When Kamlesh Atwal of Milik Nazir village in Uttarakhand realized that students in his village lack awareness about how to further their education and choose the right career, he wanted to help them by creating a safe space where they could learn essential life skills.
So in 2012, he decided to open a school in Nanakmatta village while he was pursuing his PhD at Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University. “My goal was to create an environment where students and teachers can collaborate both in learning and non-learning, striving for a better future,” he says.
From 2012 to 2014, Kamlesh used to go to Nanakmatta on vacation or on leave for school work. But after completing his PhD in 2015, he came to the village to fulfill his dream of becoming a teacher and to redesign the school.
“Today, I am not only a teacher, but also a classmate with these students,” he says.
Students leading education and community initiatives in rural Uttarakhand
Students of Nanakmatta Public School in Udham Singh Nagar district of Uttarakhand have set up more than 20 community centers in different areas of Nanakmatta, providing learning space to students who cannot afford education.
At these centers, students organize book and science fairs, and learn by teaching and managing through games, music, movies, and books. There are more than 1 thousand students in the school. Kamlesh informed that most of the senior students from classes 9 to 12 are involved in these projects.
“We aim to provide a holistic education to rural and semi-rural children in the context of rural Uttarakhand. It is a ‘student-led’ school where students learn from each other through activities ranging from making documentaries to running their own magazines and community centers. The school’s flexible curriculum and independence allow different villages And attracts students from semi-rural areas to enjoy spending time here,” says Kamlesh, co-founder and academic coordinator, NPS.
Ayesha, who studied in Class 10, currently runs a community library in Dhyanpur village, where she works with around 30 to 40 children every evening.
“We engage in various activities, such as playing games like hide and seek pakdam-pakdai. In addition, every day from 4 to 6 pm, we study and learn together. During this period, we focus on enhancing our storytelling skills through the written word and enjoying book-related games,” she said.
“Also, we engage in role-playing games to better understand the stories inside the books. Apart from these activities, we also celebrate festivals. Holly and defense bondWhere we exchange sweets and enjoy the festivities,’ she added.
Kamlesh says, “Ayesha is an active worker at the community center. This has helped transform her confidence and enthusiasm for learning in class. She is now able to share what’s on her mind with confidence. This is the effect of working with the community through the project. “
Ayesha is among the 50 students who have succeeded in creating positive leadership through such responsibilities. These are lessons, notes 37-year-old Kamlesh, that a traditional classroom cannot teach you. Her students actively participate in daily meetings, make plans for running their centers, discuss challenges and learnings from these responsibilities, and reflect on their experiences.
Education beyond the classroom
Kamlesh says the idea of the community center was proposed by Maheshchandra Punetha, an education activist and teaching guru from Pithoragarh district. Initially, the focus was only to provide books, but later it evolved into a place where children from the community could learn from each other.
NPS also provides space for students to conduct field research and make films. So far, the school has helped students release two documentaries on their YouTube channel. The first is about the Gujjar community of Uttarakhand, who migrate from place to place to earn a living. The other is about the life of fishermen in Nanakmatta. To make such films, students spend a month with these communities to learn more about their daily lives.
“The classroom is about rote learning with a lot of abstract ideas. It doesn’t provide a space where we can put our ideas into practice,” says Mahesh, adding that through documentary filmmaking, students are better connected to their communities.
The students also banded together to form a film club in the school to screen films using a projector in a common room of the school for students of different classes every week. It is aimed at providing different options of audio-visual platform and making academics learn more effectively by watching movies.
Students also work on ‘The Explorer’ – a magazine that they curate through their editorial team. They collect written pieces from students across the school and edit, proofread, and publish the work themselves. Magazine Includes student ideas, written work, cartoons, and more.
Students also work on different editions of the magazine. For example, with ‘Wall Magazine’, they make a cardboard base and paste their writings, drawings and poems on it. Then they display this magazine on the assembly wall so that more students can read it. They also release digital magazines to share with parents, teachers and their advisors.
“The magazine initiative in schools and classrooms is developing a writing culture among students. Writing is one of the most essential exercises that all students should be familiar with. After getting inspiration from the senior students, the junior classes also produced wall magazines with the help of their teachers. In this initiative, students are not only building their writing skills but learning from each other’s writing,” says Kamlesh.
NPS initiatives work to encourage students to contextualize learning in their local environment. Kamlesh notes that school children are often oblivious to what is happening around them and learning becomes more abstract when studying only in a classroom setting without context or context.
This is one of the main reasons why they work to document the stories of the people around them, focusing on their traditional arts and crafts, challenges, social issues, and customs.
NPS collaborates with People’s Archives of Rural India (PARI) to teach reporting, data analysis and ground research to students.
“This project is helping students learn more about the stories around them and learn from ordinary people in everyday life. It helps senior students get examples from their surroundings about what they are learning in the classroom. Ultimately, it is strengthening academic learning and better understanding of a particular subject. Connecting book concepts with stories is helping to gain perspective,” says Gurpreet Kaur (16), a Class 12 student.
Shaping confident students for a better future
“All these activities are part of the school curriculum, and students are marked according to their work progress. The impact of these projects on students is more than traditional school learning. Through these projects in the school system, students become more confident in sharing their thoughts and ideas,” said Kamlesh’s younger brother. Principal of the school Chandrasekhar Atwal said.
Students are encouraged to share their learning on platforms like Teach for India, Kids Education Revolution, and more.
For Kamlesh, giving students the opportunity to connect with others working in the field of education is important. He says, ‘It’s important to collaborate with different organizations and like-minded people to get new perspectives and visions to look at education models in different ways. It helps shape our understanding of the world around us. They also provide some reflections on how we can make our institution more effective and student-centric.
For example, Mahesh advises students especially on language, grammar and writing; Cinema activist Sanjay Joshi offers fresh insights and thoughts on film and cinema; And Ashutosh Upadhyay, an education worker working at Bal Vigyan Khodshala, Haldwani, conducts workshops on science. Meanwhile, documentary filmmaker Fatima Nizaruddin advises the students on her own ideas related to filmmaking.
Kamlesh says, “Schools are often part of the social structure and system and it is easy to run a system where teachers have a monopoly. But alternative education requires more trained teachers, who want to work with students. Today’s traditional education curriculum does not allow students to engage in activities that are not related to the course books.”
He also explains that it’s not just him teaching the students – he’s learning from them. He says, “I am learning to be a learner who is open to new opportunities, evaluates questions that seek answers through learning, and gains valuable insights from working with students, which enables me to better understand their learning needs.”
Many students of NPS have gone on to join the likes of Ashoka University, FLAME, Delhi University, Azim Premji University, and more.
Kamlesh says, “I don’t know what the status of students from NPS will be in future, but I know they will never dominate marginalized communities and will always help the needy.”
Author: Prakash Chand, Class 12 Humanities student of Nankamatta Public School, Uttarakhand.
(Editing by Pranitha Bhat; All photos courtesy: Nankamatta Public School Administration)