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Rishi Valley School ’s Seventy Fifth Anniversary Celebrations
Rishi Valley Education Centre turned seventy-five in 2006. The Rishi Valley Alumni Initiative, an organisation of the school’s Chennai-based former students, marked the occasion with a cultural programme followed by a day-long symposium in Chennai, on the 28th and 29th of July.
The artistes Leela Samson and Bombay Jayashree Ramnath, accompanied by their students Aditi Rao and Namrata Kartik, former students of Rishi Valley School, inaugurated the celebrations with a ballet, Asthacal. The Deccan Chronicle, reviewing the performance under the banner ‘Perfect Blend of Body, Mind and Soul’, described the event, which it said was inspired by J. Krishnamurti, as ‘coming not a day late, when tranquillity and contemplation are the only ways to deal with a life filled with stress and strife.’
Gowri Ramanarayan’s much acclaimed Rural Phantasy played to a full house at Kalakshetra, on July 30th. The play studded with songs by Kalki evokes the independence struggle.
The celebrations ended with a symposium on education titled “Quality Education for all in the 21’st century”. The meeting was intended to draw individuals from across the country that have contributed significantly and in different ways to the field of education. Among the aims of the symposium was to bring to focus innovative work in the field, to uncover the ideals that inform these efforts and so enlarge the public discourse in the country on education, in the hope that a comprehensive definition of ‘quality’ might emerge.
Professor Anandakrishnan, currently chairman Madras Institute of Development Studies and Dr. Krishna Kumar, director NCERT delivered the keynote addressed. In a comprehensive perspective, Professor Anandakrishnan portrayed the educational needs of the country, the failures of both private and public institutions to fulfil needs these and suggested ways of addressing the problem. His important suggestions included: decentralized curricular development and the creation of social monitoring and accountability norms.
Dr. Krishnakumar built his talk ‘Quality in Education’ around the legend of Eklavya, which he viewed as re-instating the existing social order; quality education was confined to the powerful in traditional societies. Modernity, he maintained, challenges this assumption and raises the question of quality in the context of mass education. Professor Krishnakumar warned against equating quality with reading and numeracy outcomes, which are held out as the key orientating feature for education by managers of the global marketplace. The paper ended with Dr. Krishnakumar suggesting two directions for the future of education. ‘In one direction, we should be looking for ways to build teacher confidence by ensuring communication between them and policy makers, curriculum designers and non-government organizations. In the other direction, we should look for greater historic awareness at all levels regarding the role of education in promoting a culture based on reason and peace, which might replace the culture of competitive aggressiveness which has been gaining legitimacy.’
Mr. M.V.Subbiah, Director, Murugappa Group gave the inaugural address, in which he spoke of the need for religion to become rooted in spiritual concerns.
Sri Bunker Roy, founder director of the ‘Barefoot College’, Tilonia in Rajasthan, who is inspired by Mahatma Gandhi’s faith in the wisdom and resourcefulness of village India, gave a power-point presentation of his work with poor rural school dropouts. Smt. Anjali Naronha, representing one of the oldest and most vibrant experiments in education, described Ekalavya’s work in government schools of Madhya Pradesh, including Ekalavya’s publications in the areas of science and language. Sri Padmanabha Rao Director of Rishi Valley Institutes of Educational Research (RIVER) showcased the multi-grade, multi-level programme that is presently being adapted for use in many thousand schools in India. Professor Kirti Trivedi of IIT, Mumbai introduced a beautifully designed multi-media display called ‘Recent Breakthroughs in Educational Technology :India's Response to A Global Challenge in Migrating to a Knowledge Economy’ on behalf of SchoolNet, India (IL&FS). Professor Mina Swaminathan, Dr. S. Anandalakshmy, Smt. Amukta Mahapatra, Professor Meenakshi Thapan, and Dr. Vithal Rajan joined with the large audience to discuss a wide range of issues in education. Dr. Sultan Ismail’s as chairman of the various sessions stalwartly helped balance out issues and moderated the discussion throughout the day.
The Campus
The abundant rain this year has filled all the water bodies on campus: wells, dry for more four years, have water, the large percolation tanks is overflowing; channels that had fallen into disuse now carry water downstream; and the five new percolation tanks are full – one can see Sliding Rock reflected in the pond across from Mulberry House.
