After a long time of uncertainty finally the good news came in form of some letters. All 5 of our former class V students had passed the test of admission for tribal government schools, which they wrote just after the summer holidays began.
After intensive training in Maths, Telugu and English all of them were able to cope with the questions.
The move of schools was made necessary, as Balamitra has decided to lay more importance on the coordination and supervising of the 40 village schools. The teachers in the villages will now enjoy regular visits and trainings provided by our staff, as well as help concerning the curriculum and other issues.
The five students left with mixed feelings, as they knew, that their new school is quite different from Balamitra. Government schools in India, even if they are located in tribal areas, do not spread tribal values. Most of the schools are crowded and the quality is poor, to say the least. Still we had no choice as the Balamitra Education Programme has not the resources to put up higher classes. Currently our program is scheduling only classes 1-3 so that the fifth class at our model school was an exception anyway.
We hope that in the first years of their school life we are able to plant a seed in the hearts of our children, so that they are conscious and proud of their tribal culture, even if we have to transfer them to the government education system afterwards.
Certainly we will miss these quick-minded students, who were respected highly among the other children.

After class V left our school and no new class 1 was accommodated, we are now hosting a total number of 27 children in classes 2 and 3.
Simultaneously with her students class V teacher Mouni also left the school, but only to go on maternity leave. Last month she gave birth to her first child: A healthy girl. Congratulations!

Projects

Along with the decision to strengthen the Balamitra Model School as a resource and training center the face of our school changed slightly as the upper floor was altered to an office including a library and bureau fixture with computer facilities yet to come.
Especially Balamitra Field Coordinator Prabhavathi and Geeta, one of our teachers, put huge effort in setting up the room as well as the library, which necessitated them to index all your books – ranging from painting books for children to health- and tribal rights books – and assort them in our shelves.
A special task for the upcoming months will be to make our tribal teachers familiar with using the Computer. As they are coming from very remote villages with a simple, natural lifestyle, they are facing the technology with healthy mistrust, but handling the internet can be quite useful for all of our staff, as appropriate teaching materials, especially those connected to Waldorf Education, are difficult to find in India.

Meanwhile our students are concerned with a topic they are all already specialists in: Due to their agricultural background all children bring in some experience when it comes to farming. Together with their teacher Varalaxmi class 3 is cultivating a small field just in front of the school.
Now everybody is looking after the small plants watering them regularly so that hopefully soon the first beans, corn and lentils can be harvested.

A very pleasant surprise for the students was the visit to the zoo last month. As the Indira Ghandi Zoological Park of Visakhapatnam is only a few minutes walk from our school, we took the opportunity and spend a very enjoyable day among the animals.
Even if it was a very hot summer day, the children did not get tired of running from enclosure to enclosure excited to see all the animals including crocodiles, hippos, various birds and even a white tiger.

First batch of Balamitra Volunteers head back to Germany

Time goes by so fast!
In the first days of July our German volunteers Desirée, Vera and Flo were the first of our 6 volunteers, who took – after almost a year of work at our school – a flight back home. Obviously it was not easy to say goodbye, as all of them build up an intensive relationship with the Balamitra children and the staff members during the year.
For the last shared evening all the students had tinkered small presents for the leaving teachers. After the official farewell-ceremony with speeches and Dhimsa, the traditional tribal dance, an extraordinary dinner, including chicken curry as well as various delicious pickles and chutneys, awaited the children and staff members.
The remaining volunteers are planning to leave this month, when their work is taken over by the next batch of German volunteers.
After being teachers themselves all the volunteers, with the practical experience of one year behind them, are now ready to hit the books again taking up studies in various German Universities.

Village Schools

Not only for our Model school the new school year brought some changes: Seven of our village schools were closed, as the government has finally decided to set up schools in these villages itself.
That means that the focus could be shifted to other villages. The teachers of the closed schools now help to build up schools in seven villages in which there was no access to primary education so far.
Due to the increased effort Balamitra is putting in the village school, the teachers could enjoy three teachers trainings recently. One of the main aims of the trainings was to introduce the new curriculum to the village teachers and to discuss the lesson planning.
As the lessons are inspired by Waldorf ideas, the children are now thought in “epochs.” The lessons focus on one particular topic for three weeks. This can be Local Studies as well as Telugu, Nature Studies or Maths. Similar to class 3 of the model school, the village schools are starting with a Farming epoch. For this the teacher got handed over seeds to arrange little gardens in front of their schools. Their harvest might well be used to enrich the children’s nutrition.
As the “Midday Meal Programme” still just exists on paper, many schools are now preparing soups made of local ingredients provided by the village communities to ensure an adequate nutrition for the students.

In the last months some villages were visited by two of our volunteers, who recorded traditional songs, as they want to build up a collection of indigenous music in the various languages spoken by the local tribes.
The outcome will be used to enrich the repertoire of songs taught in village schools and the Model School, as they will be practised at the next teachers trainings.
If you are interested in a copy of the songs a CD is available for a small donation.

Class 5

Robin is interviewing
Balamitra Field Coordinator
Prabhavahti in the new office

Class 2 during the farming epoch

Balamitra students enjoying the zoo