Today's poverty-stricken tribal generation is the result of yesteryear's education-less tribal children. If such a cycle were to continue a few more rounds, tribal poverty might well lead to tribal extinction.
Once upon a time, it might be said that education in English, Hindi, maths, science, money management, etc is not quite necessary or even remotely relevant to the tribal lifestyle. They had their land to farm, the forest to hunt and gather firewood, and freedom to live within only the tribal rules that they set themselves. While they hunt animals and consume firewood from the forest, they took only what were needed and no more. As such, they had the wisdom to maintain the balance for natural regeneration and sustainability.
But when modernity caught up with the tribal people, they found themselves subject to a whole new set of rules dictated by people who knew nothing of them or their way of life. Illiterate and completely alien to the laws and commercialism, they became easy prey to unscrupulous profit hunters who ripped them off their land assets. With a stroke of pen or thumb print, they tumbled from land owners to become land-less labourers.
And then they also lost the forest that has been sustaining them for generations. To the tribal people, the forest is like the sun or the air, it is a part of Nature's gift to all mankind that cannot be 'owned' by anyone. But the unthinkable has happened right before their eyes. The forest is fast disappearing due to commercial logging and converted into profit to some shareholders sitting faraway in some city, probably unaware of how their profits are actually gained at the expense of the impending extinction of the tribal community.
It's now critical for the tribal people to be willing to evolve with time. And education is the golden key for them to break out of the poverty cycle. The focus would be on providing today's tribal children with a holistic value-based education, equipping them with not only linguistic literacy but also financial literacy in order to navigate today's complex world affairs. However, it's even more important for them to be grounded in spiritual and moral values so that they don't grow up to become unethical predators but caring beings who serve others.
I invite the readers to travel widely to gain deeper insights into the relationship between people and Nature, and thereby becoming a step closer towards knowing the truth about life. By all means go shopping in city malls, relaxing in beach resorts or enjoying rides in theme parks, but don't stop there, venture a step further to be in touch with the tribal people. Then you may discover a connection to Nature and to fellow beings whom you can impact and be of service to. Many pleasant surprises await you on this path...
Tribal School Arts Festival Summer 2011
Even before we arrived here, Chawlaji has told us that the tribal children love to draw. And their favourite drawing subject is nature. With our photography and Internet communication skills, we felt it was our seva to beam the social cause of Tribal School to the world through the artistic expression of the children.
So we wasted no time to design and launch the 1st Arts Festival Summer 2011 on our 4th day here on 21 Apr. We brought the art competition over 5 separate days to 5 tribal schools. A total of 171 children participated. From each school, we held a preliminary judging round and picked the top 10 drawings for posting onto our Facebook for voting by the world audience.
The children were elated but most of them have no idea what Internet is all about. Only the older kids in Hindoljuri Middle School, where a computer lab has been set up, are able to appreciate to some extent that their arts are now being beamed to the rest of the world.
Frankly, I reckon "the world" must be a very alien concept to many of these tribal children who have not had the chance to venture even out of their village to the city. Many from the inner tribal areas have not even seen a train or taken a bus. So it must be rather tough for them to grasp how their drawings could be seen by thousands in some faraway places by people whom they may never meet in this lifetime.
So while the rest of us surf forward into the future powered by our technological knowledge and Internet know-how, these poorly educated tribal kids would get left further and further behind in today's Internet Age. It's with this in mind that John Ong and I evolved an experiment that John will sponsor - the School Solar System. More on this later... after we have taken a look at how the tribal kids enjoyed the arts festival.
Drawing the Hearts Out...
The Arts Festival kicked off at Hindoljuri Middle School.
Alvin briefing the teachers on the art festival's objectives and the online voting procedure.
We were very encouraged by Chawlaji who seems to have loads of faith in our idea, and gave us a freehand in executing the arts festival. On 21 Apr, we met the teachers at Hindoljuri Middle School and explained the idea, intending to work out a timeline with them. Senior Teacher Anindita was so enthusiastic that she rounded up her teachers and students, and commenced the art competition immediately.
Hindoljuri Middle School - the students sat around in the assembly hall for their art creation.
We observed all sorts of interesting drawing posture.
On 22 Apr, we held the drawing competition at Hindoljuri Primary School. The younger kids here use crayons and they drew with immense concentration.
On 24 Apr, it was Kalchiti Primary School. We arrived at the school especially early at 7am to see how they started the day with a cleaning routine. These kids sat lining the entire corridor to do their drawing.
The children were given the freedom to draw any subject they wish. Most of their drawings depicted the natural environment that they see - home, trees, mountains, streams, sun and birds.
What is noteworthy is the message that was expressed through these drawings. With some translation effort, they explained how they see the trees and nature as friends, and that we must care for the trees and nature.
I'm impressed with the success of their teachers.
25 Apr - At Deuli Primary School, students drew in natural light because electricity was not available.
On 26 Apr, Babuline Primary School was the last school to hold the drawing competition.
Arts was specially adored in Babuline as it has the help and attention of an art teacher.
The children in Babuline painted beautifully with crayon, dashing out shades of striking colours.
We launched a new webpage to showcase the children's artwork which directs visitors to a Facebook page
to vote for the children's entries. We also invited our friends to support Tribal School at http://www.aoltribal.org/artsfest2011
Digital Expression Contest - "What's In A Smile?"