The four-year drought has taken its toll on the large banyan tree (BBT), which lost several branches, its symmetrical canopy becoming lop-sided; the old mango orchard near Malli Bavi now has many bare spots; wetland birds lost their habitat. Our resident ornithologist Dr. Santaram notes their plight in a recent article:
“There have been hardly any waterbirds on the campus for several years now. The ubiquitous White-breasted Waterhens Amaurornis phoenicurus that used to advertise their presence with loud calls were now conspicuously absent. So were the Little Grebe, Common Moorhens Gallinula chloropus, egrets Egretta spp., waders, and Small Blue Alcedo atthis and Lesser Pied Kingfishers Ceryle rudis. The Indian Pond-Herons Ardeola grayii that had put up with the water shortage all these three years became scarce this season (December 2004 onwards). All these days they had eked out a living foraging on the dry ground close to the paths frequented by people, feeding on insects. Now even these became scarce and it was time to leave. Yet one or two individuals still frequent and occasionally flush out from quieter corners.”
With the filling up of ponds and lakes water birds are slowly returning. The Banyan Tree has revived after water was diverted to it eight hours a day for several days.
The new hospital designed by Sri Sankar from Kerala is a distinguished red brick building, a central courtyard of the building lets in light and air. Students like the new facility which has its own common room and kitchen.
The foundation for the new office building has been laid. Mr. Srinivas Reddy assures us that the office staff will move in by June 2006.
Agricultrure
Our Estate Manager Santosh has just harvested a crop of organically grown by the less water intensive Madagascar Method.
A 100 kg of Majjige Ragi, a white millet close to being lost, grown on our farm, has been made available to the Green Foundation for propagation among the organic farmers network in Karnataka.
Dairy
There is high demand for the bull calves from the Rishi Valley Dairy. They are being used in Dairy Farms in the disctricts of Anantapur, Nandyal, Tirupathy and Guntur,
The recently published Puffin Book of Children’s Verse edited by Eunice D’Souza and Melanie Selgado contains four poems written by Rishi Valley students for Gieve Patel’s Poetry Workshops. The poems are by Ishan Agarwal(2000), Alisha Raghavan (2003), Kriti Sharma (2003) and Raeesa Vakil, who is still at school in her final year. Alisha’s poem is given below:
Not Long Ago
Clothes you say
Must not be our only preoccupation
Friends you say
Must not be our only preoccupation
Forgetting to do our homework
You say is sinful
Keeping away from games field
You say is harmful
Junk food you say
Is abominable
Television you say
Is baneful
But not long ago
You too were a child like me.
Suruchi Aulakh, a former student, and Jaimini Pathak inaugurated the term with two engaging plays, the work of a Ramu Ramanathan, a Mumbai-based playwright. ‘Teen Sakina Manzil’ is a story of lost love set in war-time Bombay of 1944. ‘Mahadevbhai’ follows Mahatma Gandhi through the diaries of Mahadev Desai. Both plays were studded with period music and performed with great verve by Suruchi and Jaimimi.
News from Rishi Valley School
The following new teachers have joined the school.
Ms Srirangavalli Kona (mathematics), Ms Damayanti Rao (English);
Mr. S.G.Krishnan (history); Ms Srikumari (general science); Ms Susan Deborah(English); Ms Rima Sinha (dramatics), Mr. Siddhalingiah (computer science), Mangala Reddy (English), Veena Saldahna (economics and mathematics).
The orientation programme for the teachers focused on the necessity of relating to students as individuals in every respect including academic and non-academic areas. The place of silent observation in uncovering teachers’ preconceptions and individual students’ nature was also explored. Videos of talks and discussions with Krishnamurti were viewed.
Class 12 students arrived on June 1, fifteen days earlier than the rest of the students. They participated in group discussions with teachers, watched Krishnamurti talking with students and teachers on video, went on hikes and got a head start on their academic programme.
News from the Institute of Bird Studies and Natural History
Dr. V. Santharam and Mr. S. Rangaswamy of the Rishi Valley Institute of Natural History and Ornithology have been invited to serve as Advisors on Ornithology to the Jamshedji Tata Virtual Academy for Rural Prosperity. Their brief is to ‘help create among rural youth a love of nature’
News from the Herbal Garden
Dr. Nalini Geete was invited to Srinagar in Kashmir and is helping to identify herbs for sacred gardens in different locations in the city. She has brought back several indigenous varieties of millet that will be grown on campus.
