Even as the elite educational system collapses, Muktangan, a new model, is ready for replication

From the University of Leeds to a municipal primary school in Worli. That's the story of Liz and Sunil, a duo that decided to light a lamp rather than curse the darkness.

It's also the story of Muktangan, their seriously special municipal primary school which imparts priceless knowledge (and education) to children in urban slums, their parents and their teachers.

Mr. Sunil Mehta, CMD of Paragon Mills, and his better half Elizabeth, who presented a film on their school at the last meeting, have travelled a long distance in developing this unique school that can serve as a model to be replicated all over India.

Presenting the film, also titled "Muktangan", Mrs. Mehta said she had been involved in the field of education in India for over four decades and was therefore qualified to comment on the subject with some authority.

Her very first observation was that the key purposes of education were not being served by the present system; not only the government, even the elite, high-cost private institutions were not delivering

Developing her thesis, she said there were several "outcomes" expected from a good educational system.

The first was to help children grow into adults adept at co-operative problem-solving, because no one could work alone. Even leaders of industry had to work in groups and solve problems together.

But on entering a c1assroom today, one saw children sitting quietly on benches in rows facing the teacher. ''I'm sorry to say, a noisy classroom is a learning classroom. Children need to be able to interact and share ideas. They need to be able to make decisions, to make choices - and that is denied to them."

In the era of know ledge explosion, when nobody could be the sole receptor of know ledge, "our textbook writers seem to think" that they were the sole receptors of knowledge.

"Children need to leam where to fmd knowledge, how to process it and when to use it. But visit any school, even if they have a library, it is locked up; even if they have teaching aids, the security of the teaching aids is more important than their use."

The second "outcome" expected of a good educational system was the grooming of "confident, responsible decision-makers". But today school children had no opportunity to make decisions or to be responsible for those decisions.

The third outcome was the maturing of children into compassionate indviduals. But most schools separated children from the mainstream; children with different learning needs or those with disabilities, those challenged in some way, were not allowed to be part of the educational system.

"In Muktangan we are inclusive. We have all types of children and we try and integrate them. And who is the beneficiary? All children. They grow up learning about differences, learning to live with differences, learning to share and learning compassion."

Elizabeth lists the ills of the system; and corrects them

A fourth goal was to become an individual with a positive value system to which one was committed. An interesting observation threw some light on this attribute.

Mrs. Mehta recalled that Muktangan being a municipal school (in the primary section), had one municipal teacher. One of the fIrst things she did when the school opened its First Standard, was to write the following slogan on the blackboard:

"Cleanliness is next to Godliness."

Why had she done it? Would the children be able to understand it in the First Standard with their limited English? "Ah," she said, "it is prescribed in the value education syllabus. And I have to write it on the board."

That, said Mrs. Mehta, was not how one developed values. One developed values through one's own experiences of life.

"We must seek in schools to provide the opportunities for children to formulate their own value systems. No one is ever committed to a value that is told to them by someone else. It has got to develop from within."

The fIfth desired "outcome" was respect for the family. A child spent 70% of its life in the family. Thus, it was the family and not the school that was educating the child. Both schools and parents had to work in partnership, with each having a clear idea about the role of the other. This was the only way to have a productive, childcentred educational programme.

While some schools held parentsteachers' meetings twice a year, many kept parents at arm's length. At Muktangan, however, PTAmeetings were held every month.

"We are working with families from urban slums. Many traditional teachers will say that these children cannot learn, that their families are not interested. Rubbish. They are the ones who are most keen on education.

"You don't need meetings where you lecture the parents on the correct school uniform, on bedtimes, on supervising homewOlk. Parents need to understand education. It is up to the school to draw them in, get them to participate, experience what their children are doing."

The next goal of a good educational system was grooming a broadminded generation that could think beyond the country's boundaries.

Most textbooks and syllabi in India were not taking up this challenge. For them, the world ended at the national boundaries. They focused solely on Indian history, the geography of India and so on. Children were learning nothing about global issues such as global warming that were impacting their lives, too.

Recalling her experience, she said Muktangan received several foreign volunteers. Once, there was a string of them from Australia. Soon, the children started corresponding with Australian students.

Since the BMC rules required them to do a project in that term, it was felt appropriate that the children applied their geographical ideas to Australia and did a project on Australian animals, Australian environment and so on.

But soon a senior BMC official walked in and said, "What is this you are doing! They have to learn about India. India alone".

Mrs. Mehta asked: "Is that preparing them for a global world?"

After 40 years' experience in the mainstream, high fee-paying or elite, educational system, she and her husband felt the need for a new model oflow-cost, child-centred and inclusive education. Thus was born the Muktangan School in 2003.

One of its unique features was that young women were selected from the slum community and trained as teachers. This ensured better bonding between the teacher and the child.

Another unusual aspect was the student to teacher ratio. At a time when many schools had one teacher to about 100 students, Muktangan had a ratio that varied between 6:1 and 15:1, "so that each teacher knows her children".

"Of course, examinations ... although we have (to have) them, we do not need them to know where each child is in the process ofleaming."

After the screening of the film "Muktangan", Mrs. Mehta said she was amazed by the transformation that the school had wrought.

"I had not anticipated this. When we started in 2003, all I wanted to do was open one small balwadi, but it has grown and grown. And our children are doing extremely well."

In the very fIrst year, after starting the First Standard, an annual exam was conducted "because we are a BMC school". When students from all the 54 English-medium BMC schools were ranked, four out of the top six were from "Muktangan".

The teachers, originally from vernacular schools, had transformed into English-medium teachers.

MUKTANGAN IS 'A HAPPY (LEARNING) SCHOOL'

Many of them had failed the Maths paper at their SSC exams and only scraped through on the third attempt. But now the children under them were faring very well and their average score was about 95% in the BMCexams.

Another achievement was that most teachers were going back to study and complete their education. Those with only an HSC certificate were graduating. Clearly, education had acquired a meaning for them and was finally leading them somewhere.

"These women would never have got into teaching (teachers' training courses) because the entrance! qualifying marks required were too high. Besides, the quality of their basic education was so low that most had passed their SSC or HSC with only about 40% marks. But now they have a profession," Mrs. Mehta added.

Answering questions, she told Ajit Jhangiani, a Visiting Rotarian from Texas, USA, that one way to judge whether or not the school had met its objectives was to look at the dropout rate. While the dropout rate in government schools was 40%, at Muktangan it was zero per cent.

Some children did leave the school, but that was due to migration. Since slums were being pulled down to make space for shopping malls and high-rises, entire families were being forced to migrate and their children to leave their schools.

Another parameter was the attendance at the parents' meetings; it was more than 80%, sometimes even 90%. Over and above this was the parents' enthusiasm and the relevance of the questions asked.

"Any visitor to Muktangan has to walk through the traditional school downstairs. When they come into Muktangan, the comment they all make is, 'It's a happy school'. What better criteria (for success) could you have than that? A happy school is a learning school," she concluded.

The guest speakers were introduced by Roda Billimoria, while the vote of thanks was proposed by Jacob Abraham.

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