MASARYK UNIVERSITY
Faculty of Social Studies
Department of Environmental Studies
Traditional Ecological Knowledge in Education of Nomadic People in Changthang (Ladakh, India)
Master’s Diploma Thesis
Bc. Lenka Zahrádková Brno, May 2013
Supervisor: RNDr. Petr Daněk, Ph.D.
I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography.
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Lenka Zahrádková
Acknowledgement
In the first place, I would like to thank my supervisor, RNDr. Petr Daněk, Ph.D., for his valuable comments and overall support during all phases of the research. I am also grateful to RNDr. Naděžda Johanisová, Ph.D., for her wise advices and frequent encouragements. I would also like to thank the teachers and students from the TATA Institute of Social Sciences in Mumbai who officially backed my field research in India and provided me with many important contacts and support. I would like to express my gratitude to all of my research partners and new friends in Ladakh for their openness and great hospitality. Namely, I would like to thank the whole Karma family for hosting and helping me with various things in Leh, especially to Achan for arranging some of the essential meetings and little Chocho for making me smile; to Kunzes Wangmo for taking such a good care of me in Puga; and to Rinchen for hosting me in Tharuk. I would also like to thank Anna Fischerová from the La Ngonpo project who helped me get my bearings in Leh and took me to the SECMOL. In addition, I would like to thank Jana Mafková who helped me enter the field and to Matěj Boháč and Michal Hora for helping me leave it. I would also like to thank my proofreaders, Julie Pokorná and Richard Skolek, for their time and help. For sharing the research experience and more, I would like to thank my “research brother” Adam Čajka. I am grateful to my parents who never discouraged me from going after my dreams. Finally, my special thanks belong to Tomáš Protivínský for an endless supply of black tea and love. Summary
The thesis deals with education as a development strategy and its impacts in the context of eastern Ladakh in India with a special focus on nomadic communities of the Changthang region. Living in a high altitude cold desert, Ladakhis developed a specific culture over the years, rich in traditional ecological knowledge that enabled people to live sustainably in harsh climatic conditions. Recently, many changes have come to Ladakh. One of the innovations is the introduction of a formal compulsory education which aims to bring many benefits to the local society. However, factors like lack of education goals and insufficient grounding in a local context within the state curriculum make a formal education in Ladakh full of contradictions. Among other effects, the loss of traditional ecological knowledge has been widely criticised. The situation is even more dire in case of nomadic people from the Changthang region near the Chinese border whose children stay in hostels of nomadic residential schools for most of the year, educated towards a very different, urban lifestyle. The aim of this work was to investigate whether the locals (mostly government teachers, students and other people involved in the education) were aware of these discrepancies and to collect possible ideas for a change or a mitigation of these problems. To achieve these goals, a field research was conducted from August to October 2012. The research was based on a qualitative approach with elements of action research. The main methods used were semi-structured interviews and observation. The most important findings are that most of the teachers that were questioned are aware of the problems and would like to change the education towards a more meaningful and place-based one but, without the support of local government, they feel powerless. According to the results of the research, it is important for the future of Ladakhi education to improve the communication between schools and the local government, to strengthen the place-based aspect of the education and to attempt to bring education closer to nomadic communities.
Key words: traditional ecological knowledge, nomadic people, Changthang, Ladakh, India, indigenous knowledge, place-based education, critical pedagogy of place, field- research
Anotace
Tato práce se zabývá vzděláváním jakožto rozvojovou strategií a jeho dopady v kontextu východního Ladáku v Indii, se zvláštním zřetelem na nomádské komunity regionu Čangtang. Ladáčané během dlouhých staletí života ve vysokohorské chladné poušti vyvinuli jedinečnou kulturu, bohatou na tradiční ekologické znalosti, které umožnili lidem žít udržitelně v obtížných klimatických podmínkách. V poslední době do Ladáku proniká množství změn. Jednou z nich je zavedení povinného školního vzdělávání, které má rozvíjet tamější společnost. Nicméně faktory jako nedostatečně formulované cíle vzdělávání nebo nedostatečná úroveň místní zakotvenosti učiva činí ladácké vzdělávání rozporuplným. Mezi dalšími dopady bývá kritizována zejména ztráta tradičních ekologických znalostí. Situace je ještě problematičtější v případě nomádů z regionu Čangtang, blízko čínské hranice, jejichž děti tráví většinu roku v internátních školách a jsou vychovávány podle odlišného, městského životního způsobu. Cílem práce bylo prozkoumat, zda jsou si místní (zejména učitelé, studenti a další lidé zapojení do ladáckého vzdělávání) vědomi zmíněných rozporů a shromáždit možné návrhy řešení, či alespoň zmírnění, těchto problémů. Pro naplnění těchto cílů byl proveden terénní výzkum od srpna do října roku 2012. Metodologicky byl výzkum zakotven v kvalitativním přístupu s prvky akčního výzkumu. Hlavními použitými metodami byly semistrukturované rozhovory a pozorování. Mezi nejdůležitější výsledky patří zjištění, že dotazovaní učitelé si jsou vědomi rozporů v tamějším vzdělávání a přáli by si smysluplnější a více místně zakotvené vzdělávání, cítí se však bezmocní bez podpory místní správy. Dle výsledků výzkumu by pro budoucnost ladáckého vzdělávání bylo podstatné zlepšit komunikaci škol a místní správy, posílit místní zakotvenost učení a pokusit se přinést vzdělávání blíže nomádským komunitám.
Klíčová slova: tradiční ekologická znalost, Čangtang, Ladák, Indie, indigenous knowledge, místně zakotvené vzdělávání, místně zakotvená kritická pedagogika, terénní výzkum Table of contents
1. Introduction ...... 3 1.2 Structure of the thesis ...... 4 1.3 Clarification of some of the terms used ...... 5 2. Theoretical framework ...... 6 2.1 Notions of development ...... 6 2.2 Education from a critical perspective ...... 7 2.3 Indigenous people and traditional ecological knowledge ...... 11 2.4 Place-based education and indigenous perspective ...... 13 3. Methodology ...... 15 3.1 Research questions ...... 16 3.2 Field-research ...... 16 3.2.1 Entering the field, approaching the respondents ...... 17 3.2.2 Being a foreigner, being a woman...... 18 3.3 Sampling ...... 19 3.4 Methods used during the field-research ...... 20 3.4.1 Observation ...... 20 3.4.2 Interviews ...... 20 3.5 Ethics ...... 23 4. Ladakh ...... 25 4.1 Geography and administrative division ...... 25 4.2 Society ...... 26 4.3 Nomads of Changthang ...... 28 4.4 Recent changes within Ladakhi society...... 29 4.5 Education in Ladakh ...... 31 4.5.1 Central Institute of Buddhist Studies ...... 32 4.5.2 Critique and reforms ...... 32 5. Results of the research ...... 34 5. 1 Interviews: part 1 ...... 36 1
5.2 Interviews: part 2 ...... 37 5. 3 Activities with the students ...... 42 Interviews: part 3 ...... 48 6. Discussion and suggestions for the future ...... 57 6.1 Already existing alternatives ...... 60 6.2 Nomads and education ...... 61 7. Conclusion ...... 64 8. List of tables ...... 67 9. List of acronyms ...... 67 10. Name index ...... 68 11. List of the attachments ...... 69 12. Resources: ...... 71 13. Attachments ...... 75 13.1 Maps ...... 75 13.2 Interview questions ...... 78 13.3 Example of an interview ...... 80 13.4 Students’ drawings ...... 86 13.5 Photographic material ...... 91 13.5.1 Nomadic Residential School Puga (the Nyoma block, Changthang) ...... 96
19,816 words
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1. Introduction
“Changthang is very high altitude place. It is very cold place. Nomadic people are very enjoying and happy.” (Stanzin Tharchen, age 14, from Korzok in Changthang)
Stanzin was born a nomad, used to moving several times a year from one pasture to another with herds of goats, sheep and yaks. He lives in Changthang, a high altitude extension of the Tibetan plateau near the line of actual control between India and China. His parents trade in highly priced pashmina wool. Thanks to the Indian Right to Education Act, Stanzin does not have to move with his parents any-more. Together with other nomadic children, he stays in a hostel of his residential school for most of the year, studying according to a syllabus created by people who never experienced nomadic way of life. He is 14 now and will finish his studies soon – where will we find Stanzin or his family in the next five or ten years? What is the impact of education on nomadic children and their communities in general?
Those and many more questions I was asking myself during my field-research in Ladakh. The way to the topic of my thesis was a long – from Brno, through Mumbai, to Changthang in Himalayas. During my studies, I got a chance to study in Mumbai for a while and I started to think more about the very concept of development. Czech Republic is connected to India, and particularly to Ladakh, via some development projects. What kind of development do people involved in those projects want to bring in? And what do the locals think about it? I decided to ask them. Originally, I went to Ladakh with the aim to explore local opinions on what a development is according to them. Soon, I realized that I bit off more than I could chew and that I had to narrow the topic down. Therefore, I focused on one of the development strategies – the education and its impacts. Since I am engaged in environmental education in the Czech Republic and I came to the contact with many local educators soon after my arrival to Ladakh, it was quite natural choice.
From the literature (Bainton, 2007; Foggin & Torrance-Foggin, 2011; Norberg-Hodge, 1991; Pandey, 2001), I have already got a critical picture of Indian (and particularly
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Ladakhi) education as a one that lacks any goal apart from preparing children to get a government job. I encountered criticisms of the curriculum which is based on other parts of India and which is irrelevant to local context, as well as critique of losing a valuable traditional ecological knowledge and relationship to Ladakhi natural environment. This critique was particularly severe in case of nomadic people of Changthang. Their children spend most of the year in hostels of residential schools and they are educated to a very different lifestyle.
The main aim of my thesis is to explore whether (and how) do locals, mostly government teachers and students, perceive those contradictions in Ladakhi formal education, and whether they assess the education as beneficial for their society or as problematic due to the fact that it is not designed for their environment. I wanted to find out whether teachers and local authorities feel that they possess some power to influence the curriculum and if there already exist some alternatives or reformative approaches within Ladakhi education. I also wanted to collect any potential suggestions of solutions for the problematic issues. To answer those questions, I conducted a field research in eastern Ladakh from August to October 2012.
I need to clarify here that I do take sides. I think that traditional ecological knowledge is a valuable source of information and of sustainable practices connected to a particular place. I also think that education which is place-based could be more beneficial for students and local communities than education created in a very different context and for a very different region. Furthermore, I do not believe in a single way or a single understanding of development.
1.2 Structure of the thesis
The second chapter of this work presents a conceptual framework and a discussion of the already existing literature about the topic of development and education from critical perspective, and explains important concepts, such as traditional ecological knowledge and place-based education. The methodology of the research is described in the third chapter. The fourth chapter introduces Ladakh, its natural environment,
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society and education system. The results of the research are introduced and partly commented in chapter five. The next chapter subsequently interprets and discuss the main results and shows possibilities for further research. Some relevant materials, such as photographic documentation, are attached. More materials are available online (Zahrádková, 2013).
1.3 Clarification of some of the terms used
Education – there are many kinds of education. In my thesis, I talk mostly about formal, school-based education which is compulsory in India from age 6 to 14.
Field – by referring to the field, I mean the area of eastern Ladakh (India, states Jammu and Kashmir) where I conducted my research. I focused on the context of the Leh district and particularly on the area of Changthang near Indo-Chinese border (map 2).
Nomads – by this term, I refer to nomadic and semi-nomadic pastoralists from the Changthang area who call themselves Chang-pa (the inhabitants of Changthang).
