MEENA MENON.

Situated near Machnoor, Andhra Pradesh, and run by a non-government organisation, the green school is different from the formal education system. Strongly linked to the rural community, it is a world which has meaning for its students, says MEENA MENON.
 
There's also time for fun and games.

IN a circle lined with dull red dome-shaped structures, about 160 students, their bright clothes catching the morning sunlight, are debating the day's news stories. One of them reads aloud from a newspaper while the rest listen and make occasional comments. That day, a more exciting issue needs to be settled — that of a two-day holiday for Nag Panchami.

Soon members disperse to their respective domed classrooms. Each class is named after a popular local bird. The children in Chilaka (parrot) are illiterate — they are the newcomers, those in Pichuka (sparrow) only know alphabets, while Chekumuki (woodpecker) has students with the highest level of learning. There are no uniforms and the children do not carry huge sacks full of books on their backs. After the assembly, students take turns to clean the school.

Spread over 15 acres near Machnoor village, 15 km from Zaheerabad (in Medak district, Andhra Pradesh), Pacha Saale, or green school, is very different from the formal education system. The important one being that it is a school where children have fun learning about things which matter to them and which will be useful to them later in life.

The first half of the day is devoted to studies and the rest to skill training in carpentry, pottery, masonry, permaculture, herbal medicines, book binding and tailoring. It must also be one of the few places training children in Bhagotam, a local folk art form. Only children above nine years are admitted, many dropouts from government schools. There are no fees to be paid in this school, run by the Deccan Development Society (DDS), a non-government organisation working in this area (to conserve traditional crops and agro-bio-diversity), for the last 15 years. Before 1998, most children had never been to any school, according to the school administrator, Bhimsen Murthy. Even now, only 10 per cent may have attended school earlier. Many worked as labourers or helped their parents with housework, grazing or farming. So far, 63 students have appeared for their SSC examinations and over 40 have passed either in the first or the second attempt. A children's committee is involved in decision-making and every day, the general assembly is devoted to various subjects. The student's skills and knowledge are analysed during the admission test and, till the fourth level, no government textbooks are used. The teachers prepare the curriculum themselves and the children are taught formal subjects like the languages, mathematics, science and the social sciences from the fourth level only.

Before the school was started in 1993, the DDS conducted a survey in villages on the need for education among the children and realised that there were many dropouts. ``Leader'' Narasimlu, a student from Pacha Saale, now works with the DDS. He used to go to a school in Pastapur village but stopped after standard seven as his family could not afford the fees. He now looks after an alternate Public Distribution System in three villages in Zaheerabad mandal. Students like Mohammed joined Pacha Saale after standard four in the government school. Fifteen-year-old Basavaraj used to work as a coolie or herd cattle for a living. He wants to specialise in masonry. Bhagya, 14, used to work in the field and also look after her younger sister. Now she works only on Sundays, like most other children. Like her, Sukeertha had never been to a formal school because her parents did not think it was important. Now she stays in a hostel as her village is far away from the school and visits her family only during holidays. Sukamma wants to go to college after standard 10 and is very keen to learn how to use a video camera.

Most of the school campus is used for permaculture and students have hands-on knowledge about mulching, growing the right kind of plants, traditional cropping and the importance of bio-diversity. Children plant trees, raise local nurseries, carry out sanitation projects and understand soil and water conservation methods by working on fallow land in the area. The school hours are flexible as children help out their families in harvesting, sowing or weeding. A beautifully designed seed room houses 85 varieties of local seeds, attractively displayed in clay pots, flanked by large bunches of sorghum, millets and other crops. Near an old abandoned well that has been cleverly converted into an amphitheatre, Ramanamma, a teacher, is playing with her students. A student of a non-formal system of education herself, she said the children love the way things were taught here but the parents had doubts about the efficacy of the system. Narsamma, nicknamed ``General'', one of the Pacha Saale students, is now in charge of the radio station that has been built on the campus. She is an expert at editing and recording, and has produced several programmes for the radio station. A 100 m tower behind the radio station is all set to make broadcasts highlighting local culture, folk art and tradition but the project is stymied for want of a licence

The Pacha Saale is an extension of the work in traditional seeds and cropping patterns by the DDS that works from Pastapur village in Zaheerabad mandal. The main thrust of the DDS is regional self-sufficiency in food, culture, value systems and the school is intended to further these values. "The government-run schools are short of teachers and lack even basic facilities," says Murthy. Children have to go long distances to study, a discouraging factor, and the teaching is not really useful as several students have testified. Also, there is a shortage of skilled people in carpentry, masonry or even tailors in the rural areas, an area the school is setting out to remedy. The school also has strong links with the community with rural women on its board who take part in framing the curriculum and who contribute their own understanding of farming and agricultural practices, folk art, culture and history.

At the village level, committees monitor the attendance of children and also interact with the school on a regular basis. It is no wonder then that many children who opt for formal schooling often leave it and return to Pacha Saale. It is a world that has more meaning for them than the badly-run straitjacketed confines of government schools.