EDUCATION FOR RURAL TRANSFORMATION- A CASE PROFILE OF

THE RISHI VALLEY INSTITUTE FOR EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES

(RIVER)

Mr. Sakesh Genni,

Mr. Sandeep Kumar,
Ms. Meera Subramanian,
Research Scholars,
Centre of Advanced Study in Education (CASE)
Faculty of Education and Psychology
The M.S. University of Baroda, Vadodara,
Gujarat, India
Introduction:
India lives in its villages (M.K. Gandhi, 1995). It means, to develop India, the villages in India
must developed, Education for Rural Transformation is only way to achieve this. Education is
the primary agent of transformation towards increasing peoples capacities to transform their
visions for society into realities. The dynamics of rural transformation in the globalized world
has created new educational imperatives that call for a re-evaluation the role of education for
rural people from new perspectives. Education teaches individuals how to make decisions that
consider the long-term future of the economy, ecology and equity of all communities. The
challenge of Education to serve rural transformation must become one of the main aims of
Education for All. Educational programme have to become a vital part of transformation through
committed partnerships of governments, communities, business organizations and civil society as
a whole.
The rural transformation seeks to convey a vision of pro-active and positive process of change
and development of rural communities in the context of national and global changes in which
education is a key instrument for shaping and fulfilling the goal of rural transformation.
Responding to the diversity of rural situations is a key measure in making education relevant to
rural transformation. The critical concern is to link educational activities to diverse needs of
building skills and capacities for seizing economic opportunities, improving livelihood and
enhancing the quality of life (UNESCO 2001). The RIVER model made this into reality by
combining their curricular content and learning materials with locally developed supplementary

content in its educational programmes. This responds to specific changing opportunities for
bringing rural transformation. Rishi valley is committed for the Education for the rural people.
Rishi Valley Education Centre (RVEC) has made the bridges to the local village population
through various programmes such as rural education, rural health, reforestation, bio-diversity
conservation and watershed management. Hence, this paper focuses on the profile of RIVER as a
model for rural transformation.
CONTEXT OF THE RISHI VALLEY INSTITUTE FOR EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES
(RIVER):
Rishi Valley is situated in the rural interior of South India, in a chronic drought area in the state
of Andhra Pradesh 600 kms from Hyderabad. Krishnamurti Foundation India (KFI) set up in
1928 as a charitable institution by Jiddu Krishnamurti and Annie Besant, started the Rishi Valley
Education Centre (RVEC) in the 1940s in Madanapalle, as a small residential fee-paying school
with an independent entity, for students from middle class families. RIVER project works for
the improvement of Primary education, as Primary education plays a key role in the rural
transformation. If improvement and changes needs to occur in the villages, rural education needs
a revamping. Referring to Andhra Pradesh, the fifth largest state of India, much of the states
population continues to depend on agricultural production for survival. As in many other states,
therefore, the economic disparities between urban and rural areas are marked. Nearly 49% of
schools in the state have enrolment of 50 or fewer students (DISE, 2006: 61, Figure 2.30), and
the average primary school enrolment is 87 students. (DISE, 2006: 63, Figure 2.33). In 20042005, just over 83% of schools in the state were located in rural areas, representing 71% of total
student enrolment (11,122,940 students, DISE 2007a and 2007b). With an average drop-out rate
across the five grades of primary education at just over 22%, Andhra Pradesh also has the
nations highest drop-out rate at the primary level (DISE, 2006: 139, Table D28). Keeping these
NGOs are working on this line. Rishi Valley Education Centre has been working to improve the
primary education in the rural areas of Andhra Pradesh.
Many factors contribute to lower educational participation in rural areas. On the demand side,
rural children may be less interested in attending school. First, the opportunity costs of attending
schools are often higher in rural areas (Lockheed and Verspoor, 1991, p158). Many rural
households are dependent on their children for help at busy times of the agricultural year such as
2

