Back in Jan '93 the village community in Imamganj were initially wary of sending their children to school. Only 2 of the 90 children of school going age were attending the Govt. Primary School. Their fear was that their sons may leave the village to work in the city as watchmen or peons, if they got educated. Then there would be no one to care for them in their old age.
After the formation of Quality Circles (QC), their own deliberations and my convincing, they decided to start their own school. One QC members volunteered his vacant land for the school and all the members helped in erecting a shelter to house the School. The village carpenter (who was also a QC member) built the black board. The somewhat literate members volunteered to teach. Children brought jute or plastic sacks to spread on the ground to sit. There was no electricity, so children brought their own kerosene wick lamps to serve as light source.
The QC members decided to run it as an evening school, when the children would be back after grazing cattle. They ran the school all seven days of the week. Their holidays were in consonance with local festivals or the sowing or harvest season so that they could help their families. Very quickly, all the young children of the village started attending the evening school. In fact, 4 kids from a neighbouring village also joined and would stay back for the night in Imamganj, if for some reason it was not feasible to return late at night.
The QC members called it ‘QC Shiksha Kendra’. It was Of the village folk, By the village folk and For the children of the village folk.
The school thrived from Oct '93 to end of '99. Around the year 2000, I had to withdraw from the village work due to family compulsions. Gradually, the school faded away.
I initiated my second stint in Imamganj in 2015. After a struggle of about one and a half years, Shyam Bahadur and Ram Sevak of Imamganj recreated the Quality Circle Shiksha Kendra. While Shyam Bahadur had been a volunteer teacher in the erstwhile QC Shiksha Kendra, Ram Sevak had been a student there. Ram Sevak offered a part of his premises for the school and assumed the role of a teacher. Further, he enrolled some local young folk as volunteer teachers. The QC Shiksha Kendra was resurrected.
In October 2017, Shrimati Brijrani of village Kandai, started another Kendra in her village. As a child, Brij Rani too had studied in the same QC Kendra along with Ram Sevak. After marriage she had moved from Imamganj to Kandai. On one of her visits to Imamganj she saw the Kendra that Ram Sevak was running and was inspired to start one in her house as well. Brij Rani is an Assistant Teacher in the Govt. Primary School near Kandai. She has a passion for teaching and love for children.
Over the years such QC Shiksha Kendras have sprung up in 16 villages. These villages are located in rural areas of Barabanki and Ayodhya districts.

The Structure of QC Shiksha Kendras

The premises of the QC Shiksha Kendra belongs to some resident of the village who comes forward voluntarily to house the school. Local youth of the village come forward to volunteer as teachers. The beneficiaries are the children of the village community.
Volunteers of the different Kendras meet every quarter to discuss their plans, programmes, but each Kendra is free to implement it in their way.
My role as the facilitator is to keep these volunteers enthused to keep giving their best year after year.

The Underlying Axioms or Assumptions

1. There are enough people in the world who believe in contributing actively in the field of education (especially primary education) to Make A Difference.
2. If non-essentials are stripped away, it will make education less expensive, lighter and more accessible. Land and physical infrastructure are the biggest cost factors. Our QC Shiksha Kendras are either in Verandas, in the shade of a tree (like Shanti Niketan of Tagore) or in open air. The children are closer to nature. Uniforms, ties, shoes etc. are non-essentials. I count the teacher, the students, the blackboard and chalk among some of the main essentials for teaching / learning.
3. The most essential qualification for teachers is “A Love for Children” and “A Love for Teaching”. Realisation – How can one filter teachers on this basis? Answer: Get volunteer Teachers.
4. Teaching means teaching the “student” and “not just teaching the subject”.
5. Delivery of education should be unconditional. No formal admission process or fee.
6. Keeping the schools informal gives more flexibility.

The Ultimate Goal of QC Shiksha Kendras / Motto of our Volunteer Teachers

Where else will we get this opportunity?

We are volunteer teachers. We contribute happily. Our schools are informal, free from any restrictions. We only teach young children up to the 5th grade. Children are like little saplings. We are like gardeners and potters. Like a gardener, we provide every child the opportunity to grow and blossom so that their personality and talent shine. Like a potter, we shape the character of the child on the wheel of our center.

The Objectives of QC Shiksha Kendras and Our Progress

The Shiksha Kendras are informal schools. This allows them to cover areas that traditional schools find challenging due to their focus on the curriculum.

There are no fees for the children, and volunteers receive no salary or stipend. Volunteers come forward to give, not to take. They offer their time, effort, and at least one even offers space in their premises for the center. They understand that in life, you must give to receive. Currently, there are more than 40 volunteers.

