Art_in_education

Mumbai painter Rekha Rao has been working with school children in a neighbouring village, Chimbai, for the past few years. She says, These children would rarely come to school. Then the promise of art lessons, with free colours and paper which has an aura of a fairy tale picnic for them became adequate lure. The maximum attendance is registered on Thursdays, which is art day. Only one other day in the week sees more atten-dance, that is the day on which they get free food. Earlier, the poor teachers had to virtually beg the parents to send them to school. At times, they had to resort to rounding up their pupils from their homes. Now it is the promise of free food and colours that lures them over."

- Art Education for Art's Sake, Veena Kotian, Humanscape, 01/08/1996, /eldoc/n00_/01aug96HUS4.pdf

These workshops, intended to train communities, particu-larly those without much means, to articulate themselves through the medium of cartoon, have had reasonable success in many countries of Latin America and Africa. In these countries, vil-lage people are creating comics that focus on local issues and serve to mobilise opinion on the issues that concern them.

At 14, he is among the senior students in a class of 31 boys and girls being trained in one of Tamil Nadu's traditional art forms — Kattaikkuttu. It is a performance, combining dance, music and drama, in which the actors are elaborately made up, with painted faces and colourful costumes. The Sangam's Youth Theatre School, which started a year ago at Vedasala Nagar, Kancheepu-ram district, provides lessons in acting and music, apart from regular mainstream formal edu-cation free of cost to children belonging to lower income groups...

Children are admitted to the school and their performance is watched over three months or so. If at the end of this 'window period', the student is yet to come to terms with the require-ments of the course, he or she will be advised to look at other options. However, at the school, lack of enthusiasm is seriously a non-issue. There are 'naturals' like the youngest in the team — 4-year-old Bhuvaneswari, who insists on being part of every ac-tivity, especially face-painting. There are other children too, whose initiation into 'koothu' has been done only at the school. Their enthusiasm, though, is as palpable as among students who come from the 'koothu' families. Like little Su-kanya, the 'mahabootham' (big devil) who waves her 'sword' menacingly, rolls her eyes, sings and dances.

The Kalkeri Sangeet Vidyalaya was started in 2002 by a family of musically talented and socially committed French Canadians... Run free and located in a working class area of the city, the school focusses on the teaching of traditional folk music of the region.

The school provides free food, accommodation, clothing, and musical and academic training to about 50 students from poor working class and village families. At least half the children are from Dalit and tribal families. "The morning sessions are for musical training, and the afternoon sessions for general education," said Leelavathi Patil, a former school headmistress, who joined the Kalkeri Vidyalaya in June 2004 to oversee its academic programme. "From 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., the children learn classical vocal, laghu sangeetha, vachanas, bhava geetha, harmonium, tabla and sitar," she said. "I have come here for the love of the children. I feel so proud to hear them singing so well," she said. The afternoon sessions are devoted to teaching environmental science, mathematics, Kannada, Hindi and English.

The children of Kalkeri school are now little performers in their own right. They are called for concerts, and a group of them were taken by the Fortiers to perform at the World Social Forum in Mumbai last year. Gautam Sarkar, the 14-year-old son of a rickshaw puller, is an accomplished tabla player. Seventeen-year-old Ramesh Kidarji is a budding Hindustani vocalist. "We believe in sangeetha kranti, the power of music to change society," said Mathieu. "It has given our children self-esteem and confidence, and we are already seeing the results."

1. National Curriculum Framework For School Education - A Discussion Document, Ch 6. Art in education- pg 58-60, NCERT, 2000, R.N20 3,

2. Module III The Expressive Medium, Vol. II, Chapter XI, Vol. I, Report of Training Course in Integrated Education Vol I, II, III, May 1999-October 2001, Sir Shapurji Billimoria Foundation R. N24(put CED code)

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1. A Handbook of Puppetry, Naik, Meena, National Book Trust, 01/01/2004, B.N24.N3

2. Education and Peace, Sahi, Jane, “Recreating the Environment Through Art” Ch. 3 Part 6 pg 141-144, 2002, B.N24.S1

3. Indian Folk Arts and Crafts, Dhamija, Jasleen, National Book Trust, 01/01/2004, B.N00.D7

6. Creative Drama And Puppetry In Education, Contractor, Meher R, National Book Trust, 01/01/2001, B.P31.C2

7. Art: The Basis of Education, Prasad, Devi, National Book Trust, 01/01/2001, B.P30.P6

8. Humanising Education: Theater in Pedagogy, Asha Singh pg 53, Education Dialogue 2:1 Monsoon 2004, B.N00.E4