harvest time. Schools are usually designed to follow rigid schedule both in terms of time of the
day and term dates, and often expect children to be in school during busy periods in the
agricultural calendar (Taylor and Mulhall, 2001, p136). Second, parents in rural areas often have
a lower level of education, and may attach a lower value to schooling. The perceived lack of
relevance of schooling may be enhanced by a rigid curriculum, often designed for a context (and
sometimes culture) removed from that in rural areas. Rural schools rarely adapt the curriculum to
make use of local examples, or to link the curriculum to local needs (Taylor and Mulhall, 2001).
Third, even where parents place a value on schooling, they may not be able to participate in
children learning. Parents in rural areas are less likely to be educated themselves, and so have
less ability to provide support for their children. Some report that they are embarrassed to
discuss school topics with their children, because of their own lack of knowledge. Further,
homes in rural areas are often ill equipped to meet the needs of children to study, and often lack
facilities like electricity (Taylor and Mulhall, 2001).
The Rishi Valley Institute for Educational Resources (RIVER) has developed a unique multigrade, multi-level integrated learning methodology for classes 1 to 5. RIVER offers practical
training programmes of varying lengths for teachers, resource persons, educators and
administrators, in order to help transpose the programme. The educational programme of the
school evolved through several phases that include pioneering innovations in educational
practices, infrastructure building, a widening circle of students and teachers, and the working out
of a meaningful curriculum that is regularly reviewed and updated.
The rural education programme enabled the evolution of a multi-grade learning system that
addresses many of the entrenched problems of rural education with the support of Government of
India grant. Centre has collaborated with many agencies (including UNICEF and various state
governments) in training teachers and propagating this method of education in several regions
across the country.
The RIVER model is based on continuous and progressive decentralization and localization of
education, as opposed to the globalizing and homogenizing forces currently in vogue. In this
model, good schooling means schools as resource centers for the community and not isolated
institutions. Children viewed as members of a community, this conviction meant replacing a

syllabus-centered, textbook oriented, teacher-directed mono-grade approach with one that met
the multiple learning needs of them.
Programmes have been extended to formal and non-formal schools in states of Tamil Nadu, UP,
Jharkhand and several districts of Andhra Pradesh. More recently, under the auspices of
UNICEF they have entered into a 'Quality Improvement Programme' for 6 states of India. The
programme will ultimately result in the setting up of 1000 multi-grade schools in one district in
each of these schools.
In summary, children in rural areas may be considered more difficult to educate. They are likely
to have less parental encouragement to go to school, and more alternative demands on their time,
such as helping with agricultural tasks. When they attend school, they may find the curriculum
less relevant to their lives, and find less support for their learning from the home environment.
NEED FOR MULTI GRADE SCHOOLS
In response to domestic and international pressure to achieve Education for All and the
Millenium Development Goal, the numbers of primary schools have increased. Small schools are
a significant feature of rural India. Common features in these schools are poor educational
quality, student disillusionment, high rates of drop-out and low rates of retention. Mono grade
model of schools in the rural areas are extremely difficult if not impossible to achieve due to
teacher ratio. So multi grade schooling is essential. Multigrade is often dismissed by policy
makers and educators as a second-class option, there is growing evidence from around the globe
that explicitly chosen and well-supported multigrade techniques can result in positive
educational experiences and outcomes (Ames, 2006; Aikmen & el Haj, 2006; Small, Multigrade
Schools and Increasing Access to Primary Education in India Psacharapoulos et al, 1993). In
multi grade schools, the teachers are often left with only minimal support in facing the
challenges of multigrade management, and educational quality suffers as a result. In this view,
RIVER has emerged as a model.
AIMS OF RIVER
RIVER establishes linkage through community curriculum, mothers committees, sharing of real
life experiences with children. Rishi Valley Education Centre aims at to establish rural education

centers as learning centers for the whole rural community: children, teachers and the parents
alike through RIVER model. The functions of The RIVER model are as follows:
i. To provide free basic education, nutrition and health care for children from local villages
ii. To draw working children into the school system
iii. To train teacher trainers in multi-grade classroom methodology
iv. To publish instructional material for village schools
v. To create a green space around the school campus for the conservation of bio-diversity in
general and medicinal plants in particular
vi. To establish adult literacy classes in the school premises
vii. raise awareness of health, nutrition and sanitation
viii. To actively involve the community in the day-to-day management of the school
STRUCTURE OF RIVER
Rishi Valley Institute for Educational Resources promotes rural education through two attached
multi-grade model schools; a Back to School Programme and a Middle School that caters to
students from Satellite schools, with an emphasis on a girl child.
THE MULTI-GRADE METHODOLOGY
The RIVER model of multi grade methodology is

a unique structure for village education.

Educators at RIVER developed set of materials that would be appropriate to the language and
local customs of the community, as well as for teaching in a multigrade classroom. The existing
state textbook was deconstructed, and the required subject content of each chapter reorganised
into a set of activities. The material presented in these activities drew on local folk and oral
traditions. For example, local stories or images were used as tools for learning to read, to
understand new vocabulary, or to make calculations. The activities are arranged in a sequence of
five types introductory, reinforcement, evaluation, remedial and enrichment, which students
follow at their own pace. The end of each sequence (nominally a chapter of the nationally
mandated textbook) denotes a milestone, and a series of milestones forms a learning ladder.
There are four sets of learning ladders, which cover the primary curriculum from class 1 to class
4, with separate ladders for language, mathematics and environmental studies at each level.
Teaching and learning in class 5 is organised slightly differently, however, with about half of the
5