Our Beliefs and Objectives:

1. All education should pull in one direction: improving the environment and leaving Planet Earth better than when we found it.
2. The only way to win is to ensure that there are no losers.
3. Cooperation in place of competition.
4. Love for Nature.
5. Becoming a Good Human Being is the primary Priority. Becoming a Good Professional comes next.

Achievements So Far:

1. Some volunteers have moved children away from rote memorization and copying, which are very prevalent in rural schools.
2. Children now excel in arts and crafts using local materials.
3. A love for nature, especially trees, has been cultivated in the children. This will have a cascading effect over generations.
4. Children have learned cooperation through real-life experiences. To start with the inspiration from the volunteers has impacted the children. Secondly, children are growing up in the “Rice Culture”. They help their schoolmates in paddy transplantation or other farming jobs. In this part of the world traditionally children engage in paddy transplantation but in place of doing it for money they do it as “cooperation”.

Factors Keeping Volunteers and Children Motivated:

1. Volunteers come forward out of love for education and children. They believe they can and are bringing about change through education.
2. Treating each other with humility, civility, and respect.
3. Several volunteers are young college students themselves. If they meet certain conditions they can secure a scholarship.
4. Volunteers meet quarterly to jointly decide on future programs, but they have complete freedom to run their center their way. This encourages innovation in teaching methods.
5. No fees; a simple admission process—children can enroll or leave on their own.
6. No curriculum or textbooks. Our monthly magazine, Safalta (Success), is useful for understanding Hindi, practicing reading and writing, dictation, environmental studies, etc.
7. Children have a daily period to learn a skill, trick, or hobby, either independently or led by volunteers. Skills or tricks can be learned from local people (who volunteer) or fellow children.
8. Teaching through games designed by the teacher. This method keeps children engaged and makes learning fun.
9. Safalta magazine is for both volunteers and children. Seeing their own photos or their work in glossy print is highly motivating. It encourages doing classwork and homework well.
10. Deskit – a school bag integrated with a folding desk. It is only awarded to those with 80% or higher attendance for two consecutive months.
11. Children go on excursions (nearby places like Ayodhya or Lucknow) or picnics/parties if they cooperate in harvesting or planting or have 80% or higher attendance for two consecutive months.
12. A large WhatsApp group. Volunteers or children’s work is posted daily, so everyone can see and learn from what others are doing.
13. Starting May and June 2022, children with 80% or higher attendance began participating in the "Plant Hope and Happiness" program. Children whose plants survive receive a token amount of ₹75/- every three months till the plant is at least one year old. The volunteer receives a token amount of ₹ 25/- each for the plants that he has inspired the children to plant and maintain.
14. Geo-tagged photos of the children with their trees are periodically posted on the website.
15. 12 centers have computers, speakers, UPS, 8 have printers and 4 have LCD projectors. Children love seeing themselves on the big screen in videos made by their volunteer teacher.
16. Children have access to many indoor and outdoor games.
17. There are annual cricket, carrom board and chess tournaments between centers. There is an annual singing competition as well between centers. Last year, volunteers formed their own category and joined the singing competition. This year, an annual kho-kho tournament is likely to be introduced as well.
18. Portable library of age appropriate books at all centers

Ensuring Quality

We have the concept of Mentor for Maths at present. We plan to other subjects once we have volunteer mentors for other subjects too.
Many of our volunteer teachers are College students themselves. The volunteer teachers have a mentor. Mentor sets the class work. Volunteers have to do the assignments a week in advance and submit it over WhatsApp to the Mentor (who is well versed in the subject but not necessarily from the village). The Mentor corrects. Only after the online mentor approves, is the volunteer allowed to give that classwork or homework to the children.
The volunteer gets credit marks for Scholarship when they submit assignments to the mentor and corrects his own understanding to the Mentor’s satisfaction.

The Role of Safalta, the Periodic Newsletter

The printed version of Safalta Newsletter is for both volunteers and children. The PDF version is for well-wishers and friends. Seeing their photos or their work in glossy print is highly motivating. It encourages the children to do classwork and homework well. 

How will the movement go on after Arvind

In June ’24, Arvind had organized a 4 day Workshop involving interaction between the identified successors and the senior volunteers. Arvind shared his vision + the possible challenges + the Six Hats method for arriving at consensus in group decision making.
They did several brainstorming exercises and exercises based on the Six Thinking Hats method of decision making. This ensured lots of interaction and open sharing of thoughts.

Arvind Kaul