Support the education of 250 tribal children in the flood affected Majuli Island of Assam

Majuli is an island district on the river Brahmaputra, with a population of about 170,000, majority of whom are tribal communities. 75% of the population practices subsistence agriculture. In the last 25 years, Majuli has shrunk to half its size due to flood and erosion. Annually many of these farming communities are displaced, losing their lands to the Brahmaputra. And, there is no way out of this, for them or their children. Despite there being 932 schools in Majuli island District with reported 90% enrollment of children, the quality of education is most often substandard. The 2018 ASER District data draws a grim picture. 68% of Class 5 students cannot do basic subtraction, while 60% cannot read a Class 2 text. Frequently just one or two teachers manage an entire school. Many children eventually discontinue their education with the system failing them, and without employable skills go back to sustenance farming, starting their families young. This perpetuates the cycle of poverty. Unfortunately, students from this very system become the next generation of teachers. Not surprisingly, the local community wants teachers from outside, but this is neither feasible nor sustainable. Majuli’s unique flood-prone situation also makes it challenging to monitor the quality of education in schools. Importantly, even if the local teachers are motivated and qualified, there are no institutes available on the island where they can go to get trained in the latest pedagogical practices and better their skills.

1) The Hummingbird School- A Model School.

The Hummingbird School was envisioned as a learning community of children, school staff and the village community. Everyone learns with and from each other. At the heart of all of this is the vision to foster self-learning, critical thinking, and compassion in the children. Most of the children who joined in the first year were from government schools and the majority could not read or write neither English nor Assamese. A lot of focus was given on self-learning, teaching life-skills, leadership and even agriculture. This brought an all-round development, including the learning levels. To this effect, the Hummingbird School is being developed as a model school for curriculum, pedagogy, infrastructure and school management in the context of rural, marginalized communities.

2) Developing teaching and learning resource center

The biggest component of Majuli’s dismal education system is the lack of competent and well-trained teachers. Complementary to the development of the curriculum and pedagogy will be the training of the local teachers and committed youth from the local community. The researched and tested findings from the model school would be part of the teacher training, apart from specific needs. The resource center is envisioned as a hub for all stakeholders with interest and passion for education in Majuli to access information, tools, and techniques on teaching and learning.

3) Being a knowledge, resource and strategy partner to the government and affordable private schools

Within the first year of functioning, the school received requests from all across the island to open more schools. However, it was not possible or even a feasible solution to start more schools. Starting a school from scratch is a huge task. Majuli already has over 900 existing schools. Thus, the school team decided to work with existing schools and partner with them towards school improvement, based on our learnings from The Hummingbird School. They registered an organization – Ayang “which means love in the Mising language”. Towards the mission, they launched the Whole School Transformation Program, where Ayang partners with Government and low-income community schools for 3 years towards school improvement. They do this primarily through building capacities of stakeholders and enabling systems and structures in schools for sustainability, and by empowering local youth to be change-makers through the 2 yearlong Ayang Manthan Fellowship.

Most of the children who joined us in the first year were from government schools and the majority could not read or write neither English nor Assamese. We focussed a lot on self-learning, teaching life-skills, leadership and even agriculture. This brought an all-round development, including the learning levels.

One such girl was Appun, when she came to us 2 years ago, she didn't even know counting. She was so shy that the first few months she would not talk to anyone. And today, she studies in Grade 5, is the President of the student council and can resolve a conflict quicker than any of the teachers just with dialogue. Her dream is to become the principal of our school. All our children have stories like hers – of resilience, growth, and love.

This proved to us that, despite having no resources, no good infrastructure, first-time teachers from the community, when an involved school leadership, motivated teachers, and engaged community comes together, it can lead to an immense change in children’s learning levels. Within one year, all of our children were exceeding their learning goals