the same) Children are also often taken on nature walks where they are asked to collect objects they find interesting on the way and then identify and learn what each of them are. The intention of such walks is to instill the childs curiosity about the environment. However, this curriculum is followed only until the 6th grade. In the 7th and 8th grades, the children go back to the Tamil Nadu state board textbooks. This is because Puvidham has classes for children only until the 8th grade, following which the children have to move to other higher secondary schools. This requires them to be in tune with the Tamil Nadu textbooks. I was concerned and surprised if such a transition works in the long run. However, Meenakshi responded that since the children learnt the same concepts in a more hands on manner, they usually adapt to the Tamil Nadu textbooks easily. She also mentioned that while designing the syllabus, they ensure they cover and map all concepts from the Tamil Nadu textbooks.

We also saw the nurseries that the students maintained. The children were split into mixed age groups for these activities and each group was responsible to maintain their own allotted portion of the nurseries.

Then, we accompanied Meenakshi to the fields. They also have their own small animal farm. The school is quite self-sufficient with the millet and vegetable fields that they maintain. Meenakshi mentioned that they depend very little on external sources of vegetables. The children are also taught farming activities and the older ones are actively involved in the bigger fields as well. Children are also taught construction activities! Meenakshi showed us a small workshop floor where children had experimented and learnt to make bricks. They had tried mixing the clay soil with different materials and carried out compression and stress tests.

We proceeded to visit the construction site for a new hostel. The current hostel is situated a little far away from the school. Due to a rape incident at a school hostel in Tamil Nadu, the TN government has laid down rules stating that the hostel cannot be situated in an isolated area and needs to be within a certain radius from the school. Hence, local authorities have instructed Puvidham to move the hostel (else forcing them to shut down). Hence, they are currently constructing a hostel right next to the school. Interestingly, she told us that the children, teachers and she together had built the foundation that we see here in the picture! In this new hostel, the architecture is such that the boys halls (or sleeping bunks) can be converted into a presentation area where they can screen shows, presentations or conduct talks.

We had a very simple but delicious lunch at Meenakshis house. She narrated her story about how she came about obtaining the land here and their struggle to make it cultivable. After lunch, we were accompanied by one of the teachers called Madhavraj to visit the current hostels. The hostels were well maintained. The cooking area uses a specially designed wood kiln that conserves fuel apparently Meenakshi specializes in the design of these. The hostels had separate rooms for boys, girls and a room for sick children (to prevent spreading diseases). All the toilets are dry toilets. The whole of this area is very severely water deprived. Meenakshi mentioned that water storage and transport is a major cost for them. We also spoke to the teachers there. Madhavaraj has been with the school since its beginning. When asked about his experience, he said he truly enjoys teaching here and doing his part for the village. Most of the teachers live in and around the village. One of them comes from a slightly distant place. When asked about teacher shortage if any, he said a few years ago they did face a severe shortage since some female teachers left post marriage. Currently, they have a very comfortable number of teachers.

Finally, we sat down with the students to interact with them. I had prepared a small fun science (and magic) quiz and we gave out small gifts for those giving correct answers. It was a lot of fun and there were some smart answers and questions from the children. The children then showed us their dance and drama performances. They were also rehearsing for an English skit where they compare schooling at Puvidham against private schools! The childrens English diction was quite impressive! (You can view short clips of their performances here:- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3HjX4kVK6o, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xAYa5KI0T8, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PukQnNNmVKg, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCHaK9q6bS4&feature=youtu.be )

After all the performances, Meenakshi spoke to us about the new Science interactive park they are hoping to construct at the current hostel building. The park would have a number of interactive elements illustrating scientific theories, activities, demos of machines and expert-led workshops, where children and adults in and around the village can visit and learn. For example, one of the workshops could be on organic farming. She is pitching this idea to different funding sources. (Proposal has been shared). She also spoke about trying to move to a self-sustainable model wherein they could possibly obtain income by setting up something like a farming based getaway (like a village based resort) i.e. it would serve as a retreat for people wanting to experience village life first hand where they involve themselves in activities like farming, construction etc.

Some of my concerns were regarding the sustainability of teachers at the school. How can we ensure that no prolonged shortage occurs at any point in time in a remote area such as this? Another point of concern is the transition between their curriculum and the Tamil Nadu state board curriculum. A proper evaluation to verify if this is indeed a smooth transition would help.

We had to take leave and bid our farewell from Meenakshi and the children. The school had a (unofficial) van to drop children back at their homes and we were given a lift until the nearest bus stop. Overall, we thoroughly enjoyed the trip and our experience at Puvidham.