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2. Theoretical framework
2.1 Notions of development
Development is a very broad term. The meaning varies from very material to very spiritual. Andreotti and Souza (2008) examined the notions of this term in their project “Through Other Eyes”. They show how different people from very different cultural context could perceive the very concept of development. They try to explain those perspectives using analogies. Analogically, for some people development could be “a ladder towards a fixed idea of progress (e.g. technological, industrial, service- based economy), with linear planning scheme, competition and profit-based, imposing the ideal as universal (p. 18). As other perspective is used the analogy of ecological adaptation in interdependent systems, where development is seen as cyclical process, context-dependent, based on past and new experiences, oriented on wellbeing of all (humans as a part of nature), and sustainability to further generations” (p.18).
“The development they want us to have means detachment from our community. It means living like the people in the city: isolated from other people, isolated from earth, alone in the world. Development in my language means connection to one’s community, to the land and to Ñande Ru (force of creation or God).” Opinion of Wera Mirim from Brazil (Andreotti & Souza, 2008, p. 19).
By those examples they claim, that even if so called mainstream western vision of development (ladder analogy) might see itself as the one universal way, there could be other societies (e.g. some indigenous communities) with a very different perspective of development based on different values. Therefore, the idea of one single universal trajectory is only an illusion.
For many thinkers, the term development has many negative connotations as neo- colonialism or westernization, that is why they rather often to themselves as “post- development” thinkers. As Majid Rahnema (1997) explains, the idea of development took a significant place in policies of post-colonial times and is strongly connected with the practices which shaped this era up to the present. The construct of development 6
emerged as an opportunity for the three groups of society - the ex-colonizers, who hoped to maintain their power to enjoy the natural resources or market space of former colonies; secondly, the leaders of independence movements, who wanted to create independent modern states; and third, the masses of people, who hoped for liberation from any form of oppression and subjugation (p. ix).
As Rahnema shows further, the hopes often turned into a nightmare for millions:
“..., under the banner of development and progress, a tiny minority of local profiteers, supported by their foreign ‘patrons’, set out to devastate the very foundations of social life in these countries. A merciless war was waged against the age-old traditions of communal solidarity. The virtues of simplicity and conviviality, of noble forms of poverty, of the wisdom of relying on each other, (...) were derided as signs of ‘underdevelopment’. A culture of ‘individual’ success and of socially imputed ‘needs’ led younger men to depart their villages, leaving behind dislocated families of women, children and older men who had no one to rely on but the promises of often unattainable ‘goods’ and ‘services’. Millions (...) were falling into a destitution for which they had never been culturally prepared.” (Rahnema, 1997, p. x)
During the history, there were many approaches towards development – characterized by its orientation, as economical, cultural, expert-based, bottom-up, human-centred, even sustainable development. However, none of these dared to question the very idea of development – to whom it might truly serve and how it affects the society where it is introduced. One of the first thinkers, who asked those questions, was Ivan Illich, but his opinions were taken mostly as provocations. Since that time such questions were evolved by the post-development thinkers, who often call themselves radical (for the etymology of that word – connection with roots), since they examine the developmental paradigm from its roots (Rahnema, 1997).
2.2 Education from a critical perspective
“Education is very important.” This sentence we can hear on the daily basis here in Czech Republic and I had heard the same with similar frequency during my stay in 7
Ladakh. As if, it somehow came automatically. Education is one of the well-known Millennium Development Goals of United Nations (UN, 2010): “Ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling.” It has been broadly interpreted as one of the crucial development strategies.
It is tricky to question the importance of education. Many people are not used to it. However, what education are we talking about? The education (even the school-based one) can have many faces. Do all the different kinds of education have the same importance?
Sometimes it seems to me, that as far as education is concerned, we are caught in some “quantitative trap”. When we see statistics about how many children have access to school, we automatically feel sorry for those who do not. We see an article about building new school in a remote area and automatically feel happy for those children, who will get their education. However, how that might affect the lives of the students and their communities? What do we know about the quality of the education in that school? Is it really such a blessing for the child to be a part of it? Or might it have some negative implications as well?
In the last 50 years, there have appeared voices bringing out issues of a possible negative implication of formal, institutionalized education. Those voices varied in radicalism, from demands of closing school institutions to attempts to reform them to be able to cover also other paradigms of development, based on different values and incorporate also other epistemologies. Many authors prefer to use the term schooling in connection with formal education to stress the negative connotations of imposing some rules, requirements, or ideas, which might be alien to the students.
Let us see some of the most influential thoughts and think over some problematic issues within formal education.
As opposed to schooling, we may encounter the term deschooling. This term became popularized by Ivan Illich through his book Deschooling Society (1971). “Now young
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people are prealienated by schools that isolate them while they pretend to be both producers and consumers of their own knowledge, which is conceived of as a commodity put on the market in school. School makes alienation preparatory to life, thus depriving education of reality and work of creativity. School prepares for the alienating institutionalization of life by teaching the need to be taught... Deschooling is, therefore, at the root of any movement for human liberation.” (p. 28)
He claimed that contemporary school institutions are incapable to provide the best possible education, due to the fact that they are designed more to produce a conformist working mass. “Institutional wisdom tells us that children need school. Institutional wisdom tells us that children learn in school. But this institutional wisdom is itself the product of schools.” (Illich, 1971, p. 18)
Therefore, he quite radically prefers education outside institutions (deschooled), as explain Prakash and Esteva (1998), it means not only closing the school institutions, but move even beyond the institutionalization of homeschooling or other alternative forms of education; he prefers education through life experience.
Similarly, but more in reformist sense, Brazilian philosopher Paulo Freire criticized that educational institutions have no space for students’ creativity, so the education should not be only a transfer of knowledge from teacher to student. Freire is recognised as a “father” of concept of critical pedagogy, in his famous book Pedagogy of Oppressed (Freire, 1970) he claims that education, especially education of marginalized powerless people, should not be based on colonial patterns and students ought to be led to develop their own critical thinking, which would free them from political or other form of oppression.
Even if opinions of those authors are often criticized for a too utopian view, or using too simplistic binaries (Greenwood, 2009, p. 3), they remain an important inspiration for contemporary educational innovators. Especially for those who deal with education of marginalized groups, in Freire’s words the cultures of silence.
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In India, it was already Gandhi, who criticised education as a tool for oppression, he speaks especially against the derogation of rural life (Gandhi & Kumarappa, 1953). Similar thoughts were developed by Wendell Berry who thinks about the impact of education on communities, families and rural life in his essays (Berry, 1990, 1992). He warns of education dividing families, destroying community life in rural areas and becoming a threat to the rural life itself.
Another important thinker who deals with education and rural life, M. Corbett, shows in his book Learning to Leave (2007) and some other studies (2004, 2007) the problem of emptying the countryside as a possible result of contemporary education which is not sufficiently connected to place. He criticizes how education often teaches students from rural areas that their communities or places do not have anything valuable to offer them. The students, educated for the urban “ideal” life, are subsequently leaving their homes in the search for a more interesting life somewhere else instead of cultivating their home places. Corbett speaks for strengthening the concept of place- based education, which would be discussed further.
According to Prakash and Esteva (1998), education has become a modern myth. The authors, mainly inspired by the work of Illich and Gandhi, point out that the social majorities (how they aptly call people of the so-called global South) do not need to be “saved”, how it is sometimes interpreted by the rest of the world, they are capable enough to manage themselves. They claim that there is much to learn from the uneducated and illiterate people or whole communities of the South and that there is no asset in schooling them; in addition, they could become our teachers of life. Prakash and Esteva declare that they wrote their book Escaping Education (1998) as a celebration of all practices and attempts to move beyond formal, institutionalized education.
The connection between education and colonialism (in both meanings – the historical era and contemporary attempts to spread one single idea of development) is highly problematic. Education is very powerful – it could become an easy tool of any ideology to be spread over population. Obviously, it might be very beneficial on one hand.
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Education could be helpful for spreading awareness about important social and environmental issues. On the other hand, formal education can be misused as a colonial tool of cultural annihilation, as we have seen e.g. in the case of Native American people (Adams, 1995; Deyhle & Swisher, 1997; Steward, 2010). Native Canadian psychologist, Suzanne Steward (2010), who deals with indigenous ways of education, explains how the approach and policies of colonizers, and especially the education policy, led to a slow destruction of important pillars of the native Indian culture in North America and affected badly the whole well-being of the native people (248-249).
2.3 Indigenous people and traditional ecological knowledge
There are many people and communities all around the globe, we recognize as indigenous, first nations, native or tribal. Those are usually people who live close to their natural environment and depend directly on its resources, both physically and spiritually.
Nevertheless, the terms indigenity, indigenous knowledge and others are labels created by western science to describe societies and knowledge systems which are based on different cognitive methods – the cognitive others (Battiste, 2002, p. 3).
Despite the frequent use of the term traditional ecological knowledge in academic literature, there is no one single definition. Moreover, this concept and its scientific designation cannot exist on its own, since it was created in relation to so-called western knowledge, and in this sense it represent its alternative. (Bainton, 2007, pp. 26-27).
In general, we can say that traditional ecological knowledge refers to the common knowledge of a certain community which is for a long period connected to a certain place and which is usually oral-transmitted. Such knowledge reflects a specific understanding of the local ecosystems, regarding the direct contact with the natural environment for hundreds and thousands of years and sustainable practices, which
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evolved out of learning from mistakes and observation of natural processes (Berkes, 1993; Gadgil, Berkers, & Folke, 1993).
In respect to this kind of knowledge system, there are several terms, which have been used interchangeably, e.g. indigenous knowledge, local knowledge, folk knowledge, alternative knowledge (Bainton, 2007, p. 26). In my thesis, I will use mainly the terms traditional ecological knowledge and indigenous knowledge, as synonyms.
Some authors try to avoid the term traditional, because it might create an impression of being stuck in some point in history, whereas the ecological knowledge and the whole societies and lifestyles are dynamic and changes over the years. On the other hand, the term traditional also refers to the transmission of the particular knowledge from generation to generation, which is an important part of the whole process (Berkes, 1993, p. 3).
There are many voices calling against over-romanticization of the traditional ecological knowledge. Of course, not every indigenous practice could be termed as sustainable. On the other hand, sustainability was for many the only way to survive. Indigenous people were usually aware of the limits of their resources. Therefore, they developed their own strategies to survive at a place being able to maintain its biodiversity. They knew that it was important for generating the ecosystem services; it became a mode for actual survival (Gadgil, et al., 1993, p. 151).
K. K. Chakravarthy (2000) points to fact, that indigenous people are often pictured as destroyers of the biodiversity, but this view is spread mostly from the side of developers, who appeared to be even more dangerous for natural biodiversity themselves. According to B. Mitchell (1997) traditional ecological knowledge can be an important source of information for a more sustainable natural management, and may complement western science, since it might contain points which scientists could easily miss.
Many authors claim that traditional ecological knowledge has been systematically excluded from the formal education (Bainton, 2007; Battiste, 1998, 2002; Steward,
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2010), but they also show possible way how to incorporate it, mainly through the innovative concept of place-based education.
2.4 Place-based education and indigenous perspective
The term place-based education became an encompassing term, which covers broad multidisciplinary and innovative trends in education. In literature, the term includes or appears as a synonym to terms as place-conscious education, outdoor education, environmental education, ecological education, bio-regional education, community- based education and very often pedagogy of place (Woodhouse & Knapp, 2000).
According to the Woodhouse & Knapp (2000, pp. 2-3), we can define some basic characteristics of this approach, which are:
- Content specific to the geography, ecology, sociology, politics, and other dynamics of the place - Multidisciplinary approach - Broader objectives then “learn to earn” - Connection of self with place and community; ecological, multigenerational and multicultural dimensions
Although the concept of place-based education became popular recently, its principles have been known in the opinions of some thinkers for more than one century. Importantly inspiring, even for contemporary thinkers, is the work of the American philosopher, psychologist and educational reformer John Dewey (1856-1952), who criticized the isolation of schools from the real world (Smith, 2002; Woodhouse & Knapp, 2000).