News from the REC and RIVER
As part of RIVER’s endeavour to understand the implications of multi-grade education systems in more diverse communities, and to benefit from the contemporary pedagogical theories and practices, it is building connections outside the country. Rama and Padmanabha Rao, accompanied by Maitreyi spent six weeks during March and April in Europe in April and May lecturing at the University of Metz in France and the University of Regensburg in Germany.
In addition, the team interacted with a cross-section of people, including teachers of primary and secondary schools, headmasters of schools, school administrative officers, University professors in school pedagogy, and young teacher trainees. The team was able to observe and understand various classroom structures and processes and also look at a host of teaching-learning material in language, mathematics and environment study.
An ongoing programme with the University of Metz has brought students from the computer science department in France to RIVER. Our first visitor was Remy Bertot.
The Rishi Valley methodology, earlier adopted by the Chennai Corporation for some of its schools, broadened to include ten schools in each block. According to the Hindu, ‘the decision to extend the project to all districts was taken at an executive committee meeting of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, after a joint assessment by the State and Central representatives of the SSA and the World Bank found the method "most scientific" and recommended that it be considered for replication. "The study materials were prepared by the Corporation staff after a brief training at Rishi Valley school in Andhra Pradesh. They will now be used in schools all over the State," he said. ‘
News from the Rural Health Centre
A Microbiology facility, the first of its kind in a 100 km radius, was established earlier this year. The doctors in Madanpalle as well as the people from surrounding villages, to whom it has meant much needed savings, have welcomed this much-needed facility. We also now have an Ultrasonologist visiting us on the first Sunday of every month. The Laboratory and Microbiology centres were funded by Mr. Ramkumar, an alumnus of RVS. The X-Ray machine donated by the SIDVIM trust was commissioned and is proving equally useful.
A new computer which will store data storage, inventory control Mr. Mahadevan, has been helping us with developing a software for patient record keeping.
In the 3 years since its inception we have seen the average birth weight creep up from 1.8 kg to a healthier 2.3 kg, just short of the desired 2.5 kg.
The TB programme has been recognised by the District TB Society as a treatment centre under the DOTS programme of the Revised National TB control Programme. We will be sourcing drugs and laboratory materials from the Government.
We would like to share the following especially good news from the RHS with our readers and donors to the programme.
Lakshmidevamma is all of 23, pregnant for the third time; she came to us in her 5th month, complaining of loss of vision in the left eye.
She had a massive hypopyon and the cornea was so soft that one could easily have perforated it while examining.
The cause – severe malnutrition. Name the deficiency and she had it: Haemoglobin of 3 gm%, bleeding gums, smooth tongue, skin changes etc. She was literally on her last legs, could not take a step without gasping. Thank god for “modern medicine”, MMKCMT and friends like you all. She was admitted at a private hospital in Madanapalle and given nutritional supplements, Sub-Conjunctival injections etc. She made a remarkable recovery and delivered a healthy, but underweight baby girl. Both are doing well.
Madhuri, a 12-year-old girl presented with a dry cough and severe dyspnoea of 2 days onset. Surprisingly the chest was clear. Thanks to the new X-Ray machine, donated by the SIDVIM Trust, we were able to pick up massive bilateral pneumonia, probably Atypical. The child was transferred to the Paediatric ICU at St Johns Hospital in Bangalore. She was diagnosed as having mycoplasma pneumonia, was on the ventilator for 5 days, and has recovered well. It is a pleasure to see her running around and back to school. We were able to afford her treatment costs thanks to friends and well-wishers who have donated generously for patient welfare.
Global Development Award for Rishi Valley Rural Edcation Centre
Rishi Valley Education Centre (RVEC) of the Krishnamurti Foundation has been awarded the first prize for the “The Most Innovative Development Project 2004” at the Sixth Annual Global Development Conference held at Dakar, Senegal on January 26, 2005.
Sponsored by the Government of Japan, this Global Development Network (GDN) award is open to all development projects in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the transitional economies of Europe and Central Asia.
Adjudged by a multidisciplinary panel of experts, the award was given to the Rishi Valley Centre over several contestants, in recognition of its path-breaking multi-grade multi-level methodology and teacher training programmes developed for meeting the needs of children belonging to the underprivileged sections of society its rural schools.
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