3.1. A Description of Loreto Day School, Sealdah
3.2. Option for the Poor
3.3. Rainbow School
3.4. Rural Child-to-Child Programme
3.5. Barefoot Teacher Training Programme (BTTP)
3.6. Feeding Scheme
3.7. Other Programmes and Projects
3.8. The Values and Ethos of the School
Running from the southern end of Calcutta's green space, the Maidan, to the Hooghly River, north of Howrah Bridge, runs an arterial route that hums and throbs with rickshaws, yellow taxis, buses, lorries and scooters. This is AJC Bose Road. Centrally situated on that road is an unremarkable building, with a grey stippled facade, and covered with the stains of Calcutta's pollution. The building is a classic set of bolt-on buildings, some wings running to five storeys, while others are a mere two or three storeys tall. Inside, there is a modest quadrangle with volleyball hoops at either end, and a covered area with pillars holding up an additional four storeys. From seven in the morning till late in the evening, the visitor will encounter children, parents, teachers, rural villagers and hawkers selling Kwality ice cream and other edibles in the quad 4. The more observant will spot a washing line, a stray dog, two white rabbits and a couple of cockatoos as well. All day long, the smell of dhal, potatoes, onions, rice and mild spices permeates the air, as big cooking pots are stirred and emptied. This is Loreto Day School, Sealdah.
4 The hawkers and those selling edibles are generally parents of children at the school, who are using the income from their trade to support their children through school.
Figure 3.1.: AJC Bose Road, Calcutta
Figure 3.2.: Loreto Day School, Sealdah: An unremarkable building
The story of Loreto Sealdah began in 1857, some one hundred and forty years ago, when it became one of the first missionary plants of the Loreto Movement in India. The school was part of a tradition set up by its Anglo-Irish Catholic founders, which sought initially to educate the daughters of Irish and English soldiers and colonists in India, but gradually widened its embrace to include Anglo-Indian pupils of railway families, and then spread its mission to the poor in rural and urban districts of Bengal, the United Provinces, South India and hill stations in Darjeeling, Assam and Simla. The majority of Loreto Schools in India have always been English-medium institutions. In the 20th century, under the leadership of Mother Dorothy, some of the Loreto Schools began to challenge the code for Anglo-Indian schools, which were forbidden to accept more than 25% of Indian children 5. Private institutions were opened side by side to cater for the numbers in excess of the specified 25%. In addition to educating what was arguably an elite in India, the Loreto sisters operated non fee-paying 'free schools' for certain numbers of the poor. There were other attempts to reach out to the poor and destitute, most notably in the establishment of an orphanage and school at Entally, Calcutta. In the latest policy document on Loreto Schools, the preferential love for the poor is stressed, alongside the value of simplicity. Accordingly, 20% of all admissions in Loreto Schools in India are to be reserved for the economically deprived, with the view that:
"The poor child is recognised as an asset since her presence challenges the school community to live by value judgements based on human dignity and not on money, possessions, or even on talent. She is welcomed into school and treated with the same respect as is accorded to others" (Nurturing to Freedom, 1991, p. 11).5 Mother Dorothy decided: "I could not bear to close the doors of our schools to Indian children in their own country" (Colmcille, 1968, p. 281).
Loreto Day School, Sealdah, has emerged from a religious tradition which espouses a preferential love for the poor. It has made significant strides to practise the ideals of exercising this preferential option since the late 1970's, when it was predominantly a middle class institution, serving a token number of non fee-paying pupils in separate streams. As convents and private schools go, it was a good school, with sound delivery on its academic promises. But was "being a good school enough"? (Sr Cyril, 1997).
In 1979, Sr. Cyril moved from her post at Loreto House, Calcutta to take over the reins of Loreto Sealdah. At the time there were 790 pupils on the role, of whom 90 were poor and therefore non fee-paying. She felt "uneasy" about imparting 'quality education' to a privileged few while millions of children across India were receiving no education at all. Thus began the realisation of the 'Option for the Poor' ideal which sought to open the school to at least 50% of non fee-paying pupils from nearby slums, 'bustees' and poorer areas of Calcutta. Over a period of less than twenty years the ideal of an option for the poor has largely been realised. On the 1998 school roll, there are 1400 pupils, of whom 700 pay fees, while 700 are non fee-paying. Many of the non fee-paying students receive free uniforms, food and books from the school. These students are subsidised by the fee-paying students, by local and overseas sponsors, and by Dearness Allowance grants made to registered private schools by the West Bengal administration.