David Sobel, educationalist and educator in the USA, shows in his books, many inspiring place-based projects already conducted in the USA and he gives useful suggestions for teachers, (Sobel, 2008). He deals especially with environmental education and relationship of children towards nature, therefore he sees place-based
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education and deep contact of children with nature, especially at the primary level, as crucial for living in a sustainable and content society.
The trend of place-based education became significantly (but not merely) welcomed by innovative educators, who deal with indigenous education. Trinidad (2011) uses the term critical indigenous pedagogy of place. By this term, she refers to its evolvement out of the tradition of critical pedagogy, which deals with decolonization of the education, through its subclass critical pedagogy of place, which incorporates the place, natural environment and social context, finally to the critical indigenous pedagogy of place, which is rooted in native epistemology (p. 191). “To engage with culture, critical pedagogy of place must move toward an indigenized critical pedagogy of place... Indigenization, a parallel process to decolonization and reinhabitation, brings out spatial and historical dimensions to reclaim one’s own story or past—local and global, the present, communities, cultures, languages, and social practices. This process could then become a space of resistance and hope by foregrounding indigenous knowledge, worldviews, and concerns at the center... Most important, indigenization can help youth represent their own perspectives, experiences, and histories... Critical indigenous pedagogy of place encourages youth to move toward sociopolitical development through their connection to place and the practices and responsibilities nurtured through it.” (Trinidad, 2011, p. 211shortened)
Concept of indigenous place-based education stands against cognitive imperialism (Battiste, 2002, p. 20), which offers and validates only one source of knowledge and enforces it through formal education. It represents a call for education based in roots of particular indigenous community, including their history, traditional knowledge, and language.
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3. Methodology
In my work, I use a mixed method approach, mainly qualitative with some elements of an action research. Within the qualitative approach (Mack, Woodsong, MacQueen, Guest, & Namey, 2005; Silverman & Marvasti, 2008; Yin, 2011), I use most importantly semi-structured interviews and observations, which both took place during an approximately two months-long field-research. Further, I used an analysis of other sources such as students’ questionnaires or students’ drawings. The details of each method are described below.
I would not describe my research utterly as an action research, but this approach became my inspiration, that is why I use the formulation “elements of an action research”. The authors Greenwood and Levin (2007, pp. 3-8) are against the common reduction of the action research only to a qualitative method or applying it only as an opposite to the theoretical method. They describe the action research as an approach based on participation of people, communities, or organizations, who together with the researcher search for an improvement of their primary conditions towards “a more just, sustainable or satisfying situation for the stakeholders” (p. 3). Although there are so many methods within the action research, we might see some common grounds - in the actual or “proper” action research, there would be probably a far deeper communication with locals on several levels and there would be a higher stress on the action planning (pp. 3-8.). Nevertheless, I wanted to keep in my thesis especially the focus on and the connection with the real world from this approach. I wanted to create a piece of work, which would not be based only on theories, but would examine real-people’s opinions on the situation. I wanted to seek the solutions of the problematic situations, not by myself, but together with or rather by those people. I would like to create a space for their opinions and possible suggestions, compare those with the literature and provide the whole work back to them.
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3.1 Research questions
My research had two main aims – the first one was to explore opinions of local teachers, students and other people involved in Ladakhi education, on the contradictions of formal education in Leh district. Do they perceive Ladakhi education as beneficial, or as problematic for the local society? What should be, according to them, the main aim of this education? In their opinion, is there a lack of sufficiently place-based curriculum and does a loss of traditional ecological knowledge occur? Do they feel some actual power to influence the curriculum? How do they assess the impact of education on students’ life, especially in case of nomadic students of Changthang?
My second aim was to collect potential ideas for solutions of possible problems: are there already some reformative approaches within Ladakhi education? What would the respondents suggest as solutions for problems perceived by them? What suggestions in literature would be relevant to those problems?
To answer these questions, I conducted a field research during the late summer of 2012, from the beginning of August till the beginning of October.
3.2 Field-research
The first days in Ladakh I had to overcome the altitude difference – I could barely climb a small hill, got tired easily. After some time I got used to it, but never completely. I landed in the capital city of Ladakh, Leh. The first month was mainly a matter of observation, conversation with people (locals, foreigners), getting to know the environment, and writing the field-notes.
Soon, thanks to the Czech people, who were in Leh for the La Ngonpo project1, I got to know many local teachers and some organizations and institutions dealing with
1 "The La Ngonpo project is a three-year Czech-Indian educational project, which focuses on multicultural and global education for pupils and students aged 12 – 16. The project’s focus is also to educate the 16
education in Ladakh. I also visited some schools in Leh and in villages around. During the first month I understood how important the topic of education is to the local people. In addition, I noticed the controversy in opinions of the locals on education.
Shortly after my arrival, I got a chance to visit the area of Changthang, the highly controlled borderlands with China, and started to be more interested in situation, especially the education there. Soon, I found out that the polemic on education is much greater there.
The second month of my stay in Ladakh I focused mainly on conducting the interviews, mostly at the schools with teachers, but, of course, the observation and writing down the field-notes still continued. I tried also some other activities, as drawing with students for a simple analysis, and I got a chance to see the lessons and schoolbooks.
A photographic documentation of the field-research is attached.
3.2.1 Entering the field, approaching the respondents
While entering the field, the contacts I gained beforehand were crucial. Especially those of La Ngonpo coordinators, they helped to get me oriented in the very beginning. Later on, I was able to find my own contacts on that first basis and work on my own. I must say, often I was very lucky in meeting people. The most important helping hands became the family members of the house I stayed in, which I met just by accident. Thanks to their connection with the education sphere, they helped to arrange some of the essential meetings for me.
I did not face any difficulties visiting the organizations, nor schools and interviewing teachers or students. All of them were very hospitable and open to me every time. In remote areas they even let me stay for more days, kindly offered me accommodation and food.
general Czech and European public of development issues. The main project objectives are to familiarize Czech pupils and students with development issues, encourage contact with their peers in the Indian Ladakh, and stimulate public interest in development issues. The project is implemented by the Multicultural Center Prague” (LaNgonpo, undated). 17
The language was a barrier only partially. Most of the people I met communicated in English without any problems, especially in the school environment. The problems emerged in remote areas with the local people and with some elderly in general. Due to the fact that I worked mostly with teachers I decided not to take on any translator. From time to time, when needed, I got an informal translation from people around. Only once I appeared in the situation that there was no one to help me translate.
Limited approach was only to the Changthang area, due to proximity of the Chinese border. To enter this place, one needs to apply for permission with a maximum duration of 7 days. Moreover, the permission allowed the holder to enter just selected places. Thus, this was a limiting factor, but not so problematic.
3.2.2 Being a foreigner, being a woman
Since I started to plan the research, I knew that I would have to deal with the fact of being an outsider, foreigner. Obviously, this brings many disadvantages – you are from a very different cultural background, therefore you do not understand many situations of the everyday life. As an outsider, you need to study a lot to get more familiar with the new environment, the culture and history of the new place. There is always a risk that people would treat you differently for your foreign origin, they would not talk to you as freely as they would to the local person.
On the other hand there are some advantages as well – once you are outside the country, you are (usually) not involved in the local disputes, you do not belong to any local political party, you are simply more independent, what might encourage people to talk to you more. Another important advantage of being outsider is that you are (usually) not biased by the local system. You might find it easier to think “out of a box”, explore the possibilities outside the current paradigm. And the last point, as a newcomer, you usually question everything, which might be very useful for the research.
Therefore, the fact that I have not experienced the Indian school system could be my disadvantage as well as my advantage. The disadvantage in the sense of missing the
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deeper insight, the advantage for the possibility of not being biased by that system, not thinking within it.
Ladakh is very specific region, even people from other parts of India would feel as outsiders there, because the cultural difference is almost tangible. Referring to the communication with the people, in my experience, I would say that being an outsider in Ladakh does not matter much. There are thousands of foreigners every summer and locals are used to dealing with many people travelling to Ladakh from India itself and from across the world. A foreigner is nothing special there. Maybe in remote areas there might be a reason for a short excitement. For me, the only problem for the research regarding this topic, was the fact that most of all a foreigner is perceived as a client, which might had affected some people’s behaviour.
In respect to the research, I had not experienced any difficulties of being a woman. In comparison with major parts of India, the position of women in Ladakh is more equal to men, therefore being the woman-researcher was not an issue.
3.3 Sampling
For the interviews and some other activities (students’ questionnaires, drawing sessions) I used purposive sampling (Mack, et al., 2005, p. 6). I chose to speak mostly with the teachers. It had several reasons. The teachers experience the education system first hand. I was interested in how they can (or how they cannot) influence current education system and how do they assess it. Those I spoke with were locals, sometimes they were teachers and parents in the same person. According to the place-based education, the teachers should be part of the creation of the curriculum (Smith, 2002). Therefore, I was interested how it is in Ladakh, what problems (and solutions) they might see and how do they perceive the criticism I collected during my preparation phase.
Other important categories were members of institutions, organizations and students. In detail, they are described further below, within the particular methods.
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I was not capable to cover properly the category of parents. Some of the teachers are parents as well, but I have not conducted a special meeting with parents. In the cases of the residential schools it would be problematic. In fact, I got a chance to meet the parents of nomadic children once by accident, thanks to the teachers of the nomadic residential school – unfortunately that was the moment, when there was no translator.
3.4 Methods used during the field-research
3.4.1 Observation
The observation and general talks with people, e.g. on the streets or in families I used to stay with, were a very important part of my better understanding the specifics of Ladakhi context. The fieldnotes became a very useful tool for recalling those experiences. As a part of the observation, I also participated and observed during the school classes (in nomadic residential school) and I had a chance to see the schoolbooks.
3.4.2 Interviews
Mostly, I used the semi-structured interview format (Robson, 2011, p. 270), usually one-to-one, in one particular case (described further) a focus group (Robson, 2011, pp. 283-286). The interviews were recorded, and for transcription of the audio recording, a selective writing was used (pp. 289-290). The reason was mainly the length of the interviews; therefore, I did not transcribe each sound and word of the respondent, but the main points in the whole sentences (an example of the interview is in the attachments). For an analysis of the interviews, I used a manual coding (Saldaña, 2012, p. 22).
I went to Ladakh with a set of prepared questions on development in general. Soon after my arrival, when I knew I would need to specify the topic, I started to generate new questions. During the first informal interviews on the education and traditional ecological knowledge and during the reading on this subject, I collected several
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opinions, especially critical ones, on contemporary Ladakhi education. Out of those, I created a new set of questions, what I tried to use in the interaction with members of local government in Leh and with teachers in villages near Leh. Based on their answers, the fluency of the whole interview and new questions that emerged in these pilot interviews some of the questions were changed into the final version (more or less final – the correction on the basis of the previous experience was an ongoing process). Usually I used them as a outline for the interview and I let the respondents to talk freely on the issue.
Of course, during the interaction with institutional deputies, members of organizations, teachers and students, there was a need to use specific questions in each category.
1) Teachers
As I explained before, the teachers were the most important and the most covered category during the research.
The questions I asked them could be in general divided into three parts. First, I was asking general questions about the particular school. Secondly, I asked questions about education in general (especially what should be, according to them, the aim (or aims) of the education) and particularly in Ladakh (what are, according to them, the main problems of Ladakhi education and what could be the possible solutions for those problems). In the third part, I offered them the criticisms I collected during the preparation phase and let them talk and react to it. The first critique concerned the sufficiency of local context in curriculum, the second one the traditional ecological knowledge more in general, the sub questions referred to the relationship of the students to nature and the possible appearance of superior-inferior feelings. Third critique related to the residential schools and the separation of children and families or communities. The last one dealt with emerging confusion of nomadic students, who are educated in very different, urban, lifestyle. The questions are to be seen in attachments.
