We're Going to Meet the Governor!

We have been invited to attend a program at the Museum of Tribal Arts and Artifacts on the evening of June 4th where the children will meet the Governor of Odisha, the Honorable Murlidhar Chandrakant Bhandare, and present him with a memorandum on their desire to attend school and to be taught in their own language. The director of the Museum, Dr. A.B. Ota, has requested that they wear traditional garb and bring musical instruments. I can't wait to see this and I'm sure the children will present themselves marvellously. Some are shy but others are superbly poised.

Although this trip is meant to be fun and educational, the children's request to the Governor is an important one. First, the situation in India's primary schools, especially in the remote rural areas, is disturbing. Teachers are often absent or teach only an hour or two. The schools our Pila Panchayat members attend are not, as they say, "regular" so the children are deprived of even the most basic education. In the Odisha hills, most people speak tribal languages rather than, or in addition to, the state language of Odia. Although they usually understand Odia, their customs and experiences are very different from those of people who live on the coast and they are often treated as inferior. This does not contribute to a quality education and in fact school can be very uncomfortable for tribals, a situation that is more fully described in an Orissa Review article.

Take the example of the curriculum materials. Such topics as train travel are standard fare in children's textbooks, but most tribal children have never seen a train. Why would that kind of education feel relevant to them? In fact the retention rate of tribals in school is dismal. Very few finish 10th class and fewer go on to higher education. There is a movement to make curriculum in the tribal-dominated areas more relevant to its students and to encourage tribal teachers, but with the graduation rate among tribals so low, tribal teachers are hard to find.

SPREAD's child rights program has an objective to collect the customs of the Paroja and Gadaba tribes for inclusion in the curriculum and this will be a great step forward - I wish I were going to be here to help and see the results. But in my absence, let's see what the Governor can do.