Three-week trip to India proves to be a real education for high school pupils

Published on Tuesday 21 October 2008 20:35

HUNTING for rats, working in paddy fields, riding elephants and teaching English in village night schools were all part of the recent experience of a group of pupils from Monifieth High School, near Dundee.

Twelve senior pupils and two members of staff spent three weeks living and working in the tribal villages of Tamil Nadu in south-east India.

The group was there as part of a project run with Signpost International, a Dundee-based charity, and People's Education and Rights Trust (Pert), an Indian-based organisation dedicated to the empowerment of the Irula tribespeople, who have, until recently, been denied access to many rights in Indian society.

A key aspect of Pert's work is the promotion of education among the tribal people, and a recent development has been the establishment of night schools in their villages.

The group from Monifieth High worked alongside local trainers to help children develop skills in conversational English.

The pupils faced the challenge of working with groups of up to 60 tribal children, aged from four to 14, some of whom spoke minimal English.

Their work was not helped by the outdoor classroom setting, which was often surrounded by onlookers – these included goats and cattle in addition to the adult villagers.

Money that had been raised by the Monifieth group was used to purchase essential school equipment for the village children, as well as resources for the night schools, including blackboards.

Jeremy Morris, the school's deputy headteacher, accompanied the pupils.

He said: "The pupils coped magnificently with the challenges they faced and learned a lot about themselves through working with people from a very different cultural background."

The young people involved said it had been an experience that would change their outlook on life. One of the pupils said: "The people we visited were amazing – although they are poor, they are very generous and hardworking and had a strong sense of community.

"We learned a lot from working alongside them."

As well as the demanding work with the villagers, the group had time to relax and visited some temples, a crocodile park and a fishing village that had been destroyed by the tsunami in the Indian Ocean in 2004. The pupils were even taken out in boats by the village fishermen.