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According to this pattern, 6 teachers were questioned (three at Nomadic Residential School Puga in Nyoma block, Changthang; two teachers at Centralised Residential School Tangtse located in village Tharuk in Durbuk blok, Changthang; and one teacher from partly residential-partly day boarding government school near Leh city. Some of the teachers I met only once, but most of them I met twice or more. I spent the longest time in Nomadic Residential School in Puga in Changthang, where I stayed one week. The stay in Puga was definitely one of the richest sources for this work and I will refer to that experience a lot.
The focus group mentioned before took a place in the Puga School as well. It helped me to gather the general information and understand the specifics of nomadic school. The focus group was attended by approx. five teachers (some of them used to enter and leave during the interview), but the whole discussion was held by two most active teachers, the rest was more passive.
In aim to search for possible alternatives within Ladakhi formal education, I questioned also one teacher from reformative private school in Shey, near Leh (Druk Padma White Lotus School).
2) Students
Since I worked with a group of students, I decided not to question them one by one, but use the questionnaires. I choose to compare the answers of two groups of students of approximately same age (7th and 8th class), both from Changthang. One group was from the Nomadic Residential School Puga (Nyoma block), which is attended mostly by nomadic students. The second one was from the Centralised Residential School Tangtse in Tharuk (Durbuk block), attended mostly by settled students.
In the questionnaires, they were asked to answer questions concerning their plans for future and their relationship to the Changthang area. The main objective of this activity was to find out whether some of the nomadic students would like to continue with nomadic livelihood after they finish the school, and what the future dreams of
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the students actually are in general. I also wanted to see if they would like to stay in Changthang or not.
Apart of questionnaires, another activity was conducted with the same students – a drawing session, with an aim to find out what do they value about Changthang. Both students’ activities and their results are in detail in the part 5.3.
3) NGO’s
Among the organizations, two of them were helpful for my research, especially one of them, the SECMOL, reformative organization focused on the Ladakhi education system, inspired me a lot during my work. The questions I asked them during the interview were mainly focused on the possibilities of changes in education in Leh district and their so far experiences.
The role of other organizations, such as The Women’s Alliance of Ladakh (WAL) or The Ladakh Ecological Development Group (LEDeG), was mainly inspirational; they were places of my frequent visits to study in the library or to meet interesting people.
4) Governmental level
At the state institutional level, I met members of the Hill Development Council in Leh (LAHDC, undated), especially in the Department of Education. My questions referred mainly to their visions of education, history of education there, their visions for the future and possibilities of changes.
3.5 Ethics
As the authors Mack & al. (2005) claims, the research question is of secondary importance, the top importance is the participant’s well-being (p. 9).
As the research contains controversial statements, I have decided to keep all the respondents anonymous. I use names only in the cases of institutions and children. Originally, I just wanted to change the names, but I do not want to assign some statement to an imaginary person – by accident it might be a real one. Therefore, I use 23
no names regarding the interviews and I use codes such as T1 (Teacher 1). The tables of the codes are in the chapter 5.
Naturally, I took permission for the recording of interviews from each respondent and explained my research to them clearly.
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4. Ladakh
4.1 Geography and administrative division
Ladakh (“land of high passes” in Ladakhi), which has also been called Little Tibet or Snow-land (Cunningham, 1997), is situated in north-western India and represents an eastern region of state Jammu and Kashmir. The state is bordered by China to the east and to the north, by Pakistan to the west and to the northwest, and by other Indian states, Himachal Pradesh and Punjab, to the south. The area is still unstable, because India, China and Pakistan all have their own claims to this territory which led to several military conflicts. Since Jammu and Kashmir is a disputed area, there is a significant military presence all over the state (Schofield, 2003).
Ladakh lies in the rain-shadow zone of Inner Himalaya (the average annual rainfall is 96 mm in the east and 600 mm in the west), and is therefore called “cold desert” (M. K. Bhasin, 1992, pp. 8-13). The region is composed of high-altitude mountains, lofty peaks and deep valleys. The altitude varies from 2700 up to 7620 m, we can recognize lower and upper zone (2700 – 4500 m, and over 4500 m), the climatic type is semi- arctic (M. K. Bhasin & Nag, 2002, p. 9). The normal annual temperature is 5 – 6 °C in the west and below 5 °C in the east (M. K. Bhasin, 1992, pp. 13-14), the temperature range goes from -40 to 30 °C (Behera & Vaswan, 2008). The biggest rivers are Indus, Zanskar, Shayok and Shiachen; they all flow through major valleys (V. Bhasin, 2005, p. 24).
Administratively, Ladakh is divided into two districts – Leh (the eastern one) and Kargil (the western one). This study took place in the first one. Leh district neighbours with China in the east by the line of Actual Control (with the regions of Xinjiang, Aksai Chin – disputed area, and Tibet – Xizang), with the Pakistani district of Ghanche (Gilgit- Baltistan) with the Karakoram Pass in the north, with Kargil district in the south-west, and with the regions of Lahul and Spiti of Indian state Himachal Pradesh in the south
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(map 1). Local government is represented by Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC) in both Leh and Kargil, who takes care of development policy and implementation of state orders.
The capital (and the administrative centre) of the Leh district is the town of Leh, situated at the altitude of 3,500 m (TISS & LAHDC, 2010). There are nine administrative blocs within the district: Leh, Chuchot, Khaltsi, Kharu, Nyoma, Durbuk, Saspol, Panamic, and Nubra (LAHDC, 2012). The Changthang region is represented by Nyoma and Durbuk blocks (map 3-4).
Tab 1: Population according to the blocks (LAHDC, 2012).
Population: Block: 1981 Census 2001 Census 2010 (Projected) Leh 274232 46740 58244 Chuchot 13819 17498 Kharu 6150 7063 8943 Nyoma 7320 8769 11103 Durbuk 3533 4675 5920 Nubra 10667 11951 15132 Panamic 5416 6857 Khaltsi 13287 14066 17810 Saspol 4733 5992 Total 68380 117232 148437
4.2 Society
According to the 2011 census, the total population of the district is 147,104 people living in 112 inhabited villages (Census, 2011).
2 Used to be one block. 26
In the Leh district, we can mostly meet two religions – Buddhism and Islam; the role of other religions, such as Hinduism, Sikhism or Christianity, is marginal. According to the 2001 census, there were 77% of Tibetan Buddhists in the Leh district; in addition, all of the nomadic pastoralists of Changthang follow Buddhism as well. The role of religion is still significant, even though it declined since the appearance of a secular government. Buddhist monasteries are still an important part of cultural life of Ladakhis. Once, they were the only form of institutionalized education in Ladakh; although the former habit of giving one child to the monastery is not followed as strictly anymore, monastery education still continues under the Central Institute of Buddhist Studies (CIBS).
According to the Indian administration, the population of Ladakh is mostly tribal, according to the census of 2001 (LAHDC, 2012), scheduled tribes3 represent 82% of the district population. There are several ethnic groups (tribes). Among Buddhists, the majority of population belong to the Bodh group; other groups are called Gara, Mon, Beda, Brokpa and Changpa (the inhabitants of Changthang). Further there are several Muslim groups (V. Bhasin, 1999, p. 49). Tibetan refugees represent another important minority which escaped from occupied Tibet during the Chinese invasion. Most of them were nomads who also live in the Changthang area.
Ladakhi do not keep a caste system, as we know in other parts of India. In comparison with those, Ladakhi society is quite egalitarian. However, they have some kinds of hierarchies and there are socially marginalized groups, such as Gara, Mon, or Beda (V. Bhasin, 1999).
The official languages in state Jammu and Kashmir are Urdu, Kashmiri and Dogri. However, people in the Leh district speak mostly the Ladakhi language which is also called bodhi or bhoti; they use a Tibetan script. The medium of instructions in schools is English and Ladakhi pupils have to study Urdu as well, because it is the official
3 “Scheduled tribes“ is a technical term used by Indian government to recognize particular ethnical groups of indigenous population, who (among other features) keep their own social organization and cultural specifics. Those groups were historically disadvantaged; therefore, nowadays they may enjoy some privileges, as quotas in government institutions. The Ministry of Tribal Affairs devise the policy towards the tribes (MTA, undated). 27
language of Jammu and Kashmir states; in addition, they also have to study Hindi, the official language of India, and finally their own, bodhi language.
The majority of inhabitants of the Leh district lives in villages (77% according to the 2001 census) and depends on agriculture and cattle rearing; however, this trend is declining (TISS & LAHDC, 2010, p. 7). The agriculture is concentrated in river valleys and traditionally includes crops that are well adjusted to the specific Ladakhi climate, such as barley, wheat, apricots or seabuckthorn. The livestock is composed mostly of goats, sheep, yaks, dzo (crossbreed between yak and cow), donkeys and horses.
4.3 Nomads of Changthang
Changthang represents the eastern part of the Leh district; there are two administrative blocks, Nyoma and Durbuk. Geographically, Changthang is an extension of the Tibetan plateau; it is colder and situated at a higher altitude then the rest of the Leh district. Inhabitants of Changthang are called Changpa and they could be settled or nomadic (the latter would be in the centre of our focus). Locally, they also refer to themselves according to their place of origin, and they are divided into communities, formally represented by their local governments. Nomads inhabit especially high pastures of Korzok, Rupshu and Kharnak.
Due to the harsh climate conditions in these areas, it is almost impossible to cultivate crops here; therefore, people of this region developed a strategy of nomadic herding. They move several times a year with their tent (rebo), traditionally made from yak wool. They rear goats, sheep, yaks, horses and donkeys, and they usually keep a dog to protect the herds. They use animal products for themselves; trade is also an important part of their livelihood. As M. Ahmed explains (2004), earlier nomads used to trade salt and wool of sheep, but after the closure of the Chinese border, they have focused on pashmina wool. Once, Tibetan pashmina used to be the most favourable one; however, the prices of pashmina rose dramatically after the Chinese intervention and the nomads of Changthang made use of that.
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As Sarah K. Goodal shows (Goodall, 2004a, 2004b), pashmina is a highly valued article, therefore nomadic and partly-nomadic livelihood could be profitable and nomads does not have to live in economically worse conditions than others. Their occupation could be risky due to sudden changes of weather but, in general, they are able to achieve a relatively high living standard. Despite that, a tremendous out-migration takes place in nomadic areas – many families are moving to the urban area around the capital. Goodal claims that the migration is self-perpetuating and has many reasons; for instance, the lack of social services – especially education – has been mentioned. The migrants around the city usually try to get any job available, and they are often exploited as a cheap labour force. There are consequences for nomadic communities in Changthang as well – erosion of social support network that only leads to more migration. Goodal claims that such situation is not necessary; she sees the improvement of social services in nomadic areas, especially education, and a mitigation of risks as key elements of a possible solution (Goodall, 2004b).
4.4 Recent changes within Ladakhi society
Society of Ladakh went through tremendous changes during the second half of the 20th century, especially after the integration into Jammu And Kashmir State in 1947. Even though Ladakh used to be an important regional trading place for caravans, especially between Tibet and Kashmir, it seldom came into contact with the rest of the world. Ladakhi society and its culture evolved within harsh environmental conditions of high altitude mountains. People of Ladakh developed sustainable livelihoods based mainly on agriculture and cattle rearing while carefully managing their resources (M. K. Bhasin & Nag, 2002). Cooperation played a crucial role within communities; for instance, it helped them build a sophisticated irrigation system that transports water from glaciers to fields. With limited resources, Ladakhis also adopted habits which helped them to keep the population steady, as polyandry or dedicating one child of each family to a monastery.
