Spare Some Change

When my grandmother tells me stories about her life, she reiterates: "The biggest curse is to live in a time of change." I’ve always understood my grandmother’s aversion to change as a product of her always-changing life: she has survived the times of Hitler and Stalin, from failing Five Year Plans to Yeltsin’s inappropriate antics to Putin’s economical victories at the expense of civil rights. My life, too, has not been stagnant: the fall of Communism, the trans-Atlantic move to America, my life in Texas and Chicago, and the fifteen pages of entry and departure stamps in my passport all point to an inconstant existence. Yet for me, change has always meant progress.

Transplanted from one of our city’s most prestigious lyceums in Russia to a school deemed “academically unacceptable” by the state of Texas, differences in educational systems were highlighted for me since childhood. During my undergraduate career, I explored the schools and administrative policies in Chicago, Texas, Ghana, and post-Soviet Russia. All had worked to battle the same problems: of gender bias, curricula choices, teacher quality, funding – in isolation. To me, it has always been strange that educators are so reluctant to learn from each other. As India was amidst many fascinating reforms and processes of decentralization in education, I decided to welcome another change in my life and set off for the subcontinent.

When I arrived at the Rishi Valley Institute of Educational Resources (RIVER) in rural Andhra Pradesh, I expected a challenging and stimulating work environment. Being used to the fact that traditional educational methods have not been radically renewed in hundreds of years, despite the constant rhetoric of reform, I had no expectations of seeing a paradigm shift in the world of education. However, unlike my grandmother, the Raos, a power-couple who invented the innovative multi-grade multi-level methodology used by RIVER, as well as who currently run the organization, strove for change. They saw around them under-appreciated land, frightened and apathetic students, and teachers lacking the tools to be effective in the classroom. And they dedicated their lives to change this reality.

The multi-grade multi-level (MGML) methodology fostered by RIVER is complex and multi-faceted. It is a student-centered model, where children can learn at their own pace. To describe it simply, each village school (RIVER runs 12 satellite schools) is established by the rural community to house around 40 children in grades one through five. All are taught by a single teacher in a one-room school. Currently, there are three subjects taught: Telugu, maths, and environmental science. The curriculum is structured around a single “learning ladder” made up of many steps. A collection of steps make up a “milestone,” each with its own learning objective. Each step, denoted by a logo (for example, “rabbit”) and a number, matches up with an activity laid out on an “activity card” which can be easily found by the corresponding logo and number. Students find their place on the ladder, locate the corresponding card, and quickly get to work. The classroom is filled with happy, interested students, and the teacher spends her/his time on facilitating the learning of all students.

There are many nuances to the methodology. There is grouping and activity type; there is high community involvement, women’s empowerment, adult literacy, a health care component, land reforestation, and local arts, just to name a few. It is a true paradigm shift in the classroom, and it has great potential. Furthermore, the Institute is a proponent of collaboration in education and readily trains teachers and policy-makers from all over the world to trans-create MGML into their own local contexts and languages. The beauty of the program is that while the methodology gets exported, the content stays local, as each party adopting the program designs their own lesson plans to be immediately relevant to the students’ surroundings. Currently, over 16 Indian states, as well as Nepal, Germany, and Ethiopia, use RIVER’s methodology.

Yet, change doesn’t stop there. Each year, RIVER asks teachers to re-evaluate the curriculum to ensure that all cards are relevant to the children’s learning. The Institute takes tips from other states and nations using the methodology to improve best practices. Another big transformation to take place next year is the addition of English as a Second Language classes in RIVER schools. Thus, my ten months in India are spent assisting in the creation of materials to teach English to third and fourth grade children using MGML methodology. The journey hasn’t been easy. But, then again, change never is. We have struggled with vowel sounds, timing, teacher training, and thousands of other minute details. But we have also learned so much: about just how much our students can do despite the nonsensical structure of the English alphabet, about how fast our teachers can learn despite their already heavy workload, and about how passionate we all are to bring a much-needed change to education despite all the obstacles that stand in our way.

In my short four and some months at Rishi Valley, I have learned much about myself. I have gained a number of fantastic friendships that will last for years to come. And I have decided that when I grow old and share stories with my grandchildren, I will never fear the transformations in life. Instead, I’d like to point to the history books and say, “See how much has changed? See how far we’ve come? I was a part of that.”