‘If our kids study English, they won’t be poor farmers like us’

In Satararsquos Kudal village closed in by hills on all sides with not even a road to connect it with the rest of the world there are few jobs and barely any money to be made The villagersrsquo ambitions for a better life for their children rest on the sole Englishmedium school there aptly named Navjeevan Vidyalaya Now even this last hope is under threat as the selffunded private school struggles to keep its doors open amid dwindling financesJust 30 kms from Mahabaleshwar and 300 kms from Mumbai Kudal village is located in the remote Jawali taluka where most villages are not even connected by state transport bus services As many as 50 students from neighbouring villages in a 10km radius attend Navjeevan Vidyalaya which currently runs classes from nursery to Standard 4The school has been authorised by the state education department to set up advanced classes from Standards 5 to 12 as the region doesnrsquot have any junior college yet School founder Rohini Nimbalkar however says that not only do they lack the crores required to set up the infrastructure for senior classes but they are not even able to keep up with their current expensesWork is scarce in the taluka and most studentsrsquo parents have either moved to cities to find work as labourers or are dependant on farming or are unemployed Those who find work in the villages as temporary farm labourers barely take home R150200 per day During the monsoon and summer they usually canrsquot find work Dealt a bad hand by fate the villagers want their children to study in an Englishmedium school so they have better prospects ahead but cannot afford to pay the private schoolrsquos fees ldquoWhether the parents can pay or not though the school continues to educate the children With no other source of funding however this means the school runs into losses of R12 lakh per year on averagerdquo says NimbalkarRohini Nimbalkar school founder right Rohini Nimbalkar founded the school to fulfil the wishes of her greatgrandfather Barrister Nanansaheb Sidram ShindeNimbalkar 51 is a double post graduate in Hindi and history and was earlier teaching future educators in a DEd programme in Pune when she realised there was a huge disparity between candidates from urban and rural areas Although students who hailed from rural areas had a better grasp on history culture and civics they were far behind urban students when it came to English and this impacted their confidence greatly It was this disparity as well as her greatgrandfather barrister Nanansaheb Sidram Shindersquos dream to set up a school that inspired Nimbalkar to quit her job and establish Navjeevan Vidyalaya in 2007After initially operating the school out of her ancestral home in Jawali she converted a groundplustwostorey building on her ancestral land into the school This building was where she was previously running a training centre for a selfhelp group SHG for women from nearby villages teaching them how to prepare homemade pickles papad tailoring and household items for sale and financial empowerment The structure was built with financial aid of R474 lakh from the Japanese consulate in Mumbai in 2011 Once the SHG ceased operations the building was a clear choice for the school venue ldquoDespite the land being mine and the building being completely funded I canrsquot keep up with other expenses that have mounted over the yearsrdquo says NimbalkarSevenyearold Sourya Parmane and his grandmother Taramati are grateful that he can continue to wear the Navjeevn Vidyalaya uniform and attend classes despite them not being able to afford the feesRun under the aegis of the Akhil Maharashtra Education Society the schoolrsquos annual expenses add up to about R14 lakhmdashwith average costs of Rs 1 lakh per monthmdashcounting utilities salaries and other expenses The annual school fees per student is Rs 10000 but most families are unable to afford that so barely Rs 23 lakh trickles in as income from fees every year says NimbalkarOf the Rs 1 lakh monthly expenditure she funds about 60 per cent from her own pocket ldquoEvery month my husband an engineer contributes Rs 10000 from his earnings My son adds another Rs 30000 I put in Rs 20000 from my soyabean farmrdquo she saysDhanashree Gaikwad in yellow saree rues the impact on her sons Paras and Mahirsquos education after financial restraints forced her to pull them out of the Englishmedium school and admit them to the zilla parishad school insteadldquoI have faced situations where I would not be able to pay the salary of my teachers on time but they all stood beside me I will put in all efforts to ensure that the school continues to exist to uplift the future of these childrenrdquo adds the founder Local residents had pinned their hopes on the school expanding and offering classes up to Standard 12 as the villages do not have any junior college nearby But this will take an investment of crores to set up laboratories and additional classrooms says Nimbalkar who is now considering crowdfunding to help her further develop the schoolUjwala Pawar Principal of zilla parishad schoolShe also hopes that a corporate sponsor might help to keep the school afloat ldquoIn the past the school received help from an IT firm which donated 20 computers to us with which we opened a computer laboratory and started imparting basic computer education to the studentsrdquo she saysThe region has a staterun zilla parishad