The situation started to change after Indian Independence of 1947 when they became part of the Jammu and Kashmir state; local traditions had to adapt to new laws and 29
administration, such as laws concerning inheritance of land or abolition of polyandry marriages, and government employment was introduced (M. K. Bhasin & Nag, 2002). The role of religion, until then one of the most important social factors, declined under the secular governance. Traditionally, Ladakh used to be culturally bonded with Tibet (Buddhist monks used to go for a monastic education to Tibetan monasteries); the end of it came in 1949 when China attacked Tibet. Subsequent Indo-Chinese war in 1962 led to a closure of the border which also affected pastoralists from Changthang, as we will see further on. Strategic position of Ladakh between Pakistan and China and several conflicts on borders strengthened the need of a military presence, which brought about other rapid changes, such as the introduction of a new infrastructure and of other communication channels, or strengthening the trade with commodities from different parts of India. From the point of view of contemporary Ladakhis I met, the army and the government brought about many improvements and benefits; on the other hand, the locals were aware that it also had many side effects, like pollution, that were until practically unknown before.
Other important factor in the rapid process of globalization was the opening of Ladakh for tourism in 1974. Many development projects were introduced on the policy level, as well as on the level of NGO’s. Those factors and their often unplanned consequences led to changes in a traditional society, such as changes in a population dynamics, a shift from self-sufficient economies towards a commercial sphere, a shift in socio-cultural values, and, according to some authors, also to changes in communal harmony of Ladakhi people (M. K. Bhasin & Nag, 2002; Norberg-Hodge, 1991). M. K. Bhasin claims that the two most important driving factors of those changes were education and massive proliferation of job opportunities offering cash earning (V. Bhasin, 1999, p. 19).
There are some local organizations which try to mitigate the negative impacts of ongoing globalization. The Ladakh Ecological Development Group (LEDeG), The Women’s Alliance of Ladakh (WAL), and The Students' Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh (SECMOL) are among the most active ones. The last one deals with education in particular; we will look at its activities further in the text later on. 30
4.5 Education in Ladakh
Education in Ladakh is a part of an Indian educational system. In India, there are public and private educational institutions, controlled on national, state and regional basis. Schooling is divided into different levels: pre-primary, primary, secondary, higher secondary, undergraduate and postgraduate (term elementary usually concerns the compulsory education (age 6 – 14), but it varies especially in spoken language – in Ladakh, terms primary (1st-5th class) and middle schools (6th-8th) are among the ones that are used most often). Education in India falls within the purview of the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Department of School Education and Literacy (MHRD, undated).
Curriculum on a national level is formulated by The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT, undated). On a state level, there are state boards; for Ladakh, it is Jammu and Kashmir State Board of School Education (JKBOSE, undated), which controls education within a particular state and prints state schoolbooks based on the national curriculum. Regionally, education is controlled by Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC, undated) in Leh.
Education is mentioned in the Indian constitution as a fundamental right; the actual implementation was described quite recently – in 2002 within the Article 21-A and in 2009 in the Right to Education Act. This act defines the compulsory education for all children from 6 to 14 years. A program for implementation (Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan – Education for All) was also established; it focuses on interventions for enhancement of enrolment (SSA, undated). Under this scheme, many schools were built in Ladakh.
As explained by the Deputy Chief Education Officer in Leh, first schools appeared in Ladakh around Indian Independence (1947); these schools had a capacity to hold approximately 50 students. Nowadays (school year 2011-12), there are 350 schools; 41 of them are private (LAHDC, 2012, p. 129). The total number of enrolled students for the school year of 2011-12 at the compulsory level is 8,253; the Deputy Chief Education Officer in Leh estimates that it makes 99% of all children in Ladakh, but we lack the exact data to confirm that. 31
Government education is free (with only minimal fees for admission, sports or health) and the government provides necessary facilities and free midday meals. Government teachers are of two kinds – permanent ones (contractual) and general line teachers, who have to be transferred each three years (in particular cases after two years). The general line teachers have usually higher qualification (college degree) and significantly higher salary.
Examination is an important part of the Indian education system. Exams are conducted annually on several levels. At a national level, there are two exams – in class 10th and 12th, this examination is controlled mainly by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE, undated) and a state board, which also controls the board examination for class 8th.
4.5.1 Central Institute of Buddhist Studies
Buddhist monastic education has a long tradition in Ladakh. The Central Institute of Buddhist Studies (CIBS) was established in 1959 and it currently provides education from primary to university level (for more than 2 thousand students, according to the headmaster). The main objective of CIBS is to develop students’ personalities according to the Buddhist philosophy. They are completely funded by the Ministry of Culture of India and their headquarters are located in Choglamsar near Leh. The CIBS control all the monastery schools in Ladakh and provide education for monks and nuns, as well as laymen. They do not have to follow official Jammu and Kashmir state curriculum and they are supervised by Sanskrit University in Varanasi.
4.5.2 Critique and reforms
Within the literature, there are not many voices which would question the actual meaning, form or impact of education in Ladakh. There are only few authors who challenge its very basis (Bainton, 2007; Dana, 2007; Norberg-Hodge, 1991). Those authors criticise Ladakhi education for not being sufficiently grounded in local context and not having a goal apart from enabling students to get a job. They also criticise that
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children are losing their valuable traditional knowledge and that traditional practices are seen as something backward.
Among the locals, the main critic of formal education is the SECMOL organization, The Students' Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh (SECMOL, 2006).
The SECMOL was established in 1988 by Ladakhis and its objective was to reform the government education. During the time the SECMOL was founded, there was an incredibly high failure rate in 10th class exams. The medium of instructions was Urdu – the official language of Jammu and Kashmir, too unfamiliar for most of Ladakhis – and there was literally nothing Ladkahi-specific in schoolbooks. The SECMOL started cooperation with the local government and introduced the Operation New Hope in 1994. During this program, some new locally based schoolbooks for primary classes were published, the medium of instructions was changed to English and students started to get better results in the examination. Moreover, several trainings for teachers were conducted within the framework of the Operation New Hope and communities were involved in the control of schools by establishing the Village Education Committees. This cooperation had to stop in 2007 when the SECMOL came into a conflict with the government. The SECMOL had to withdraw from the public sphere and was forbidden to work on education reforms4.
Nowadays, the SECMOL runs its own education centre near the Phey village not far from Leh. They admit students who fail in the 10th class exams and provide them paid education for one year, after which they can try again. Nevertheless, the education at the SECMOL campus does not cover syllabus requirements only. The whole campus is built from local materials, using low-cost traditional techniques and passive solar energy, and it is constructed in the Ladakhi traditional design. A garden for vegetable and fruit growing and a small farm for animal breeding are also parts of the campus. Apart from studying, students are a part of everyday work at the campus; they take
4 The actual nature of the conflict is unclear. Some of the teachers I met thought that it was due to the SECMOL became too investigative into the local government’s work, and the rest of people I spoke with did not know or did not want to explain the core of the conflict. 33
care of solar energy, farming, milking cows and many other responsibilities. From time to time, students are also involved in projects with nearby communities.
5. Results of the research
The aim of the research was to examine whether, and to what extent, the respondents are aware of the before mentioned discrepancies within Ladakhi education and what their opinions on it are. Subsequently, they were asked whether they can see some solution, potentially who should come up with, and implement one.
Ladakhi education is not a static entity. It is a dynamic process of constant evolution, and by word evolution I certainly do not mean only a unidirectional process. It is a flow of changes and if we want to discuss its problems, we should be aware of the dynamics. Good example is the issue of the schoolbooks, in Ancient Futures Helena Norberg-Hodge (1991) explains how extremely unrelated to local conditions the books are:
“There is almost nothing Ladakhi about it. Once, while visiting a classroom in Leh, I saw a drawing in textbook of a child’s bedroom that could have been in London or New York. It showed a pile of neatly folded handkerchiefs on a four-poster bed and gave instructions as to which drawer of the vanity unit to keep them in.” (p. 72)
Norberg-Hodge wrote that criticism before the Operation New Hope was introduced. During that time, when SECMOL used to work together with the government, there were some Ladakhi related schoolbooks published. Of course, it is only a matter of some classes and subjects, but it means things are not being stuck, there have been some changes, mostly thanks to the initiative of SECMOL. We have seen that changes are possible and further we will see that there is still a great potential for further changes, and we will discuss what kind of improvements would be the most desired for the future.
The structure of the whole interview is in the attachment.
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The core of the research were interviews with teachers from different government schools: government nomadic residential school in Changthang (T1-3), general government day-boarding and residential school in Changthang (T4-5), general government day-boarding and residential school in capital city Leh (T6). Their answers represent the main part of this chapter.
Tab 2: Table of the core interview partners – teachers of government schools.
1. T1 Teacher 1 Changthang, Nomadic Residential School Puga 2. T2 Teacher 2 Changthang, Nomadic Residential School Puga 3. T3 Teacher 3 Changthang, Nomadic Residential School Puga 4. T4 Teacher 4 Changthang, Centralised Residential School Tangtse 5. T5/M1 Teacher 5/Monk 1 Changthang, Centralised Residential School Tangtse 6. T6 Teacher 6 Government school in Leh
In addition, specific questions (mostly regarding the distinctive character of each institution) were asked as well of a teacher of private school near Leh (T7), a group of teachers at Puga (FG), the headmaster of the institution which covers the monastic education (M2), a member of education department of the local government LAHDC (O), and to member of SECMOL organization (N). Their answers appear at relevant places of this chapter.
Tab 3: Table of other important respondents.
7. T7 Teacher 7 DPWL School in Shey, Private School near Leh 8. FG Focus group of teachers Changthang, Nomadic Residential School Puga 9. M2 Monk 2 Central Institute of Buddhist Studies, near Leh 10. O Officer LAHDC Deputy Chief Education Officer, Leh 11. N NGO member SECMOL, NGO near Leh
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5. 1 Interviews: part 1
In the first of the total three parts of the interview, we talked about the specifics of each school or institution. The state curriculum is followed by most, except schools under the Central institute of Buddhist Studies. Only the Nomadic Residential School in Puga is almost entirely nomadic, in other schools we may find few nomadic students, but they are not the majority. The school in Puga Valley is also the only school, which is situated in an uninhabited area. The nearest settlement is approx. at 7 km distance.
Let us focus now on the government schools (respondents T1 – T6). All of the teachers were Ladakhi, two of them local to the particular region of the school. In the beginning, I was interested in their relation to their profession. The teachers were asked whether they liked their job and to tell their reasons. Obviously, the honesty of such answer is questionable; on the other hand, from other reactions throughout the interview, from their enthusiasm or laxity, I would say they answers were honest. Only one female teacher from the sample (T3) answered she does not like her job. She had been posted in Puga Valley as a permanent teacher; it means she does not get the transfer after each three years. Therefore, her reasons were the distance from home, loneliness of the place, and boredom.
Others answered that they liked their job. For two of them it was due to the fact they were local to the particular region and they enjoyed working for people from their home-place. Another teacher from Puga, originally from a village near Leh, stated, he liked his work especially due to good students and beautiful natural environment of the area.
The examples of our respondents show that there are teachers, who are keen on teaching, and as we will see further, interested in possibilities of changes. Being local to a particular region (not only Ladakhi in general), seems to be an important factor of satisfaction of the work.
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5.2 Interviews: part 2
Three main points were explored within the second part of interview – perceived positive and negative sides of the Ladakhi education, and an ideal goal of education according to the respondents.
1) Positive assessment
After the introductory conversation about the school and teacher’s role, we moved towards more general questions about education, with special focus on the Leh district, and areas of particular schools. Before talking about problems, I wanted to start from the bright side of the Ladakhi education. Therefore, teachers were asked to talk about the benefits of education in Ladakh (Leh district particularly), and what, according to them, goes well. However, starting from a positive point of view was somehow difficult – very often teachers started to talk about the problems already in this part, or even before in the introductory part. It was clear that the problems are an important issue for them.