work using activity based learning techniques and the other half organised in a more traditional
textbook mode, in order to begin preparing students for the transition to government upper
primary schools. The academic curriculum is integrated with activities aimed to promote
conservation, sustain local culture and graded for individual levels of learning and grounded in
up-to-date information through the education kit called 'School in a Box'. It has carefully
designed 'study cards' and 'work cards, which are supported by a pictorial 'achievement ladder'
that gives a clear sequential organization to what are essentially self-learning materials.
The cards allow children to learn at their own pace by selecting, with the help of the
'achievement ladder', the appropriate 'study card' for their level and performing the necessary
follow-up activities or exercises contained in the 'work cards'. The work cards supported by
teaching aids are prepared in such a way that children are actively involved in what she is doing
and the possibility of her sitting "dreaming" in front of an open book is reduced to the minimum.
Children at different levels within a single classroom share the same kit. A textbook in each
subject for each child can be dispensed with or used as enrichment material.
This method encourages silent self-study and individualized learning, though teacher instruction.
The group work is also a necessary part of the learning process. It gives ample room to the fastlearner as well as the slow-learner to progress at their own pace. Student absenteeism is not a
problem in schools because a student is able to simply take up where he or she had left off on
returning to school after a period of absence. Learning by rote and dry comprehension exercises
are not practiced in support of activity-based learning.
Given the rich folk tradition in which villages are steeped, folk art, folk songs and local stories
and legends are also incorporated into the curriculum. Education is seen not as a process of
trying to bring every educated person's competencies to one homogenized level, thereby
alienating the child from his own roots and ironing out cultural differences, but as a tool for
deepening an understanding of herself, of her traditions and roots, while also exposing her to a
wider cultural and knowledge base. This value-based model of education communicates ideals
such as tolerance for other cultures, protection of the environment, preservation of folklore and
local medicinal traditions.
The model of rural education provides a practical and attractive alternative to traditional
education in villages, based on the one teacher per class, mono-grade, mono-level model.
6

SATELLITE SCHOOLS
These are small one-teacher schools, located at the centre of the village. Each Satellite School
serves as resource centre for the villages to which it belongs. In this, adult literacy programmes,
integration of local traditional arts in the form of puppet shows, health and nutrition projects are
organised. For example Valmikivanam established in Rishi Valley is one of them. Satellite
Schools are gradually extending their reach by interacting with Government-run Schools, and
helping organize reading workshops, metric melas among other joint activities.
BACK TO SCHOOL
This programme is meant for the child labours of the surroundings and to get them back to
school and provide education. The objectives of the programme are to ensure that every working
child is schooled and ensure that at least 10% of students enrolled in the programme will be
mainstreamed each year after passing the Andhra Pradesh State Board Examinations. After that
students will be mainstreamed in a maximum two-year period; no child will participate in the
academic programme for more than two years.
Students live and study on campus, with the willing consent of their parents. The students, the
youngest of whom is seven years old, attend a "bridge school" that will prepare them for entrance
to the local government schools. After their schooling at Rishi Valley, when they reach academic
standards commensurate with their age they transfer to common schools for continue their
education.
DESIGNERS WORKSHOPS - 'SCHOOL IN A BOX'
A collection of multi grade, multi-level cards called 'School in a Box' is made available in
Telugu, a dialect variant of Telugu used in the tribal belt of A.P., Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil and
Kannada. RIVER has designed and published the Telugu and Hindi kits, and assisted in the
design of materials in Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada.
The systematized process of "trans-creation" requires a team of resource persons - educators,
storytellers, writers, and illustrators - to work in tandem with the RIVER team. These recourse
persons ideally are people who are steeped in the culture of their language and who can build
upon this rich background to create songs and stories for children.

Centre offers a variety of programmes for agencies that wish to learn about the multi-grade,
multi-level schools: a) one-day exposure visits acquaint visitors with an overall sense of the
programme, b) three-day workshops for administrators provide insights into organizational
structure and working of the programme, c) fifteen-day workshops for trained teachers give them
hands on training in the multi-grade, multi-level methodology and orient them in classroom
management and d) long-term designers workshops are offered for creating multi-grade, multilevel learning materials in languages other than Telugu.
ADVANTAGES OF RIVER
RIVER has its own advantages to the rural children, parents, teachers and the community.
a) Classroom interaction:
The graded curriculum supplements the textbooks with interesting self-learning materials to
make learning individualized, child-centered and interactive. It bridges attainment gaps in
children so that all children achieve mastery of minimum levels of learning. Students of
varying age and ability levels circulate learn together helped by the peer. Thus, this program
increased the access to primary education in the rural area.
b) Teacher commitment and involvement:
This system enhances teachers creativity and competency by ensuring teacher participation in
developing, implementing and reviewing leaning materials. It has great support systems
through constant monitoring and guidance of the teachers. The accountability of teachers
ensured through development of transparent monitoring and evaluation materials. Teachers
using the RIVER methodology thus have a significantly different role to that commonly noted
in primary teachers in India (Sarangapani, 2003). Rather than taking an authoritative role as
the holder of knowledge and facts which must be passed on to students (Freire, 1972),
teachers become facilitators and create an environment in which students can learn and ask
questions freely. RIVER views its teachers as having a much wider role in the communities in
which they work. Teachers are expected to draw on local resources to enrich the curriculum
and to plan learning activities outside the school, including field trips, village surveys, and
metric melas.