Figure 3.3.: Sister Cyril at her desk
In 1985, a group of Class IX and X students who were participating in a community leadership initiative felt a similar unease about the number of 'platform' and pavement children living at Sealdah Railway Station and on the streets outside Loreto Sealdah. They raised the issue with teachers at the school and took it up with Sr Cyril. At their inspiration, and with the support of the school's leadership, the pupils conducted a survey of the local streetchildren to ascertain their needs. In response, a proposal followed, which resulted in the setting up of a school-within-a-school for streetchildren who "drop in like rainbows, giving joy as they appear" (Mission Statement, 1997). The rainbow school has progressed from being a 'tag-on' afternoon programme for volunteers to support, to a much more structured and integral programme of curriculum development and child-to-child teaching and learning. From its small beginnings, it now has a cohort of specially designated staff, including a coordinator, a nurse and social worker and a venue where a roof terrace has been enclosed to become a multi-purpose centre for teaching and learning, washing, playing, sleeping and counselling. The streetchildren are individually tutored by 'regular' pupils from Class V to X, who have been allocated ninety minute timetabled slots of Work Education on a weekly basis for this purpose. 250 'rainbow' children appear on the schools records, but only about sixty to ninety of these drop-in for classes on a daily basis. They are taught the skills of literacy and numeracy, as well as craft and other skills on a one-to-one basis. Life skills teaching includes a savings scheme whereby the streetchildren invest their earnings in bank accounts and are provided with incentives to save. On average, some 50 children per year are placed in schools or programmes outside of the Rainbow School, which are best suited to their language, geographical area or culture. Although most of these children attend schools which teach in the vernacular, as many as eight streetchildren have been integrated into English-medium programmes at Loreto or other Catholic Schools. A number of ex-Rainbow pupils have found secure jobs as security guards, domestic workers, or hospital staff, and many of the girls have married stable, non-street husbands. They return to visit the programme periodically.
The Rural Child-to-Child Programme was borne out of the experience of a science exhibition conducted by an educational organisation in some rural areas of West Bengal in 1979. The Loreto Sealdah exhibition stand drew the attention of the village children such that they were clambering over the ropes to touch and see the exhibits and talk to the children. When it became clear that the Loreto pupils were engaging in teaching and learning with their peers from the rural villages, it was decided to enter into negotiations with village school teachers to see whether there were longer term possibilities and relationships which would benefit both the rural and urban pupils. As a result of these negotiations, every Thursday 150 regular students from Loreto engage in child-to-child teaching and learning, mainly science, maths and environmental studies, in ten government aided schools in the Amgachia region. Some 2600 rural children participate in the programme, which is run in groups of about fifteen children by an individual Loreto pupil.
Figure 3.4.: The Rainbow School
Figure 3.5.: A rural village master
This initiative has been running since 1988 and has touched the lives of some 4000 untrained teachers across India, from Mizoram in the North East, to Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and as far west as Rajasthan. It is aimed at young teachers in village schools or even drop-outs from these 'schools who have no route or access to teacher training, particularly as they have scholastic qualifications which are lower than Class X. The programme uses the term 'barefoot' to refer to the fact that people need only feet to walk, and that shoes are therefore a luxury. Similarly, given the literacy and numeracy needs of millions of children across India, a highly theoretical two year training course for teachers represents a luxury. The 'barefoot' programme is accomplished in a two phase programme which takes a month and emphasises child and activity-centred methodologies using local resources. It has recently been experimenting with a cascade model of training the trainers who live in rural villages and are therefore able to provide ongoing supervision of trainees.
The school runs a feeding scheme for both its regular pupils and the rainbow children who cannot afford regular meals. Slum and streetchildren are provided with three nutritious meals a day, and the food is served and cooked by permanent staff who generally live on the premises and are on duty for the entire year. Their catering remit extends beyond the feeding scheme to include providing food for training course participants who attend the Barefoot Teacher Training Programme.
Figure 3.6.: Children enjoying their midday meal
The school has a number of other programmes and projects including a work scholarship scheme and a networking project. The work scholarship scheme provides an opportunity for members of Class XI and XII who cannot afford the fees to render their services in exchange for non fee-paying status in the final two years of their schooling. This usually involves supervising study and coaching classes containing younger members of the secondary school.