All of the interview partners mentioned, among the best things about Ladakhi education, its constant improvement in terms of the educational institutions and curriculum (at least until the end of cooperation with SECMOL). It means that according to respondents there were quite enough school buildings, facilities, teachers, or books. Education is available for all, there is almost 100% enrolment and there is higher awareness about the importance of education among parents. Regarding Changthang, one teacher pointed out, that the most beneficial thing for this region is that there was no privatization of education, because he considered privatization harmful.
Obviously, the objective of this question was (apart from finding what the teachers actually appreciate about Ladakhi education), whether they would mention, and therefore value, some integration of traditional ecological knowledge or place-based activities. Two of them did. Both mentioned that one of the greatest benefits of education in Ladakh is emergence of local leaders, and most of all local teachers. They
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see local teachers, especially on the regional and sub regional level, as crucial for further development of education. Both of those teachers who mentioned this were from Durbuk block, one commented on this issue: “Those staffs (local to particular region) are taking more responsibility and showing more initiatives, that’s how to develop the schools.” The same person was the only one who mentioned introduction of local context related subjects into the curriculum as beneficial, namely the local language, through which students can learn about local culture and ethics.
The opinion of the Deputy Chief Education Officer in Leh on this point was interesting. He answered by enumerating only the material improvements, in terms of school buildings, facilities, numbers of teachers, or enrolment.
2) Problems
While exploring the main perceived problems of the Ladakhi education, an interesting contradiction came out. The only person who assured me there were no problems in the Ladakhi education was the officer from the Education Department in Leh. The rest of the respondents claimed there were many problems, regarding the curriculum and its content, the management together with the question of autonomy, and in one case the impact of education on society. Most common criticism in respect of the curriculum and its content was that the teaching was too theoretical and abstract, and there was low support of local language.
The problems with the language were mentioned mostly in Changthang, where children are not exposed to English to same extent as children in Leh. Therefore, even when the teachers are obliged to teach in the English language, they often have to translate the school tasks into the mother tongue, otherwise the kids would not be able to understand. Together with criticism of the lack of space for the local language, teachers mentioned the deficit of education about local culture and values.
Another critique, which regarded the insufficiently local-based curriculum in the connection with ending the cooperation of the government with SECMOL, was about implementation of only those schoolbooks, which were available on the market. A
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teacher from Durbuk (T5) commented on that: “But SECMOL had the only education system to go with. There are so many changes in syllabus – sometimes J&K instructions come, sometimes LAHDC, sometimes NGO’s. There is no continuity... Unnecessary changes are very difficult. They (local government) implement immediately everything what they find in the market. This is not good. It is very nice idea to introduce nursery, but the small children, who came newly to this world, they don’t have any pictures from their natural environment (in their books), they have pictures of buildings they have never seen. Or animals, he has never seen elephant! And other things, you know. They have seen the yak, and the horse, the goat, and the donkey, but they don’t have them on the pictures, on the pictures there are another things. They don’t go to the families, to the communities... That’s unfortunate.”
The same teacher, and one more from Leh (T6), spoke about reasons of this situation, according to them the not-local-based approach was rooted in the lack of real autonomy. The teacher from Durbuk block (T5) in Changthang stated: “Why government of India did give LAHDC specially for Ladakh? They have autonomy, but they just build roads, infrastructure, material level. Any kind of government can do that. Where is the autonomy? There should be promoting of the culture, identity.” The lack of autonomy was seen as a reason also for some problems of the management, as planning of the school year, which had to go according to the state instructions.
Another teacher in Changthang (T2) mentioned privatization as the main problem of the Ladakhi education. It excludes Changthang, where are no private schools, but according to him, it creates many problems in the rest of the region. Elites, including the government officers, prefer to put their children into the private schools and therefore the government schools are on the edge of their interest, and they are slowly declining.
Other criticisms of the management were more technical, such as uneven distribution of facilities (schools in Leh have more of these than in Changthang), problems with transfers of teachers (reliever is sent too late), low specialization of teachers (they have to be able to teach every subject, according to the needs of the new place), and
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lots of extra work for teachers instead of teaching. One teacher (T4), local to the region of his school in Changthang, stated that he would prefer to stay at one place without the three-year transfer; because as a local he enjoys to work with children from his home region and over the years he built a good relationship with them, while in the new place they would have to work again from the beginning. However, according to him, most of the teachers prefer to be transferred to the city.
The only criticism of the impact of education on the Ladakhi society came from one of the teachers from the Nomadic Residential School in Puga (T1). It is to be mentioned that he was an enthusiastic and innovative teacher, seeking new methods and possibilities of teaching. According to him, Ladakhi society was changing from cooperative communities with no notion of poverty towards individualistic society of money-minded profit-seekers, where people without government paid job feel inferior. “Earlier, Ladakhis depended only on self-sufficient agriculture. They only cultivated for themselves, not for profit. People were very nice and good. Now if you see in Leh, money-minded peoples. In the 20km-radius around Leh city, nobody wants to be a farmer or cultivate, everybody wants to get education and do the government job. During my childhood, I saw many cattle, goats, sheep, yaks, and dzo. I saw in my own family also. Now everything is finished. In my village, everybody is now selling those things, now people depend only on jobs. Even those people who have large lands, even they don’t cultivate, they say it is not good for profit. Now these changes are also coming to Changthang area. Most of the nomadic people want to live in Choglamsar and want to do jobs. Getting education makes people want more profit; we can also say it makes them selfish.”
3) Goals of education
Regarding the ideal goal of education, teachers were asked to answer two crucial questions: what should the goal (goals) of education be, and what the most important things are that students can learn in their particular school. These two questions were chosen intentionally and were asked in opposite order – to see whether the answers would differ.
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Tab 4: Answers of government teachers: Main goals of education.
What should be, according to you, the goal (goals) of education? T1 To learn how to communicate with others To learn how to live up-to-date with the outer world Understand natural environment T2 To become a responsible person T3 Lean to read and write T4 To develop personality Education should be meaningful - helpful for the student himself and for society T5/M1 To develop one's potential in the limited time we have on the planet Earth T6 To broaden the mind of people How to be humanistic Open student's own creative mind To learn important principles for life
Tab 5: Answers of government teachers. The most important things students can learn at particular school.
What are the most important things students can learn in your school? T1 Learn how to live together (at the hostel) Motivation for the future (does not matter whether you get a job or not) T2 Possibility of a life-style change and getting a job T3 Make nomads more effective and efficient for their life Mathematics T4 Discipline, manners Learn how to live together (at the hostel) T5/M1 No answer T6 Good academic knowledge
We can see that the general goals differed significantly from the teachers’ assumptions of what students actually got from the particular schools. Most of the ideal general goals concerned development of the human personality, which was not seen in the second set. This result corresponds with observation and other
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conversations with a number of Ladakhis during my stay. Many people, including some of the research sample, claimed discontentedly that there is no other objective in the state education apart from getting a government job. When I asked about the aim of education at LAHDC, I just got the answer that “Education is very important”. The same sentence that I heard from Teacher 3 at first, and some other people in Leh. When the officer elaborated on the statement, he said that the most important thing is to teach children “to work hard”. In my opinion, it is to be considered unfortunate when even at the policy-making level there is no clear concept of education goals.
In contrast, a private school teacher, the headmaster of monastery education, and a member of SECMOL organization reacted immediately and it was apparent that they thought about it earlier and that their institution has settled the goals. For the private school, the goals were to develop the personality of a child, not only by studying, but also by extra activities, to support his leadership skills and responsibility, and to set the balance between modern education and traditional Ladakhi culture. For SEMCOL, the aims were expressed in so-called Three Hs: bright head, skilled hands, kind heart. For the headmaster of monastery education, the goal of education was to become a proper and good human being, independently of what you possess, and to develop Buddhist values.
Before we continue with the results of interviews with adults and focus on particular issues of local-based education and the role of traditional ecological knowledge, let us explore in a short intermezzo some viewpoints of students.
5. 3 Activities with the students
Besides interviewing adults, two other extra activities were done with students – brief questionnaires and drawing sessions.
Those activities were conducted with two groups of students – first one at Nomadic Residential School Puga (the Nyoma block), second at a government school in Tharuk (the Durbuk block). These two schools were chosen for comparison because both of
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them lie in Changthang area; however, the first one is attended mostly by nomadic students, while the second one is frequented mostly by settled students.
1) Questionnaires
Students were asked to write down their name, age and place of origin. Then, they were asked to answer three questions:
1) What would you like to do after you finish your studies? (Tab 6:1, 7:1)
2) Do you want to stay in Changthang? (Tab 6:2, 7:2) Explain why yes/why not/and if not – where would you like to stay?
3) What do you miss in your school?
This activity had multiple objectives: to find out whether some of the nomadic children would like to continue with nomadic life, or, in general, what their actual hopes for the future are; to find out what their relationship to their home place is and what they value about it; and, in last question, to explore what they lack in the residential school, whether it be family, some facilities or something else.
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Tab 6: Answers of nomadic children from Nyoma block (1. What would you like to do after you finish your studies? 2. Do you want to stay in Changthang?).
Students' questionnaire: Nomadic Residential School Puga (10/9/2012) Name Age From 1. 2. Tsering Dolma 17 Korzok teacher yes Stanzin Tharchen 14 Korzok doctor yes Tashi Tsering 15 Korzok doctor yes Jigmal Dolma 13 Korzok doctor yes Tsering Chuskit 12 Korzok teacher yes Skarma Tashi 17 Korzok teacher yes Tsering Lamo 13 Angkung teacher no Skalzang Tsering 13 Korzok teacher yes Stanzing Jigtal 15 Korzok teacher yes
Skalzang Tashi 16 Korzok teacher yes Skarma Gurmet 14 Korzok headmaster yes
Chemat Dolker 14 Korzok teacher yes
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Tab 7: Answers of settled children from Durbuk block (1. What would you like to do after you finish your studies? 2. Do you want to stay in Changthang?).
Students' questionnaire: Government school in Tharuk (22/9/2012) Name Age From 1. 2. Stanzin Namgyal 16 Laga director yes Padma Lanzes 14 Durbuk teacher yes Dorjay Namgyal 15 Tharuk ? yes Sonam Chuba 13 Phobrang doctor yes Dorjay Gyaltson 13 Durbuk soldier yes Tsewang Gyaltson 16 Maan teacher yes Skarma Gyaltson 15 Phobrang soldier yes Padma Norgay 14 Tangtse army officier yes Padma Dolker 14 Shachukul great doctor yes Tashi Spalzes 14 Durbuk doctor yes Tsering Dolker 12 Durbuk doctor yes Stanzin Gyalpo 15 Merak doctor yes Stanzin Lawang 13 Merak doctor yes Jigmat Angmo 15 Muklab teacher yes
Spalzes Angmo 14 Phobrang teacher yes
In total, 27 students were participating, 12 from the Nyoma block (mostly nomadic), 15 from the Durbuk block (mostly settled). All of them were students of 7th and 8th grade; age varied according to the year of their admission and possible repetitions of classes.
As we can see in tables 6 and 7, none of them would like to live as a nomad, while all of them – even all of the nomadic children – dream about becoming either a teacher or a doctor, or, in the case of students from the Durbuk block, about joining the army.
The second question also yielded interesting results. All of the children, with only one exception of one girl from an already settled family, would like to stay in their home area in Changthang. When children were asked to explain their reasons, both groups
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gave similar answers. The students from the first group would like to stay because Changthang is beautiful (8 out of 12 students), clean (2 students) or their home place (2 students); because there are animals who give them food and wool (2 students), Black-necked Cranes5 (1 student) or baths6 (1 student); or because Changthang is big (1 student) and they are happy there (1 student). The one girl who did not wanted to stay in Changthang wrote that the life there was too difficult.
