スラムの学校=ジャグリティ : 識字教育から共生の教育へ

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One of the key educational issues in developing countries is that there are many children who cannot attend school. A major reason for this is considered to be a vicious circle stemming from poverty; that is, children in poor families have to work on the streets, which leads to no education and illiteracy, which then leads to few guaranteed jobs and low wages, which finally leads to a life in poverty and to raising children in a similar context. There are organizations which have made continuous effort to break this vicious circle and liberate street children and their families living in slum areas (shanties) by providing them with education. One such organization is Street Survivors India (SSI), and the school they run in an overflowing shanty near Delhi Station is called 'Jagriti', which means 'The Awakening' in Hindi. Ms. Shabnam Ramaswamy, one of the co-founders of SSI, started her educational activities teaching street children on a platform at Delhi Station. Then, in 1990, SSI found a small site for their activities in a large slum community called Motia Khan in Central Delhi. They built a low-cost school hut with wooden poles and bamboo frames, and enrolled the first twenty-five students through a door-to-door survey. Approximately three hundred children are now enrolled in Jagriti, and the school manages seven classes. In each class, SSI teaches literacy (basic Hindi language) and numeracy as well as lessons fostering social awareness, drama, and other subjects. Since Jagriti functions as an alternative form of education for street children who are unable to enjoy the benefits of the formal education system, it differs from pubic/state schools in many ways. Jagriti's "personalized and non-formal teaching methods" help the children overcome their handicaps related to access to education. For instance, SSI allows female students to bring in younger brothers or sisters while their mothers go off to work because SSI knows that in shanties even small girls are expected to play roles of mothers at home. Also, in contrast to the formal schooling system, children do not have to buy school goods such as pencils, notebooks and uniforms. Furthermore, contrary to the regulations of formal schools, Jagriti allows children to work for their families' income, so long as they are provided with mental and physical security. Jagriti also offers not only school lunch and medical care but also night shelters for those who have no house to stay nearby. One of the philosophical features of Jagriti is reflected in its pedagogical methodology. Jagriti considers literacy and social awareness to be no more than tools for educating children, although the school's founders suppose that these factors are the most important elements in education. Concerning literacy, another co-founder of SSI, Mr. Jugnu Ramaswamy, insists that it alone neither automatically guarantees a better quality of life, nor does it automatically help learners to understand and fight inequality and exploitation within their society. Therefore he believes that literacy is not a substitute for education. He warns us that if we mistakenly assume literacy per se to be our goal, we fail in our duty as educators. Here a question arises: if literacy is not a goal but a tool of Jagriti's education, then what is SSFs goal? On this point, Mr. and Mrs. Ramaswamy stress firstly the importance of "awakening" in education; in Freireian terms, "the awareness of oneself in the real world". At Jagriti, the learning and teaching process brings about self-knowledge and knowledge of one's culture, society and politics. In dialogues, students deal with actual problems which they themselves or their society faces. Through the interactive process in the classroom, street children come to realize why they have to lead such a hard life and what they might do to change this in the future. Also, when performing street theatre, children express their feelings about the realities in daily life, including their own messages on social problems such as racial issues, etc. Making the most of these pedagogical methods, children at Jagriti learn the importance of living with and for others. Actually, several of the youths who had been street children and have now graduated from Jagriti are working to help younger children at the school. Thus, the ultimate objective of Jagriti's education is sharing with and caring for others and trying to solve others' problems in order to build a better world. The last but perhaps not the least important lesson one can learn from Jagriti and Mr. and Ms. Ramaswamy's theory and practice is how to establish relationships between the "haves" and the "have-nots". SSI owes much of then-funds to people from Japan. With regard to this fact, Mr. Ramaswamy states that an ideal relationship with donors is not a mere give-and-take relationship but "true mutual understanding" . When assisting developing countries, we tend to establish one-way relationships from the North to the South. Mr. Ramaswamy's statement offers us an opportunity to reconsider our own attitudes towards aid or assistance to the underprivileged.
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永田佳之
国際基督教大学

スラムの学校=ジャグリティ : 識字教育から共生の教育へ

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