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Feb 01
Auroville schools in crisis
- by Carel
The Auroville schools operate on subsistence
levels. If Auroville want to become a learning society which puts the
child at the center of its activities, among other things a substantial
increase in the educational budget is necessary. But Auroville doesn’t
seem able to generate the money required.
In December last year the
Auroville School Board, the working group that coordinates the work of
all the Auroville schools, sounded an alarm. It announced that, from
January 2001 onwards, there would be a severe shortfall of funds. It
also announced that there would be problems admitting new students to
the kindergarten crèche and to Transition primary school as some
classes are full. In addition, a shortage of teachers prevents Deepanam
crèche and primary school taking more children.
Admission problems
“The admission situation
is serious. For the next school year, we have only just managed to find
a place for all the children,” says Kripa who is responsible for the
coordination of school finances. “What we cannot foresee is what will
happen now that Auroville is again open to newcomers. If newcomer
families come, we may have more admission problems. Both the
kindergarten crèche and most classes of Transition primary school are
fully booked for the next school year. The new school Deepanam has a
crèche, a kindergarten and a primary school but lacks teachers.
The situation will become
really interesting in about one and a half years as last year 25 babies
were born in Auroville. Some parents have already tried to register
their child at various schools, and often at more than one school at the
same time, in order to secure a place. This is an absurd development!
The School Board recently discussed the matter. As we regard all
Auroville schools as being part of one institution, each having its own
specific way of teaching, we decided that all requests for admission
will be centrally booked and that the teachers in the School Board will
decide where a child will go, taking into account the preference of the
parents.”
Financial problems
If the admission situation
is difficult, the financial situation which affects all Auroville
schools is even more problematic. Teachers’ maintenances vary from Rs
2000 (part-time) to Rs 4000 (US$ 40-80) a month, while a maintenance of
Rs 6000 (US$ 130) is considered an acceptable minimum. There is no money
to allow an increase. In fact, it is difficult to avoid a decrease in
teachers’ maintenances now that the donation given by the Gateway
Trust for the purpose of increasing teachers’ maintenance has been
exhausted. As Kripa explains, “The Gateway money provided immediate
relief to the teachers, who often lacked money to buy basic essentials.
It is simply unacceptable that they will have to make a step back now
that this donation is exhausted. Immediate relief may come from the
income-sharing experiment known as Economy 2000, but that is not a long
term solution.”
Otto, the manager of
Auroville’s Financial Service, says “We need Rs 46.2 lakhs
(approximately US$ 100,000) a year for teachers’ maintenances at the
present level. We have for the year 2001 Rs 37,2 lakhs (US$ 81,000),
which includes a committed donation of Rs 12 lakhs (US$ 26,000) from one
donor. So we still need 9 lakhs (US$ 20,000) to maintain the status quo,
and 26 lakhs (US$57,000) to give every teacher Rs 1000 a month extra.
While it is all very necessary that the teachers maintenances are
stabilised and even increased, the same goes also for all the others who
depend on the community for their income. How can we increase the
maintenance of the teachers while leaving those who work for other
services at the same maintenance level?” As Kripa points out, “If
you look at the larger picture of those who depend on community
maintenance, the teachers are comparatively well paid. But it is a
comparison between those who have a little and those who have a little
more. Compared to what we believe is necessary, or to what
self-supporting Aurovilians or unit executives take as maintenances,
those who depend on community maintenance decidedly come off
second-best.”
Maintenances are not the
only financial burdens the schools carry. There are also the running
expenses, and the costs of school meals. Taken together, the Auroville
schools take 26 % of the total monthly community budgets. These budgets
are covered by Auroville’s Central Fund, which gets its income from
donations from commercial units, individuals, interests on capital and a
few other sources such as guest contributions. But while the income of
the Central Fund has steadily grown over the past years, so have its
expenses. Says Otto: “The Economy Group, which manages the Central
Fund, believes that we really cannot expect the commercial units, who
already contribute 49% of the monthly income, to give substantially more
to cover the schools’ expenses, let alone the necessary increase.
Efforts made by the Economy Group and the School Board to raise extra
money within Auroville for Auroville schools have not yielded any
significant results. We may have to ask affluent parents to give regular
contributions for the education of their children. But may also have to
raise additional funds from outside Auroville. Alternatively, in a worst
-case scenario, we may have to look at cost-cutting devices.”
Cutting costs?
The Economy Group, in a
meeting with school teachers, suggested that the schools devise
mechanisms to assess how many teachers are needed, taking as criteria
the teacher-pupil ratio. At present each school determines the number of
teachers it needs according to its own perception of its needs. But
while this approach is understandable, some teachers consider it is
essentially wrong. They point to the fact that Auroville schools aim at
giving an experimental and integral education, which means that many
more teachers are necessary than is the case in traditional schools.
Take, for example, the
situation at Auroville’s primary schools which have, in fact, partly a
high school set-up. There is one main teacher who is responsible for a
class and teaches general topics, and there are many other teachers who
teach special topics. At Transition all children are taught four
languages-English, French, Sanskrit and Tamil-and children whose mother
tongue is German are also taught German. (Children whose mother tongue
is another language, often get private tuition elsewhere.) In addition
to the usual topics such as maths, history, geography and sciences the
school teaches music, graphic arts, computer skills, crafts and body
awareness, while physical education and sports are also organised as a
special program. The teaching medium is English, which sometimes causes
problems for those children who have only recently started to learn that
language. They need separate guidance. Then there are teachers who deal
with children who have learning disabilities.
Another complication is
that, like the children, the teachers come from many different
nationalities. A teacher from France, for example, cannot be expected to
teach English. This also contributes to a relatively large number of
teachers. Then there is the experience that the maximum number of
children per class should not exceed 20 if each child is to get
individual attention. Also, most of the classrooms do not allow for
larger student bodies. Lastly, there is the fact that the teachers wish
to keep the schools manageable and maintain a good contact between the
teachers and the children. Therefore the student body, in the case of
Transition School, is limited to 160 children.
To avoid cost-cutting
measures, the Auroville School Board together with the Economy Group
plans to initiate a fundraising campaign for education. A demographic
projection of Auroville’s youth is being made, and the schools will
provide detailed descriptions of their work in regular reports to show
the uniqueness and relevance of Auroville’s educational efforts.
But what if additional funds
do not materialize? It is too early to predict. But if the teaching
conditions become too difficult or if maintenances remain far below
acceptable levels, Auroville may encounter problems in finding people to
teach the Auroville children.
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