The students from the second group brought out similar reasons – because Changthang is beautiful (10 out of 15 students) or because it is clean (they mentioned less polluted air and water and no noise pollution in particular – 10 students); because they were born there (9 students, one mentioned as a reason that his neighbours lived there); because there is pashmina wool (2 students); or because the people of Changthang are peaceful (1 student).
Even though all of the students got the same instructions, the last question was understood differently in each group. They were asked to write down what they miss in school and told that they can write anything – people, facilities, animals and so on. In the first group of nomadic children, all of them mentioned their family members. Two of them wrote that they missed the lake7, one student mentioned animals – goats and sheep – while other mentioned gonpa, local monastery.
In the second group, they wrote down only school facilities, such as laboratory or computers. None mentioned his or her parents and 8 students wrote that they did not miss anything.
2) Drawing session
Drawing session was attended by the same students as the previous activity, except for one girl from nomadic school who fell sick. The topic of their drawing was this:
5 Black-necked Crane – a legally protected crane which inhabits the Tibetan plateau. 6 Baths – there are several hot springs in Changthang. 7 Tso Moriri – a large lake in Korzok. 46
according to you, what are the most important things (what you love) in Changthang? Miniatures of all the drawings are attached.
I decided to use this simple activity mainly because I wanted to see and compare pictures of nomadic and settled children from the same area (Changthang). I was curious as to whether certain patterns from the nomadic way of life (as tents or animals) would appear in drawings of nomadic students; in other words, whether they found them important and valuable. On the other hand, I wanted to see what became important for settled children of Changthang – whether they would draw nature as such and, potentially, how they would describe their relationship with the environment. Also, I wanted to see whether they would put their school in the picture as well.
Students were instructed to draw what they found important in Changthang or what they really loved in that area. It could have been anything – nature, places, people, institutions, things, activities, tales etc. On the other side of the paper, they had to write down their name, age, and from which area they came from. After the drawing was done, they had to explain in words (on the other side of the paper) what is on the picture and why it is important to them.
The results are quite interesting. The drawings of nomadic children were significantly different from the drawings of settled ones. The common feature was the landscape of Changthang – high mountains, green pastures and a stream flowing down the mountain. The most common topics of nomadic children were animals and nomadic life. Among animals, they drew both wild (snow leopard, black-necked crane) and domesticated ones (sheep, goats, horses, yaks, donkeys, dogs). 9 students (out of 11) drew their tent (rebo). 5 children drew people – their family members. The girl who is settled drew a house instead of a tent, as well as a field, but the landscape was the same. In the description, they spoke a lot about the use of animals and the importance of their products as pashmina wool, milk and cheese.
As expected, there were no elements of nomadic life in drawings of children from settled families. The landscape of pictures remained more or less the same, but there 47
were houses (12 out of 15 students), as well as fields, roads and cars (3 students). The animals remained an important topic (3 students did not draw any animal). Two drawings were very different from the others – one was a large picture of the Pangong lake8, another displayed a single yak. Within the description, they also mentioned the importance of tourism for their region.
No one drew a school.
3) Interpretation
It is obvious that these activities have a limited information value – children worked in groups and discussed everything and they probably influenced one another. On the other hand, there are some valuable outcomes.
I find it very interesting that not a single nomadic child from our sample would like to continue with a nomadic way of life (or so they said in the questionnaires), even though all of them drew it in the picture of what they found important or what they loved in Changthang. Each of them dreams of future that is different from being a nomad, of something that will be very hard to achieve in Changthang. On the other hand, it is clear that they love that region, or at least most of them do. They appreciate the beauty of the landscape and the clean environment which they would hardly find in the city. Changthang represents the home for them – they were born there and they value it.
Interviews: part 3
In the last part of the interview, the respondents were confronted with four critical statements and several sub statements on Ladakhi education, which they were supposed to express their opinion on. The critical statements dealt with the place-base education in the Ladakhi context from different, but interconnected viewpoints. First two criticisms were more general, regarding the situation in whole Leh district
8 Pangong lake – a large lake in Durbuk block. 48
(embodiment of the local-based curriculum and the role of traditional ecological knowledge in education), the other two referred more specifically to nomadic context (education as a factor dividing families and communities, and the confusion of nomadic children).
1) Curriculum
The first criticism regarded the insufficient coverage of local culture and environment in the curriculum. Additional question was asked specifically about the space for the local language in the curriculum. In the summary table (Tab 8) we can see prevalent opinions of government teachers.
Tab 8: Summary table of opinions of government teachers on criticism that there is not enough space for local culture, environment (a) and language (b) in curriculum (↑ - there is enough space, ↓ - there is not enough space, should be covered more).
Critique 1: a b T1 ↓ ↓ T2 ↓ ↓ T3 ↑ ↓ T4 ↓ ↓ T5 ↓ ↓ T6 ↓ ↓
Prevalent majority of government teachers think there is not enough space for local culture and environment in the curriculum with only one exception (Tab 8, a). Teachers in the interview appraised positively the former cooperation of the government and SECMOL and the creation of some local-based books. Nevertheless, most of them think it is still not enough, especially at the nursery and primary levels. Specific situation is at the private school and SECMOL, where they try to compensate this situation by introducing their own extra activities.
All of the teachers from our sample thought there was not enough space for local language (Tab 8, b). They see language as a main component of Ladakhi culture, and they agree that at least at the nursery and primary levels students should be taught in the local language. On the other hand, some teachers mentioned the importance of 49
knowing English and the problem of state exams, which are currently conducted in English.
The stress on the local language and Buddhist culture are the main differences of monastery and secular state education. The headmaster of the Central Institute of Buddhist Studies thought that “localization” of the curriculum is highly important and needed, but he did not belief the change was possible in the “modern” education system. He said about the language: “For example, if you see family in Tibetan language, there are so many names for family members! English doesn’t have enough. This kind of names we are losing, we are forgetting the names and relationships. That keeps people far from their relatives. For sake of that it is very much important to give them their own language.”
Even if the teachers had seen these problems and had considered them as important and serious, when I asked them about solutions, they became quite helpless. Teachers did not feel any actual power to change or influence the curriculum structure. The power they saw in the local government. Most of the teachers pointed out that the change should come from LAHDC itself. The officer from LAHDC Education Department admitted they possessed some power; on the other hand, he did not share the view that there is not enough space for Ladakhi context.
Another barrier to introduction of a more local-specific curriculum is the state examination, which does not allow more modifications of syllabus. Therefore, we see that this is more a question of Indian educational politics as a whole. From another point of view, we have already seen changes in the favour of more autonomy in the Ladakhi education, which was achieved by the government together with SECMOL, as the change of the medium of instructions. Thus, changes are possible, but there needs to be will from the side of the local government.
2) Traditional Ecological Knowledge
The critical statements about the possible loss of traditional ecological knowledge, relationship to nature and perception of traditional practices as backward, brought
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heterogeneous reactions. Those critiques are so interdependent they were put into one thematic block.
Tab 9: Summary table of opinions of government teachers on criticism that in the school, children are forgetting the traditional ecological knowledge (a), that education can create feeling traditional practices are backward (b), and that children are losing their relationship to nature (c) due to school education (↑ - there is no such problem, ↓ - it is problematic, it needs change, ↕ - school has positive as well as negative impact, ─ cannot say, no answer).
Critique 2: a b C T1 ↑ ─ ↓ T2 ↑ ─ ↑ T3 ↑ ↑ ─ T4 ↓ ↕ ↑ T5 ↓ ─ ↕ T6 ↓ ↓ ↕
In the first section (Tab 9, a), which regards the criticism that children are forgetting traditional ecological knowledge, we can see an exact half-half division of opinions. One part of the teachers thought that children get enough traditional knowledge from their parents and they do not forget: “Here they are passing parents to child, in Changthang. Here are no medical facilities as compared to Leh, that is why they keep for any medical purpose the traditional doctors, amchi. And also using some herbal medicine, they know which one is used for what purpose. And even child also knows that. Two days back, when we came from Leh, I just questioned student: Why are these horses so fat? One of the girls studying in sixth class, she answered me that in these days, after summer, they have enough grass to eat, that’s why they’re fat, after winter they’re looking thin, due to the lack of grass. After that I knew that they have some knowledge about all these things. From parents it’s enough.” (T1)
The other part considered the loss of traditional ecological knowledge as problematic. When I asked the teacher from Tangtse whether he thought traditional knowledge should be a part of education, he answered: “Definitely. Once, some researcher from Mumbai came to observe the monastery students. She used to stay with one family. For her it was very special, because the mother of the family milked cows, made 51
butter, cheese, grew vegetables... The observer was from huge city, she didn’t know these things. She wanted to learn that! If students can milk the cows, make butter, grow vegetables... It should be part of the education; it should be part of their life!” (T5)
Some teachers claimed that some part of local knowledge is already taught, but only theoretically, not practically.
For those who see this criticism as relevant, the feeling of helplessness is very similar as in the previous section. They see themselves powerless; they think the government should bring in the change and they see the barrier in the standardized examination.
The crucial problem regarding traditional ecological knowledge is an emergence of possible feelings of superiority and inferiority, when traditional practices are seen as inferior. Teachers were asked what they thought about contribution of schools to such problem (Tab 9, b). Some of them answered neutrally – they did not want to assess that. The others claimed that it depended on particular school and teachers. Moreover, according to them it also depended on the approach of the parents. Only one teacher admitted that such feelings could emerge from the state curriculum. The headmaster of the Buddhist institute thought that those feelings become problematic when people start to overestimate the value of material wealth.
From the reactions on the criticism that children are losing relationship with nature due to school (Tab 9, c), it was obvious that out of the school the nature is not understood as something separated from one’s life. As the representative of the Buddhist institute explained to me, in their traditional understanding, everything is interconnected. The very concept of nature is taught only at the school level. “They are taught what nature is” (T4). Therefore, relationship to nature is a very new expression, in Ladakhi traditional understanding, nature is part of one’s self. Building a relationship is possible only when you abstractly separate it, as it is done in schools nowadays.
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Only one teacher, from the Nomadic Residential School, agreed with the criticism: “Obviously. Yeah, I think it’s maybe effect on child. Because he’s far away from his home, he gets education and he might think ‘No, I don’t want to stay in that area, I want to spent my life in urban areas’. So yes, it’s also effect.” (T1)
However, teachers mentioned that there are new challenges in Ladakh nowadays, which had not been there before. Challenges as pollution or climate change, which came with the introduction of new technologies, and education is crucial to handle those new situations. We touched this topic also during the focus group at the Nomadic Residential School in Puga: “Nomads don’t know... They have no environmental awareness.” (T2); “Earlier they used leather, leather bags for carrying, cloth bags. Now recently, everything comes in plastic, nomads are also polluted by this. They don’t know how to keep environment clean, how to dump, how to burn... they don’t know.” (T1)
3) Families and communities
Regarding the critique that residential education cuts children off from their families and communities, which could be harmful for both sides, most of the teachers answered that it could be harmful on one side, but beneficial on another (Tab 10).
Tab 10: Summary table of opinions of government teachers on criticism that residential schools cut children off their families and communities (↑ - it does not bring problems, ↓ - it is problematic, ↕ - it brings negative as well as positive impacts).
Critique 3: a T1 ↕ T2 ↕ T3 ↑ T4 ↕ T5 ↓ T6 ↕
As harmful factors, they mentioned emotional deprivation and lack of help at home (for the parents´ side). The teacher from Durbuk block (T4) mentioned that due to lack 53
of help from the children, parents often have to hire some workers to do the necessary work. The teachers saw the benefits on the side of the students, according to them, students in residential schools have more time for studying and they enjoy the company of other children in the hostels.
