Tamarind Tree School

Background

Built on the philosophy of equity, the Tamarind Tree School made a modest beginning in June 2010 with 40 children spread over the Pre Primary section of Nursery, Junior KG and Senior KG. Designed to be a multi-lingual school we gently take the tribal children from their mother tongue Warli to English helping them to realise their full potential. The enthusiasm that the children and their parents showed in the first year underscored the need for relevant education facilities in the tribal region.

The response in the second academic year has been extremely encouraging  -  the enrollment has more than doubled and Tamarind Tree School now has 90 children. Our dream of carrying forward the Pre Primary students to the Primary was fulfilled with the launch of Std 1 in June this year.  We are committed to increasing one class per year to ensure the students complete their secondary education.

At the school, we believe that the optimal development of children - their  physical, social, cognitive, emotional and educational growth is vital for society . Critical to enhancing the ability to learn is the physical development of the child.  The school provides nutritious and wholesome food (mid day meal for all and lunch for class 1) to ensure that the physical needs are taken care of.

Located in Sogve, a typical tribal settlement of Dahanu, children come to the school mainly from the hamlets of Sogve, nearby villages of Jamshet, Chari, Agwan, Savta and Sarawali.  The ethnic composition of children is largely tribal, comprising of the Warli tribe. Children belonging to the Waghri and Surti communities, categorised as Scheduled Castes have also joined.

Communities
Located between the majestic Sahyadaris and the Arabian sea, Dahanu is popular for its chikoo and mango wadis. The tribal community of Warlis, once known as the Kings of the Jungle, reside in scattered villages across the hill range. With the changes in the forest laws and  commodification of land along with prejudices and neglect over centuries, the Warli has reduced to a marginalised community. Most of them practice subsistence farming during the monsoons and work as daily wage labourers in fruit orchards, brick kilns and fishing boats for the rest of the year.  Trapped in the cycle of economic deprivation with poor levels of literacy and health, the community is today at crossroads – ecologically, culturally, socially and politically. Struggling to survive the onslaughts of a globalised modern world, their rich oral cultural traditions are being subsumed in mindless homogeneity.

Education
Even though the literacy level of Thane is as high as 85 per cent, it is merely 45 per cent in the Dahanu region indicating that the government's initiative of universal primary education is ineffective in this region. Sogve village, where the school is located is a typical example  of the inadequacies in the education system.  The village does have a government run Balwadi, however, in the absence of a dedicated building the Balwadi is run in a veranda of a mud house with the primary purpose of distributing the mandatory mid-day meal. The most impressionistic age of the tribal children is being wasted merely waiting for the mid-day meal while almost nothing is learnt.


Teaching & Learning
The Tamarind Tree school believes that a child-centric pedagogy with the use of technology along with community participation  can bring about a transformation in the lives of the future generation. We foster a learner driven community, where we learn from experience, each other, and the communities we work with. Our  class size does not exceed 25 and we we maintain a student teacher ratio of 1:10. 

Tamarind Tree teachers are drawn from the community and given extensive training on educational pedagogies, early child care  and best practices.  Active Learning Centre and Adhayayan (www.adhyayan.asia) partner with Tamarind Tree to provide critical and creative inputs to our curriculum.

Teachers at Tamarind Tree use a variety of methodologies like arts, crafts and audio visual tools to teach. The curriculum also includes tribal narratives from their oral tradition with  a view to creating a balanced individual with a sense of cultural identity. The natural surroundings like forest, animals and rivers are not only a part of fairy tales but they play an important role in experiential learning at the Tamarind Tree.

In tune with our philosophy of community participation, a monthly parent teacher meeting is held to enable an exchange of views, share concerns and be partners in the development of children. Critical  issues such as peer pressure for tuitions, role of schooling in a child's life, ways of learning are discussed in these meetings. Contrary to popular belief, communities understand the value of education and are vocal and expressive in these meetings. Through these meetings, the school aims at imparting  an education ethic that puts the child at the centre, disregarding popular trends like tuitions and excessive homework. This continues to be a challenge and we hope to be able to fundamentally change peoples values in time.

The Space
Tamarind Tree has been envisioned to be a complete primary school in the coming years. It is built on three acres of land. In June 2010,  we started the school out of an existing structure with two rooms and a  verandah. Over the year, we were able to get critical financial support from a philanthropic organisation to increase our infrastructure considerably.  With this and pooling in our own  resources, we have been able to expand our space to include new classrooms, an assembly hall and a toilet block this academic year. 

The space has been designed keeping the farm landscape intact, by using natural bamboo, bamboo mat boards and roof tiles. Hidden snuggly amongst the trees, the classrooms are large independent spaces providing children with ample space to move around, sing, dance and learn. Innovative and child friendly mosaic designs on the floors help create a fun atmosphere for learning. Pathways interspersed with hopscotch, puzzles and a maze blur the lines between the outdoors and the formal classroom.  A fish pond between the classrooms becomes a hub during play and meal times.  In addition, a separate play area with swings, slides, see-saws, bars and climbers has been created for outdoor play.