By C M Paul
Shillong, September 18, 2022: Little Flower Nursery School under Salesian Holy Family Church Rongjeng in East Garo Hills of Meghalaya state is an unconventional way of running a nursery school for most deprived and below poverty line families.
“Here we run 11 barefoot schools in 11 villages of our parish, for 551 children between ages 3 to 10 years,” says co-pastor of Rongjeng Salesian Father Hubert Uttam Molsom.
“Seeing the dysfunctional SSA and non existence of any school in the remote villages of Rongjeng, I was inspired by the barefoot college experiment undertaken in Salesian parish Boko, Assam for drop out high school students, some 30 years ago,” recalls Father Molsom who is also Vice Principal of Holy Family Higher Secondary School, Rongjeng.
Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, or SSA, is an Indian Government program aimed at the universalization of Elementary education “in a time bound manner”, by the 86th Amendment to the Constitution of India in 2002 making free and compulsory education to children between the ages of 6 to 14 a fundamental right.
Father Molsom who hails from neighboring Tripura state adds, “We provide these children with basic learning in Garo and English languages in the village itself.”
Explaining further the barefoot nursery strategy Father Molsom says, “Among these children, who excel are given double promotion within one year of learning and are send to a neighboring formal school”
The teacher assigned to average 50 children of the barefoot village school, ensures weekly and monthly assessment of children’s academic performance and to find out the meritorious students.
While children are provided with slate, pencils, and essential text books, a teacher is brought from outside to stay in the village, so that parents need not take children to far away school.
With low tuition fees, comparatively excellent basic learning is provided for children where no Government or private schools exist.