How can we catch the elusive moments in the teaching experience where learning actually happens?  Where can the literate, educated, and developed among us go to learn the precious lesson of how to speak.  Fewer and fewer places in society allow this. My experience on the Rajamandry Island mini-school has made me ponder this question.

Learning to speak, learning to listen

        The syllables rang in my ear when I caught the Konark Express at 1 am from Rajamandry, a sprawling little city of population 5 lakhs, few of whom even know about the inhabited islands or lankas amidst their beloved river Godavari.  The people of these islands are self-reliant fisherfolk who move among a few land bases as the Godavari rises and falls.  They govern themselves as a community and deal collectively with the world across the river.  For example one person will go to the market to purchase the goods requested by others.  They also keep up impeccable accounts with the shopkeepers in town, sometimes buying on credit, and always repaying.  Bhaskar, one such shopkeeper decided to get to know the people of this village.  My colleague Ravi and I went along with Bhaskar, crossing the river on narrow paddle boats and met some people in the island.

            When we talk about development in a natural resource based community such as this one, we cannot escape from considering the impact of the "developed" upon the natural resource base.  We might propose that a community like this take up education.  One reason we do this is that it seems to us the most obvious advantage we have over them and out of the generosity of our hearts we wish to share it with them.  From their perspective, they enjoy a great deal of self reliance which we do not have.  Every family in this village makes its own house, its own fishing nets, and grows or catches a large portion of its own food.  Within the village are people with special skills like making boats.  Sales from surplus fish cover their expenses.  The houses are attractively decorated and the view is superb.

            Now it should be equally obvious to a villager that this is a great advantage he or she enjoys over the urban visitors.  Still rather than pointing this out, she listens to us talk about educating the children.

        We must ask ourselves a number of questions and examine our assumptions when seeking to assess economic  development - for any community - through children's education.  Most basic among these is: who is asking whom? What kind of economic development has arisen from the model of education followed by those who ask the question? Do we really want to recommend this model to others?

        What has been the economic contribution of those who are educated?  Everywhere we see "development" and "national growth" widening the gaps between rich and poor.  The highly skilled of our societies devise newer and more efficient technologies for exploiting natural resources and marginalizing the poor.  Assessing economic development from a larger community perspective we find that in the current model of education, the Indian is unable to serve India.  Not just that the educated have consumed n times more resources and failed to fulfil some vague "duty" to the land that nourished them.  They are actively participating in looting this land.  Leave aside vikas, we find that vinas is spread by the educated.  The message to the poor is that they have no place in the modern and developed society.  Their way of relating to land as their home for generations - as their mother - is outmoded.  We assess the natural resources only for contribution to national growth.