Tribal mothers from Gadchiroli turn teachers for their 1st-time school kids

Nagpur: Since May, remote villages of Gadchiroli have seen tribal mothers don the role of teachers for their first-time school kids.
Learning material was distributed to mothers and basic training imparted on how to create awareness among kids about numbers, colours, alphabets etc.


The purpose of the state-run campaign called ‘Pahile Paul’ (first step) is to help first-time school goers ease into classrooms.
There were indeed villages where the mother/s were not having functional literacy levels, and here, elder students of the villages pitched in, with teachers’ visit once a week or a fortnight to see the progress.
And now, with schools in Vidarbha set to reopen by June 30, the campaign will wrap up for this session.
Vinit Padmawar, a zilla parishad school teacher in Bhamragarh taluka, said, “The state government envisioned this campaign to help students who would otherwise feel intimated on the first day of school. The biggest roadblock would be getting used to foundational literacy. When Std I started, these kids would take two or three months to comprehend most of the content.”
But with ‘Pahile Paul’, these kids are getting a leg up. TOI tried to get in touch with some tribal parents through a ZP employee’s mobile phone but due to weak network connection their experiences could not be brought on record.
Padmawar said, “The campaign has been highly beneficial for both school teachers and parents. As these kids spend time at home and in their villages in summer, their mothers or elder siblings are always with them. Through them we tried to impart the most basic aspects of literacy through specially curated text material which was given to us by the state government.”
In the first phase, from mid to late April, parents or elder siblings were briefed by school teachers. This was the time when study material was also distributed.
During the second phase, these ‘master trainers’ got down to teaching kids in villages. Every week or at least once in a fortnight, ZP school teachers would drive down to these villages and check on the progress.
This routine of tracking progress and guiding both students and parents is likely to reap rewards, feels Padmawar. “We have to ensure that kids in Gadchiroli are always connected with school and education. Any disconnect may lead to dropouts later in life,” he said.