-Baishali Mukherjee (Kolkata)

Tanmay Mondal: Tagore-Montessori inspiration

Tanmay Mondal is trustee of Kolotan (‘song of birds’), a North 24 Parganas-based trust which runs an English/Bengali-medium nursery-class V low-fees private school for 81 first generation learners, including 25 girl children from poor households. Promoted in 2018 by a group of young education enthusiasts — Tapas Mondal (president), Sujoy Sarkar (secretary), Tanmay Mondal (trustee), Sairul Molla (trustee), Pratick Das (trustee) and Bivas Mondal (trustee) — Kolotan also conducts environment awareness and skill development programmes for youth in the under-developed Santhospur-Mirhati village, 31.5 km from Kolkata.

Newspeg. Kolotan is all set to add an upper primary school from the new academic year beginning June and affiliate the school with the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education.

History. Dismayed with the rote-centric, poor quality school education provided in rural government schools in 2018, this group of six university graduates promoted a primary school with 32 students and 11 teachers in two rented apartments in Santhospur-Mirhati with an initial donation of Rs.5 lakh from Tapas Mondal.

“The primary objective of Kolotan is to provide interactive, experiential school education based on the philosophy of Rabindranath Tagore and Maria Montessori in rural Bengal. Simultaneously, we intend to spread environmental awareness, preserve indigenous culture, and conduct employment-oriented skill development programmes,” says Tanmay, a political science and education graduate of West Bengal State University and West Bengal University of Teachers’ Training, Education Planning and Administration.

Direct talk. According to Tanmay, the distinguishing feature of Kolotan is that all teaching-learning is experiential and activity-based. “The curriculum, based on the National Curriculum Framework for School Education and adapted to include local history, art and traditions, is delivered by teachers through music, painting, sculpture, dance, and theatre media. Children are encouraged to learn by doing, ask questions and are assessed informally. Our objective is to nurture self-learners with independent thinking and problem solving skills,” says Tanmay.

The trust (annual budget: Rs.23 lakh) incurs an expense of Rs.2,200 per student per month with parents paying Rs.500 as tuition fees in addition to an admission fee of Rs.7,000. “We are aware that even a Rs.500 tuition fee is difficult for parents in this desperately backward and poor area. But we believe every parent should pay towards their children’s education, according to their capability. Parents incapable of paying fees, contribute artisanal skills to Sumangali, the handicrafts and artisans emancipation project of Kolotan,” says Tanmay.

Future plans. With parental demand for admission rising, Kolotan is looking to adding labs facilities and additional classes. “A local farmer has donated 3,600 sq. ft of land to the trust. Soon we will launch a donation drive to raise funds to construct a building using locally-sourced natural material. We are fortunate to have a team of deeply committed founders, patrons and teachers who share a commitment to provide rural children high-quality education and equip them with the skills and capabilities to establish small-scale food processing units to improve farm productivity.

That’s the formula for increasing the prosperity of rural India,” says Tanmay.