Mamta Mandir School, Navsari, Gujarat

15 April 2004

Country:

India

Organisations involved:

Kirklees LEA Kirklees Community Education and Regeneration
Kirklees Pupil Support
Kirklees Service for Children with Sensory Impairment
Mamta Mandir School, Navsari, Gujarat

Synopsis:

To observe the educational opportunities for deaf children in the school and to advise on the way forward.This included:

observation of the teaching methodologies used across the age range 5-19
comparing the attitude towards, expectation and achievement of deaf children in a residential setting
observation and discussion of the methods of communication used with children with varying degrees of deafness
learning from first hand experience about the ethnic origins, cultural and religious heritage of some ethnic minority children in our authority
learning about the cultural issues surrounding deafness and other disabilities in some ethnic minority families
gaining experience in observing, discussing and sharing expertise and good practice with professionals from a different culture
applying the knowledge when working with children from ethnic minority families attending schools in the LEA
sharing the knowledge with colleagues working with deaf children and those from ethnic minorities in the LEA

We were privileged to spend a most enlightening three weeks working in Mamta Mandir School for Deaf and Mentally Challenged Children. The four of us, excited but apprehensive travellers gathered at the airport to make the journey on a sunny but cold day in November 2003. We arrived in Mumbai to hot sunshine some 15 hours later, not really prepared for the 6 hour journey by road to cover the 150 miles to Navsari. A description of the roads, the driving and the police would be a whole article in itself!

Just stepping out of the airport is an experience which gives an indication of the different culture you are entering. The noise, the driving, the roads, the people, the beauty of the countryside and some of the buildings, the colours, the smells, the animals, the rickshaws, the wealth and the poverty all make an impact within a short time.

Our hosts at the school were extremely hospitable and looked after us very well. They arranged numerous outings for us, which meant that we were able to go to places other visitors would not know about or would not have access to. Daily journeys to and from school gave an insight into life in the town from all social levels. Our visits included trips to the ashram where Gandhi stayed at the end of his salt march and to the place where he lifted salt, to several temples, to local markets and shops, to Surat, the nearest large town, to local farms to see the crops being grown, to see sugar being extracted from sugar cane and to visit many families, both in Navsari and in the surrounding countryside. We stayed in a house in a residential area of Navsari, where we could shop for fresh produce locally and buy from local tradesmen, especially the ‘khela’ man who brought fresh bananas to our door every morning. Actually buying was not always an easy job involving a lot of mime and guess work and sometimes coming back with not exactly what we had gone for! Our neighbours visited us and we were invited into their homes. We were therefore able to gain first hand experience of daily life in the town and in the countryside, of the hospitality given to visitors and of the heritage and religious diversity of the area.

Navarsi is a town of about 150,000 people some 150 miles north of Mumbai. It is predominantly Hindu, with a sizable Muslim minority. Near the centre of the town is Mamta Mandir, a school for deaf children and children with learning difficulties run by the Manav Kalyan Trust. The school is privately funded through charitable subscription, with some help from the Gujarat State government. It caters for about 400 children – 250 deaf children and 150 children with learning difficulties. The majority of the children are not from well-off families and would not have access to education were they not at Mamta Mandir School. The school caters for pupils from 5 to 18+, and as they come from a wide area, most board at the school. There is no charge to families for children to attend the school. Staff made it clear to us that children from the poorest families were given priority and that no child would be turned away if staff felt the school could meet his or her needs.

The school buildings are modern and the setting is very pleasant with good facilities by local standards. The teaching groups of 15-20 pupils are organised in standards rather than by age groups, with pupils needing to achieve certain criteria before moving to the next standard. Consequently many groups cater for pupils covering several age groups. Communication between pupils and between pupils and staff is by generally by silent sign language (with few or no lip-patterns and facial expressions), though a loud voice, clear lip patterns and slower speech were used with pupils who had sufficient residual hearing. The movement between silent sign, speech accompanied by sign and speech only was similar to the approach which would be used by used when implementing a Total Communication philosophy.

The school day is 11.00 – 5.00 Monday to Friday and 8.00 to 11.00 on Saturdays. During our visit a great deal of time was spent on preparations for the opening ceremony for a new building to accommodate the children with special needs. This involved all the teachers, who were either providing musical accompaniment or who were involved in the dancing. Those children who were not directly involved would generally watch attentively. The ethos of the school was one of co-operation, caring and sharing. Behaviour was never an issue. In class the children were attentive at all times and would sit patiently and quietly, chatting to each other, whenever a teacher was called away from or was late arriving at the classroom. They also offered support to each other on every occasions and organised themselves into activities during their free time.

