Sreelatha Menon: Dance to learn

The Nali Kali method of teaching is transforming government schools in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Now, more states want to follow it.

What is best for children in terms of education? While experts continue to guess, some states have found the courage to redefine education. Nali Kali is a revolution that is changing the lives of thousands of children in Karnataka and neighbouring Tamil Nadu.

Nali Kali means 'dance to learn'. And, girls and boys in Karnataka's schools have been dancing, singing, painting and miming as part of an intense learning process. In fact, they have been doing everything but cram text books. Anjani Kochar, who teaches at Standford University and has been evaluating the project, commended it at a consultation held by the Institute for Human Development this week. The system was borrowed from rural schools run by Rishi Valley School in Andhra Pradesh. In 1995, a group of teachers and the education officer of the district of Heggada, Devana Kote, visited these schools. Soon, Karnataka began it as a pilot in Mysore district, and expanded it to the entire state from this academic year.

Tamil Nadu started much later but scaled up to cover the entire state two years ago.

The system does away with separate classrooms and children from different grades sit in the same room. It does away with examinations but makes children evaluate themselves. As a child completes one activity, he or she plots her progress on a chart on the wall and moves to the next step. Afternoons are devoted to environment studies and children, through indoor and outdoor activities, learn about plants and animals.

Children are not terrorised for speaking or laughing in classrooms. In fact, they work in groups and talk all the time. Teachers are facilitators and a class has more teachers than one. Some peers also play the role of teachers for some groups in the class. So, multiple teaching activities take place in the same room. The only essential ingredient for Nali Kali is hand-made resources prepared by teachers as they make the children go through rigorous training.

Kochar says many states have expressed interest and Nali Kali is set to travel places. It is already being funded by the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and is on the radar of the Planning Commission, which has done detailed studies on the system.

The Right to Education Act promises free and quality education for all. But, the money that is being considered for implementing this from this year does not match the requirement projected by the Central Advisory Board on Education. The board has said that Rs 4-5 lakh crore will be needed to have schools matching the standards set by kendriya vidyalayas in every village. A government which has decided to create a whole new cadre of lesser doctors for rural areas has so far not agreed with CABE. A fund of about Rs 2 lakh crore is being talked about in the initial year. So, it is for states to scout for methods like Nali Kali to make the best of what is available and end the discrimination that goes on in the name of government schools.

But, the good news is that a Planning Commission study has found that in Mysore, where Nali Kali has been in practice for years, private schools have had to close down as children left for government schools!