SAIIER 2016:Oli School

Sustainable Palate		Auroville Archives
Oli School

Introduction

In Auroville, the local Indian community cohabits together with the international community. However, the social and cultural gap persists, especially between Indian villagers and Aurovilians. Constant efforts are made to avoid this gap that goes against the values advocated by Auroville. We believed that the way to make a change is through education. At earliest years of life start is the best.

Around the world, and more among the poor, the so-called alternative schools such as Montessori or Steiner-Waldorf schools for example, are reserved for social elite that can meet the high costs of education of their children. Today it is still very rare that schools for the children of poor villages, such as those surrounding Auroville, adopt such pedagogies although their efficiency has been proven in all social and cultural contexts.

Entity::Oli School was born to fill this gap. Our objective is to offer to underprivileged populations, at the fringe of Indian society, the possibility of human and social empowerment. In fact, we believe that children have the natural capacity to build relationships and cooperate, and carry the values of peace and joy of life that can unfold in a caring school environment. And, as asserted by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, but also by other educators like Maria Montessori, we also believe that education is the best way to raise consciousness. From the point of view of an educational choice, we can say OliSchool tries to combines the experience and vision of two major currents: Free progress and the Montessori pedagogy.

Activities of the year

Oli School has completed 6 years of continued work. At present we have 108 kids aged 2 to 6 years. There are 13 teachers working and/or in training at the school (Sangeetha, Anandhi, Shakthiya, Devi, Vasanthi, Shankari, Boomadevi, Geetha, Kalaiselvi, Kalairiasi, Lavanya, Vijayalakshmi and Manimozhi), 2 amas (Amudha and Kala), 1 gardener (Bala) and 1 art teacher (Ishta). 6 Aurovilians are an active part of the support group of the school (Marianne, Marie-Claire, Guy, Carlos, Palani, and Ana Garcia. Yves Fisselier is part of the support team and at the same time the main donor).

This year Oli School worked in a renewed structure and educational view. We gave continuity to Free Progress and the Montessori Method, used as a tool to practice Integral Education. At the same time we tried to integrate it into the Auroville context and local culture.

Since January 2016, a French volunteer (Lison) who is a Psychomotrician has been working with the kids and teachers and will stay with us for one year. Sangeetha has taken the team lead since Ana left, and Marie-Claire is there for psychological or pedagogical support in case of need. Marianne is helping in the administrative field when needed.

During this 2015-16 year our teachers participated in:

• Holoenergetic seminar with Marie-Claire
• Doll making workshop at Nandanam Kindergarten with Ziron
• Awareness Through the Body (ATB) workshops with Amir for Lison and Viji
• Training in the Teachers' Center with Maya
• Swimming and Life-saving Class with Clare
• Learning psychomotor skills from Lison
• Pre-primary teachers' training in Pondicherry for Sangeetha and Lavanya

Holoenergetics

We practice holoenergetics as a tool for team bonding, self esteem, centering, balancing, and getting rid of negativity and tiredness. A 10min video is available which presents the technique, as well as a DVD in English with details of all the exercises.

Outcomes

After having tried different activities we established a nice curriculum for our kids. Now we are focusing on its follow up and observation of the practical part. This is something that can be seen in Oli School classrooms and share within the community. The kids who leave the school at the age of 6 years old are ready to start any type of education on an elementary level.

Goals for next year

1. Have a stable teachers team.
2. Learn from the online Montessori training resources.
3. Attend other trainings happening in Auroville.
4. Properly follow up with the school curriculum.
5. Create a new platform for supporting the development of children's gross motor skills.
6. Strengthen our fundraising. With the help of Marie-Claire, we are slowly building autonomy with small donors from France but it is taking time; we are still dependent on one big donor for half the budget which is not a healthy situation.
7. Follow up with more ATB classes for Lison and Viji and may be other teachers. Our idea is to introduce ATB at Oli through some workshops and integrate it in the psychomotor activities.
8. Receive a basic donation from parents (Rs. 100 per month).

Conclusion

Even though we are still in progress, we consider that Oli School can be shown as one of the model outreach schools in the field of Integral Education. We have now 108 kids between 2 and 6 attending the school all in the same space and despite the number, still manage to have a rather quiet and peaceful atmosphere. We try to offer to the kids a clean, harmonious and safe environment that covers their basic needs. We welcome other schools and teachers to visit our school and exchange ideas and experience.