The main focus of the curriculum was the acquisition of vocabulary, except in maths, where it was on methods of calculation. The pupils were tested on these areas, and only when they could pass the test did they move to the next class. For the younger children, the vocabulary was presented in sign and in written and spoken Gujarati; for the older children, it was also presented in Hindi and English. The older children moved between these languages with impressive ease. There was also a significant emphasis on lip-reading and voice production, especially with the younger children. As none of the children had an audiogram or wore hearing aids, this had only limited success.

We visited many homes where there were young children, and quickly became aware that toys and books are not a priority in the home. We did see toys such as balloons and kites on sale in local shops and markets, but the only books we saw were either for practicing educational skills such as spelling, and these were usually in English, or were religious books. These would only be available to families with a good income as purchasing anything other than food and clothing was out of the reach of poorer families. From what we were able to learn from discussion with other (hearing) children and from visiting an English Medium Nursery, passive learning is the expectation for all children.

We also met with some doctors from the Navsari area who were receiving training on mental health and disability, and had the opportunity to discuss issues around deafness, especially diagnosis and after care. They left us realising what an impossible job they have. We hoped we felt them realising that cochlear implants are not the answer to everything and do not make life any easier!

Meetings with some parents were also valuable to us. They were able to tell us of their fears and anxiety as it became evident that their child was deaf, and how much they appreciated the opportunities the school has provided for their child. We saw for ourselves the pupils whose name and address were tattooed on their lower arms. This had been done by worried parents who had been concerned that their child might get lost and be unable to tell anyone where he or she lived. This is also the custom in nomadic families with hearing children.

We had originally hoped to share expertise and good practice with the teachers of the deaf in the school, but this proved to be very difficult because of the language difficulties. Working though an interpreter made it difficult to build good working relationshipsin the time that we had. Having to wait for conversations to be translated for us, often to not knowing what was being said, what was going to happen next or why and not to be able to make our own views and thoughts clearly understood was a valuable learning experience for all of us.

Besides the language difficulty, the curriculum, lesson planning and teaching methods were so different from those we have experienced that joint activities i.e. planning and lesson delivery were not practical. In conjunction with the senior management of the school, we agreed that we would make the learning environment in one of the classrooms resemble that of an English classroom. This seemed most appropriate for us as, although the school setting and environment is visually very attractive, the learning environments were not. All the classrooms were similar, with bare whitewashed brick walls, and few visual aids to support the learning of the deaf pupils. This idea was discussed with teaching staff, who felt this would be useful for them. The reception class was chosen as the room to be transformed. Plans were made of what was to be done, materials found and ordered, workmen organised to put up notice boards, staff enlisted to help to make games and items for display. The pupils were keen to see the work in progress, and we learnt much about the skills of Indian workmen.

By the end of the second week, four large notice boards had been put up and covered with hessian, and charts and games were being made. Although making resources for the room could only be done by staff from the school (our Gujarati being none existent), it did provide opportunities for us to discuss with staff how to use them the benefits for themselves and the pupils. Games and displays were made to support the curriculum in the reception class eg games for learning the days of the week, children’s names in the class, colours, numbers to ten and items in the classroom. Wall displays included these, plus months of the year, animals, fruits, vegetables, numbers to twenty and also included some work by the pupils themselves. We had sent for some tacky back from England at the beginning of the second week, hoping that it would arrive in time for us to use on the resources made to make them more durable, but unfortunately it did not. We realised that many of the displays and resources would not last long without protection because of the dust that was everywhere and that this could be seen by staff as a disadvantage of the resources. We left instructions on how to use the tacky back and have since been informed that the headteacher spent a day covering all the materials.

The classroom was finished in time for a ‘grand opening’. Management and staff were enthusiastic about the room and the pupils loved its visual impact and playing the games. We were assured that all other classrooms in the school will be provided with display boards as soon as practical.

We enjoyed our visit to the school and gained at lot from it both personally and professionally. Such links can only help to improve the education of deaf children in the areas concerned.

Recommendations:

We have sent some recommendations to the school focusing on improving the learning environment, making language learning broader and more relevant and making learning more active. We hope that links with the school will continue, with follow up visits to the school and with teachers from the school visiting our LEA to experience first hand education for deaf children here.

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