The networking programme at Loreto Sealdah, co-ordinated by the resident school social worker, Ms Teresa Mendes, is extensive. It is a way in which the school keeps abreast of developments in the NGO sector, as well as in other schools and institutions. A quarterly Loreto newsletter, "Ripples and Rainbows", is published and keeps NGO's, volunteers and sponsors in touch with the activities, values and progress of the school. Networking represents a crucial part of the school's information system, and is also one of the key ways in which funds are raised on an informal basis.
The many programmes at Loreto Sealdah are integrated by a common vision and collective set of values which have evolved during the period of change. One of the keystones of the curriculum at the school is Value Education, which runs from Class 1 to Class X, and uses an experience-based approach to the development of values. The text used, called "We are the World", is published by Orient Longman, edited by Sr Cyril, and written in large measure by members of Loreto Sealdah teaching staff. "We are the World" makes explicit the values which the school espouses, including those related to freedom, justice, sincerity, the development of spirituality, love, tolerance, concern, contribution, service, rights and responsibilities. There is a statement of belief at the beginning of each text, which reads as follows:
We believe:
· that every child has the right to experience those great human values of freedom, justice, sincerity and love as she/he grows to maturity;· that every child has the right to be happy;
· that every child has the right to be introduced to the spiritual element in her/his nature, which transcends the narrow barriers of religious and communal considerations;
· that every child has the right to be reared in that spirit of love, concern and tolerance which is his/her secular inheritance in India.
The programme of value education for school pupils is supported by the conduct of staff development workshops which act as a reflective tool for teachers. These workshops are conducted for two days annually, and include topics like change, risk-taking, fear, freedom and relationships. Value education is also directed at parents and guardians of pupils through ongoing communication about values in school newsletters.
At the centre of all Loreto Sealdah's vision is a visible and explicit ideology which rests on three intersecting values. Principally, Loreto challenges a fixed view of school and its structures by seeking to live out a set of values which continually challenges parents, teachers and pupils of the school to build an outward looking community, to be flexible, and to live in simplicity. The idea of community seeks to create both a sense of belonging within the school, and a desire to reach out to the poor and oppressed without it. Similarly, flexibility places the utmost value on people. Responding to the needs of people is considered a higher priority than the programmes, meetings or timetables which the school runs. Interruptions and disruptions are common as a result of the school embracing what it describes as the "messiness" of living among the poor. Simplicity places the resources at Loreto's disposal in the broader context of a country where 400 million people lack the basic necessities of life. It therefore stands against acquisitiveness, consumerism and the trappings of modern life in favour of valuing people and relationships. These are the explicit values which Loreto espouses, and they may be represented as intersecting circles, as in the diagram:
Figure 3.7. The Visible and Explicit Ideology at Loreto.
The adoption of a set of explicit values is not a neutral or unproblematic exercise, especially where these values challenge dominant ideologies. The realisation of values in the life of a school is a difficult and elusive process, which may have uncertain or unpredictable consequences. The particular values which Loreto Sealdah has evolved over a period of time contain their own contradictions and problems. At best, these values represent the will towards a 'new society' in which people rather than material possessions are valued. At worst, the values of community, simplicity and flexibility may take directions which diminish the quality of the educational experience for pupils at Loreto Day School. So, for example, the value of flexibility may be applied so rigorously that interruptions render the normal school programme dysfunctional. Ironically, the inflexible application of the principle of flexibility may lead to collapse and disorder within the system. It is clear that flexibility as a value contains within it inherent tensions, between rigidity on the one hand, and chaos, on the other. Similarly, the value of simplicity may be taken hostage by either materialism or asceticism, and the value of community may wrestle against the competing tensions of individualism and conformity.
For a school like Loreto Sealdah, which has succeeded in capturing the imagination of its members with a clear and transparent set of counter-cultural values, translating these values into sound educational practice will always present a challenge. In practical terms, the school will need to balance competing tensions between, for example, modernising, organising and locking up the school library, and the goals of flexibility, simplicity and community which prioritise people above books. In the short term, the question of whether to sacrifice sound educational practice to people-centred values which favour the poor, is at issue. In the longer term, a well-organised library may be empowering to those very Rainbow children whom the school seeks to liberate from their restricted everyday world on the streets of Calcutta.