Marathimedium school with classes up to Standard 7 in Somardi village Jawali taluka It also offers English as one of the subjects but many parents from neighbouring villages say the quality of education is substandard as students struggle to even read MarathiRajnandini Shinde and Sandeep ParandeParents complain that the school has only three teachers to teach all the classes Although the zilla parishad school offers free midday meals under the government scheme most parents do not want to send their children there because of these issuesDhanashree Gaikwad a resident of Kalambe village was initially sending her sons Paras 5 and Mahi 2 to Navjeevan Vidyalaya but had to pull them out following a financial crisis They now attend the zilla parishadrun Marathi school but she is keen to send them back to Navjeevan when she can as the difference in standard of education is quite stark ldquoI had seen a lot of improvement in Paras when he was at Navjeevan ldquoMy son could earlier read the English alphabet from A to Z and would even recite rhymes and count to 10 But at the zilla parishad school he is not able to even read the Marathi alphabet properly and has forgotten the English alphabet as the teachers and students only speak Marathirdquo says Gaikwad who is a Standard 12pass and works on a farm drawing R200 per day at best ldquoI want my children to be educated so they can get jobs and not have to be farmers like usrdquo she saysBut Sandeep Parande a teacher at the Somardi school argues there is no need for an Englishmedium school ldquoWe have English in our curriculum already so why do we need a separate Englishmedium school in the village where many parents are either school dropouts or have done their own schooling in Marathi mediumrdquo he questionsPrincipal Ujwala Pawar adds ldquoWe have 17 students at present from Standard 1 to 7 They get free education and free midday meals The existing education system is good for students in these areas who cannot afford the fees of a private Englishmedium schoolrdquoNimbalkar when asked if she provides midday meals for the students says she cannot afford it ldquoStudents carry their lunch box and if some cannot afford to do so we share our own tiffin with themStudents who passed out from Navjeevan Vidyalaya say they donrsquot desire midday meals as much as a chance to continue studying in English medium till Standard 12 Alumna Rajnandini Mahendra Shinde 18 is now a Standard 12 student at a junior college but wishes she could have continued at Navjeevan ldquoI am grateful to have received quality education in my primary years After Standard 4 I had to move to a Marathimedium school run by a trust Following that I had no option but to enrol for a junior college which exists only on papermdashthere is no college building Selfstudy is my only option for my HSC exam preparationrdquo says the teenager who dreams of becoming a pilot or engineer specialising in aeronautics or roboticsldquoI am happy that Navjeevan Vidyalaya has got permission to start teaching Standards 5 to 12 it will help many students Studying in an Englishmedium school will also give them more confidence to speak in the language which doesnrsquot come from studying in a Marathi schoolrdquo she addsLike Shinde Ankush More a nineyearold Standard 4 student at Navjeevan Vidyalaya is apprehensive about having to leave the school once he progresses to Standard 5 After school he spends his time at his parentsrsquo oneacre strawberry farm in Derewadi village His father Chandrakant and mother Komal love having him around on the farm but donrsquot want it to be his life ldquoWe only want the best for our child Farming does not pay well so we admitted him in the Englishmedium school hoping it would give him a brighter futurerdquo says KomalAs someone who completed a BCom degree in Marathi medium and then ended up working as a farm labourer Sunita Paramane understands the importance of her son Sourya 7 learning English for a stronger career prospects ldquoBut with my husband earning a mere R150200 per day we were unable to pay the Standard 2 tuition fees at Navjeevan Vidyalaya Despite that the school management has not barred him from class We are grateful to the school for allowing him to studyrdquo say Sunita and her mother Taramati Rs 14 lSchoolrsquos average annual costsRs 3 lSchoolrsquos average annual fees revenueOfficials speakS G Mujawar Education Officer Primary Section Satara districtldquoThe school got consent for starting Standards 5 to 12 but for that they need to set up additional infrastructure such as laboratories for science practicals But 18 months have lapsed since the authorities granted permission Now they will have to submit their proposal to education department officials handling secondary to junior college levelsrdquoPrabhavati Kolekar Education officer SataraldquoAs per our record Navjeevan Vidyalaya is not registered as a secondary schoolhellip Usually within 18 months of the sanction letter for higher classes being issued the educational institution must adhere to the conditions failing which the permission granted would automatically get cancelledrdquoldquoOn Navjeevan Vidyalayarsquos chances of getting the education departmentrsquos nod again yes the educational institution will have to once again submit all the documents and follow the procedure Once the committee sanctions the request permission can be granted again This entire process takes anywhere between six to eight monthsrdquo