c) Teacher training and multigrade teaching:

In-service teacher training programmes provides teachers to teach in child centered multigrade
classrooms and prepares teacher trainers who can be mobilized to train other teachers. It also
develops teachers to adopt innovative curriculum, which is locally appropriate to create a
good learning environment for multigrade teaching. Provides a school based mechanism for
regular meetings of teachers for sharing experiences. To avoid the high absenteeism of
teachers in the rural schools, RIVER recruits and train young people with minimal
qualifications living in the villages. Thus, it helps in the teaching learning process.
d) Community School Linkage
Community school linkage established through community curriculum, mothers committees,
sharing real life experiences with the children. The curriculum is enriched through the village
resources and cost effective models are prepared without diluting the quality. There is an inbuilt replicating strategy moving in partnerships and capacity building capabilities are
developed.
Summing up:

Communityschool
linkage

RIVER

Capacitybuilding
capability

FigurerepresentsoverviewofRIVER

The innovative and proven methodology of the RIVER model has acclaimed globally and given
a positive direction to primary education. The impact of this model has helped not only children
but to the hundreds of teachers that are regularly trained through RIVER model, and the schools
that access this learning from different parts of India.
The child-friendly approaches of the RIVER model has empowered and benefited many teachers
across the country in enriching their teaching learning skills and their vision towards a common
sense quality school. The positive social impacts of the model, includes growing community
involvement in the schools, which has resulted in marked improvement to adult literacy rates,
health and welfare in the villages. (Rao & Rao, 2006). The RIVER model rural schools have
benefited mainstream education programs all over the country and is a great contribution to high
quality rural education.
References:
Ames, P. (2006) A Multigrade Approach to Literacy in the Amazon, Peru: School and
community perspectives. In Little, A. (ed.) Education for All and Multigrade Teaching:
Challenges and Opportunities. Dordrect: Springer.
Aikmen, S. and el Haj, H. (2006) EFA for Pastoralists in North Sudan: A mobile multigrade
model of schooling. In Little, A. (ed.) Education for All and Multigrade Teaching:
Challenges and Opportunities. Dordrect: Springer
DISE (2006) Elementary Education in India: Progress towards UEE, Analytical Report 20042005. New Delhi: NIEPA.
DISE (2007) Elementary Education in India: Progress towards UEE, Analytical Report 20052006. New Delhi: NIEPA.
DISE (2007a) Elementary Education in Rural India: Where do we stand? New Delhi: National
University for Educational Planning and Administration [NUEPA].
DISE (2007b) Elementary Education in Urban India: Where do we stand? New Delhi: NUEPA.
Gandhi, M.K., (1995) India of my Dreams,Ahmedabad: Navajivan Publishing House
Freire, P. (1972) Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Middlesex: Penguin Books Ltd.
Lockheed, Marlaine and Verspoor, Adriaan (1991). Improving Primary Education in
Developing Countries. Oxford University Press, World Bank.

10

Psacharapoulos, G., Rojas, C. and Velez, E. (1993) Achievement Evaluation of Colombias

Escuela Nueva: Is multigrade the answer? Comparative Education Review 37(3): 163-276.
Rao, Y. A. P. and Rao, A. R. (2006) Community-based Education at Rishi Valley. Paper
presented to the International Conference on Local Governance, Texts and Contexts:
Perspectives from South Asia. 1-2 February 2006, Lahore, Pakistan.
Rishi valley Education retrieved from www.rishivalley.org/rural_education/overview htm
Sarangapani, P. (2003) Constructing School Knowledge: An Ethnography of Learning in an
Indian Village. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications.
Taylor, Peter and Mulhall, Abigail (2001) Linking learning environments through agricultural
experience enhancing the learning process in rural primary schools. International Journal
of Educational Development, 21, 135-148.
UNESCO, (2001), Education for Rural Transformation towards a Policy Framework, Paris:
International Research and Training Center for Rural Education (INRULED)

11