We launched this contest for Hindoljuri Middle School also on 21 Apr. Although they have a computer lab in the school, their IT knowledge was very basic. Chawlaji requested our help to gear up their IT knowledge. Instead of classroom style lesson, we decided to let the students learn experientially in a fun-filled manner, thus the digital contest. In choosing this theme "What's In A Smile?", we also hope that the kids would look deeper into the magic of smile and what would bring a smile to their parents, teachers, friends, neighbours, etc.
35 students were selected by the teachers to form into 5 teams. Each team comprised of a leader, 2 x writers, 2 x photographers and 2 x designers. On 28 Apr, the photographers swung into action, armed with the sole digital camera that the project office could provide. The final presentation was scheduled on 10 May.
It is also our hope that by equipping them with the basics of digital photography, photo editing and PowerPoint presentation skills, they would have the communication means to connect with the mainstream and express their ideas more impactfully.
This combined team of digital photographers went around the village shooting.
There was only 1 digital camera from the admin office that they have to share.
They caught hold of any passerby...
and shoot them from different angles...
They used all means to tease them into smiling. Everyone had a fun time.
Robyn then guided them on how to download the pictures from the camera to a notebook.
As the power outage was so regular and that the inverter was faulty at Hindoljuri Middle School, we got the kids to come to our guesthouse for photo editing.
The students worked hard at learning PhotoShop and PowerPoint. Serving as a little tutor, Robyn has learnt so much on the art of teaching herself.
They also learnt the Singapore game of Chi-Ku-Pa.
Robyn and her good friends from Hindoljuri.
27 Apr 2011 - Visit to Jamshepur
Jamshepur is the closest city to Ghatsila. It's known as the Tata City for it was created by the Tata Group to provide a well facilitated city environment for its employees who work in its steel plants here. We made the 50min drive here to source for children story books as prizes and library stock but discovered their variety was pitifully limited. We met Naresh and Kajal, 2 sevaks who have been volunteers with the Tribal School Project for close to a decade. Led by Mr AC Thakutha, the Jamshepur tribal school sevak team takes care of the 3 tribal schools in the Dumuria block, an even deeper tribal area than Ghatsila block.
Robyn and Antara, Arindam's daughter, became good sisters with one another.
Thanks to Naresh and Kajal who brought us around Jamshepur in the morning.
Not only are the daughters Antara and Robyn became good friends, their daddies, Alvin and Arindam, also.
Solar Experiment and School Solar System
Electrical power outage is predictably unpredictable here. Some tribal schools located further inland are not even supplied with electricity. This makes the use of computer and projector, and any other form of electrical powered equipment and appliance, a non-option for educational or cooking purpose in tribal schools.
John and I have been keen to explore the use of solar energy. Tribal School seems to be yelling at us to get started. Chawlaji is keen to introduce solar cooking to the tribal homes so they could rely less on firewood, allowing the forest to regenerate, and benefit from less smoke pollution in their homes. I immediately surfed the web and downloaded a DIY plan of CooKit solar cooker. On 19 Apr, we got Arindam to purchase an aluminum sheet, cut it up and made our first experimental solar cooker.
After visiting various tribal schools, John and I discussed the idea of using solar energy to power a notebook and projector so as to allow tribal classrooms without power supply to be IT-enabled. John generously offered to sponsor 2 sets of School Solar System - solar panel + battery power set + one each of notebook and projector. He'll assemble the systems back in Singapore and fly them in to Chawlaji in Kolkata, who will install them at Hindoljuri Primary School and Kalchiti Primary School. I would help to source for suitable educational software.
John and Serene, Robyn, Jin and Alvin.
Solar engineers at work... DIY solar cooker.
We chose the simplest DIY plan to make this experimental solar cooker.
"OK, our solar cooker is ready to be tested." declared our solar innovators.
But our pot of rice never got cooked... so I decided to seek help from friends who are more experienced in solar cooking.
Luckily we could fall back on our reliable chef at the VVKI Guesthouse, who always whipped out great veg meals.
In the evening, Robyn would run her 'casino' and John and Serene would enjoy the 'heart attack' card game till late into the night.
John and Serene left on 22 Apr morning for Singapore, much to the dismay of Robyn.
Live Simply So Others May Simply Live
Our life in Ghatsila was simple and basic. Although our room in the HCL Guesthouse had an aircon, it was capable of lowering the temperature only marginally lower than the heated room temperature. I'm actually glad of the simple living as it brought to life what I read in Conversation With God: "Live simply so others may simply live."
Our AC room in HCL Guesthouse - simple, spacious, quiet and without power outage.
Arindam invited us over for a wonderful dinner cooked by his beautiful wife.
Robyn sharing interesting apps with Swapan and Chawlaji.
Robyn got better as an ASketch portrait artist. Can you tell which is the real Swapan?
Robyn sketching Chakraborty using ASketch app on iPhone4.
It might be a newfound profession as ASketch artist for Robyn!
> How much do you think Chakraborty was charged by this budding artist?
Once upon a time, it might be said that education in English, Hindi, maths, science, money management, etc is not quite necessary or even remotely relevant to the tribal lifestyle. They had their land to farm, the forest to hunt and gather firewood, and freedom to live within only the tribal rules that they set themselves. While they hunt animals and consume firewood from the forest, they took only what were needed and no more. As such, they had the wisdom to maintain the balance for natural regeneration and sustainability.
Tribal School Arts Festival Summer 2011
