EDUCATION INDIA

He followed her to school one day;
That was against the rule;
It made the children laugh and play;
To see a lamb at school.



"Why does the lamb love Mary so?"
The eager children cry;
"Why, Mary loves the lamb, you know,"
The teacher did reply.



- From Mary Had A Little Lamb, by Sarah Hale, 1830.



Sister Mary Braganza joined the Society Of The Sacred Heart in the early 40's, teaching as part of the order. The first Indian to be appointed principal of Sophia College in 1964, she expanded its campus to include the Bhabha Institute Of Science and Sophia Somani Polytechnic when Bombay didn't have science colleges for women (but for medicine or engineering). Also during this tenure she established the Sadhana School For The Mentally Challenged, adopted a village, and worked for the reform of municipal schools – when most colleges refrained from mixing academia with social consciousness. She went on to form and implement national and international educational policy (Executive Director in charge of 203 Indian university colleges; committee member for revising the New University Act (1964-83); and India's representative to meetings held by bodies like SAARC, to quote a few instances).

Then Sister Mary, armed with doctorate degrees from institutions like Harvard University, settled for 12 years in Jharkand (then Bihar), empowering it's tribal population through an educational system built from scratch – so much so that they bestowed upon her a new name – Karuna (meaning kindness) Bhengra (a tribal clan name). Her work since her return to Maharashtra extends from Rain Water Harvesting in the rural areas, to the raising platform and street children in the cities.



The 84 year old recipient of innumerable awards, who imbibed tribal sign language to inform tribals non-verbally at their village Baithaks (they didn't communicate verbally), sits across a coffee table, to clearly outline, dissect, and often tear to shreds educational theories and programs from ancient times to today – with the zest of a 25 year old waiting to change the world. We have drawn from this conversation, as well as documentation of over 60 years of her varied work, to present the following issues.



BRING DOWN THE IVORY TOWERS



Sister Mary had during her tenure in Sophia, written an article castigating the 'ivory towers' of education. "The ivory towers of education sprung during British Rule in India," she begins to explain. Not recognizing indigenous institutes of education, and denying them revenue free land they were used to, destroyed learning avenues for mass populace, without providing viable alternatives. The schools and colleges provided by the British were few and hardly affordable, introducing a 'class' disparity into an education system erstwhile segregated by 'caste' only. "This attitude prevails even today, with few institutions being polished and held up as 'elite'," Sister Mary comments. That these institutions decide their exclusivity by marks scored by candidates in one entrance exam, serves as no consolation.



PEOPLE'S PROPHECY

"Also the British system modeled itself on institutions like Oxford and Cambridge," she continues. "The cornerstones of which were 'discipline' and 'loyalty' then, discouraging non-comformity." Also resultant of this education is the student's alienation from the issues of the people at large. To offset this effect Sister Mary forwards the 'prophetic type' of education, as distinct from the 'pre-fabricated type'. The 'prophetic type' encourages students to challenge existing norms, and create their own. But it has to be practiced, more than taught. An example. Sister Mary instituted in her time in Sophia, a practice of senior students taking their exams without supervision. "Despite the initial opposition to the idea from teachers," she remembers. "Students were soon turning their own classmates in when they found them cheating, rather than teachers needing to do so."

The idea was simple – to inculcate the idea of a society, which they were responsible for themselves.



BOTTOMS UP



"Education means something deep down within me, meeting something deep down in another," Sister Mary explains simply. When she began her work with the Munda, Oraon and Kharia tribes in Jharkhand, her well-researched plans for their education came to naught. "I had to understand what they want and how best to give it to them," she says. So post-natal care became the primary concern because that was what the women were interested in. Then came bolstering their learning of their own arts and sciences: weaving, pottery, the ancient science of Jari Boothi, as opposed to alien subjects. Even mediums used were indigenous. The Akhada, or traditional village meeting ground, was used for educational programs and the children (used to non-verbal languages like Mundari) were taught by non-verbal mediums, like Anubhav Baithak (learning by experience – touch, sight, sound, smell) and Kriya Kalap (learning by activity). "I could do this because I have always been a proponent of the bottom-up, rather than the top-down approach," she claims. This approach demands the educator get down from a high horse, and educate the student as per his circumstance. The approach can be mirrored in the Macro Education structure as well, says Sister Mary, by granting more colleges the same autonomy the IIMs avail of, without deducting their grant, something she has long fought for. It can be mirrored in cities by supervising and recording students' individual inclinations, rather than mere end-term marksheets.



MAKING A MANDALA



Sister Mary shuffles through her files to hold up colour Xeroxes of Buddhist and Hindu Mandalas. The circular Mandala, an ancient concept finding its way into most of the world's religions demonstrates connectivity to the other, while maintaining a core idea (the centre). "This is what helps me get most of my work done," she smiles. She enumerates how, instead of waiting for red-tapism to end, any social worker should create a network of like-minded committed people within and without the government. Thus placing a cause at centre, one can fight ills they disagree with, instead of playing the blame game. The huts where she and her co-workers stayed was attacked one night by 13 armed goons, dispersing only after being confronted by an old priest with an empty shotgun. It was at such a time that her 'network of goodwill' stepped in, and organizations hearing of this donated land and a building for her hostel and centre. The Mandala has been applied in water harvesting projects in rural Maharashtra as well. The core idea here was water harvesting for drought ridden farmers. Once that was established the same groups were used to disperse education and address health and women's issues. At Sophia College, Sister Mary rooted the idea of connectivity by demanding that the students (most of them girls from very wealthy families), undertake the college's menial tasks themselves. When one girl refused to sweep a floor saying, "Let the principal come and do this herself," the principal did. And the student followed suit.