The monk from the institute of monastery education mentioned that residential education is traditional in Ladakh due to the tradition of monastery residential schools. On the other hand, only minority of children attended monastery education. One teacher from Leh (T6) mentioned in the interview that for the nomadic children the solution could be the reestablishment of mobile tent schools, but in the same way, he thinks it would be too expensive.
We can see that teachers see some negative impacts of residential education; on the other side, to them, those negatives are compensated for by perceived benefits. Most of the teachers do not trust to the project of mobile tent schools for nomadic children – they think that it would be either too expensive, or they perceive it as too difficult for teachers to travel with nomads.
4) Confusion
The last critique dealt with the observed confusion of nomadic students – on one hand, they love Changthang and they would like to live there, on the other hand, once educated, they do not want to become nomads again. In addition, in Changthang (especially in Nyoma block) there are very few government job opportunities, and this situation could lead to confusion of students, possible migration to the city and difficulties with finding jobs there.
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Tab 11: Summary table of opinions of government teachers on criticism that education contributes to confusion of nomadic children (↑ - there is no problem, ↓ - it is a problem).
Critique 4: a T1 ↓ T2 ↓ T3 ↑ T4 ↓ T5 ↓ T6 ↓
Prevalent majority of the teachers, with only one exception, thought this was a problem (Tab 11). Only one teacher did not (T3), and not because of an opinion that students would become nomads again easily, but because, according to the teacher, they would not face problems finding some government jobs. The rest of the teachers considered this issue highly problematic. Another teacher from the Nomadic Residential School said: “Education really makes them confused. Some students after 10th, 12th class they are not perfect in education. If one student is able to continue with studies to higher education then they have no problem, I think. Some students drop out after 10th and after 12th. So that students may go to many confusion and many problems, because they are not able to do their culture in their nomadic way, and another thing is they are not able to get a job. So in this thing sometimes they are frustrated.” (T2)
During the focus group, teachers told me about their campaign to convince nomadic parents that education is important for their children. “Last time when we went for campaign, one of the families said that: ‘We care about our children, that’s why we are not sending them to school.’” (FG: T1)
Even the Deputy Education Officer in Leh admitted that this was problematic; he and few other teachers took for granted that nomadic children would change their lifestyle. Nevertheless, most of the teachers did not share this point of view. As a
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solution, they proposed to support and develop creativity and leadership skills of nomadic students, to enable them to be helpful to their communities as well. Three teachers suggested also a change of the syllabus, which should be more focused on nomadic reality and therefore children could be educated according to their experience.
Thus, the teachers were quite well aware of possible problems or impacts of education in Ladakh, but they did not feel any power to influence or change the situation. For the teachers the only institution who could bring in some actual and conceptual changes was the local government. They also admired the work of SECMOL a lot. According to them, LAHDC members are certainly trying to improve Ladakhi education and do their best, especially in terms of facilities. On the other hand, most of the teachers think, that they should take more interest also in the content of education.
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6. Discussion and suggestions for the future
Ladakhi education is still evolving, influenced mainly by Indian education policy and Jammu and Kashmir state regulations; since the very introduction of schooling in the forties, its nature has significantly changed. Nevertheless, factors like lack of goals (apart from preparation to get a government job) and insufficient attention towards local cultural and environmental contexts (especially the nomadic one) within the state curriculum make Ladakhi education and its impact on Ladakhis, especially nomadic Changpa, highly inconsistent.
I have investigated teachers’ opinions on Ladakhi education in general and examined which problems are the most pressing ones for them. It is clear that they find institutionalized education beneficial, but they are often dissatisfied with its quality. Without asking them specifically about this issue, the lack of local-based curriculum was mentioned among the main problems of Ladakhi education. Insufficient time devoted to local language and an overly abstract nature of the teaching were among other issues that were mentioned repeatedly. Impossibility of influencing what will be in the curriculum was also criticised, as well as passive consuming of state-designed curricula. All these things are interconnected and show that teachers would wish for different education – one that is actually based on local context – but they feel powerless to change it.
Another important respondents’ criticism of Ladakhi education focused on the lack of goals apart from preparing children to become government employees. The critique of such an approach is relevant for other parts of India as well (Pandey, 2001) and is common among educators who deal with place-based education all around the world; Woodhouse and Knapp claim that broader objectives then “learn to earn” are a crucial component of place-based education (Woodhouse & Knapp, 2000, pp. 2-3).
The teachers themselves had their own education goals, but there was no common goal which would be promoted by local policy makers. The councillors from LAHDC have surely done an incredible amount of work on Ladakhi education, especially
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regarding teaching facilities; however, there are still some important issues, such as education goals or a content of the curriculum, which are, according to most respondents, set aside or ignored. Teachers as individuals feel helpless without government support; they believe LAHDC should use their power to change this trend.
During the third part of the interview, we examined respondents’ opinions on selected critiques of Ladakhi education. Their opinions varied in what they consider as the most problematic. They mostly agreed on the first and the last topic – insufficiently local- based curriculum and emerging confusion of nomadic students – but their opinions varied in other cases. Regarding insufficient implementation of traditional ecological knowledge into the education, some teachers agreed with the critique but they could not imagine any possible way of such an implementation, whereas some claimed that students obtained this kind of knowledge at home and there was no need of its implementation into a formal education. On the other hand, when we look at the research on Ladakhi education done by David Bainton, we see that, according to his results, children are actually losing this knowledge due to dislocation (which is brought about by schools). “These processes are seen to trap students to suffer in a western school system that simply has no possibility of engagement with indigenous knowledge. Through its dislocatory practices, indigenous knowledge is lost in transmission, through its process of nullification, the possibility of indigenous knowledge being learnt is limited, through its portable code, indigenous knowledge, in its embodiedness, locatedness, simply cannot compete” (Bainton, 2007, p. 140). We can see some possible examples of an implementation of traditional ecological knowledge in an ongoing educational practice of the SECMOL organization.
One of the most problematic issues that the respondents brought out was the question of local language within education. Most of them claimed that children should be taught in a local language at least at nursery and primary level. The importance of a local language as a main medium of culture has also been repeatedly stressed by scientists and researchers worldwide (Battiste, 1998; Hornberger, 2006; May, 2012; Prakash & Esteva, 1998). Marie Battiste, Canadian aboriginal educationalist, stresses the key role of a language in transmission of local knowledge 58
(Battiste, 1998). She points out that, as in our case, the curricula for the Canadian aboriginal communities are usually created by outsiders and written in English. According to her, such practice serves more as an instrument of deprivation of language and indigenous knowledge. Since languages are main means of human communication, they also play a key role in the sharing of knowledge. Different languages embody values and express relations of different cultures on specific levels, e.g. relations within a family, relations to the environment or to a spiritual world. Therefore, language loss is not only a loss of grammar or vocabulary; according to Battiste’s research, it contains ways of knowing, non-verbal and verbal communication, and processes of socialisation.
As a solution to this problem, the teachers claim that the local government should use its power to negotiate more space for the local language within the curriculum. However, local representatives do not share their conviction that there is a problem, which of course hinders the process. Therefore, there is a lack of communication and understanding between the government and the schools. It would be beneficial to create a space for an overall discussion about the perceived problems in education where arguments of teachers might actually reach the government.
The same could be demanded in case of a space within the curriculum that is devoted to local topics, such as as history, culture or the environment. We have seen that most of the teachers are aware of problems regarding lack of local context within education and that they do care about it.
As we have seen before, the promoters of place-based education do not call for overall local-based education without any international context; what they claim is that before moving to international topics and information, students should be able to understand the place where they actually live, and not only theoretically, but also based on experience and social level (Smith, 2002). Therefore, it would be highly beneficial for an understanding of Ladakhi context to introduce place-based education (including a content of curriculum and teaching methods) at nursery and primary level schools and to strengthen cooperation between schools and communities.
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Occasionally, questions concerning the role of a local context within an education brought out more general issues of ethnic identity and political autonomy. Teachers, and to some extent political representatives of the region as well, feel the need for a local context within the education, and the crucial importance of it, but they feel powerless and helpless when it comes to actual implementation. This is definitely a serious issue. We should be aware that even if local government was interested in strengthening place-based education, it might collide with higher political interests. Would the strengthening of local issues in the curriculum lead to separatist tendencies among Ladakhis, or would those tendencies grow more pronounced because of restrictions of possibilities of studying a local context? Answers lie far beyond the scope of this thesis; nevertheless, it would be interesting to explore this topic from a political point of view.
6.1 Already existing alternatives
The SECMOL organization is a very inspiring example; it already adopted many place- based practices. It is pitiful that SECMOL had to withdraw from the government sector. All the respondents who spoke about this organization had nothing but admiration and respect for it. They would wish to continue with the cooperation. The books published during the times of Operation New Hope are the only locally relevant ones in Ladakhi education and if the cooperation had not been stopped, there could have been a lot more. Many teachers suggested that there is a need to overcome old problems and to continue with this cooperation.
Other institutions may also be inspiring in terms of using place-based practices and implementing traditional ecological knowledge, as some private schools which try to focus on local culture and to bring in some innovations to strengthen this aspect. In this respect, Druk Padma White Lotus School in Shey could be relevant to this study; it is trying to introduce culturally and environmentally sensitive methods and practices, from bigger issues, such as using local materials and sustainable techniques in architecture and the introduction of debates in a local language, to small details, such as occasional wearing a traditional dress instead of a “colonial” uniform. 60
It would be great to create a space, possibly an event, let us say once a year, where teachers could exchange their experience and learn about possible methods of place- based education; this is happening already but, in its current state and form, it can hardly reach the teachers in general government schools.
6.2 Nomads and education
The situation of education is particularly problematic in case of nomadic students of the Nyoma block in Changthang. We have seen the confusion which is created by residential nomadic schools that raise nomadic children towards a very different, urban lifestyle and that focus (more or less consciously) on a change of a nomadic way of life towards a settled one. Therefore, children do not want to become nomads again and it is believed that they are also losing the skills to maintain such a livelihood. However, there are far fewer government job opportunities in their home place; they have an option to migrate to a city, but, as we can see in several studies concerning life of migrants around Leh (Demenge, 2010; Goodall, 2004b), the living conditions of such migrants are unsatisfactory there.
Most of the teachers from our research find this situation highly problematic, but they cannot see any solution.
When we look into the literature which deals with nomadic education around the world, we see that this approach of keeping children in a residential school and changing their lifestyle is widely considered outdated. It took place mainly during the times of modernization when it was believed that being a nomad automatically meant that you were backward and that you needed to change and to improve your living conditions. This approach is mostly overcome now and nomadic livelihood is finally taken for a legitimate one. However, not all policy makers are aware of such a change. “Pastoralists perform every day high levels of individual and social specialisation. They can be very confident, articulate and entrepreneurial, have good negotiating and management skills, and show a strong sense of dignity and self-respect. Their societies 61
usually have long traditions of self-government, with sophisticated institutional structures and exceptionally high levels of social capital. A consideration for this paradox should be at the centre of every analysis of the continuous failure, with regard to nomads, of the universal project of education. Instead, education programmes appear to oppose nomadic culture at all levels.” (Krätli, 2001, p. 1)
The situation in neighbouring China, particularly in Tibet, is very similar; local nomads massively migrate into cities and the introduction of residential schools plays a great part in this shift. Foggin and Torrance-Foggin (2011) claim that it does not have to be like that. These researchers spent many years with nomads, trying to understand and to investigate how to bring social services closer to nomadic communities without them having to migrate to a city for education or medical care. Their findings are quite interesting – they state that it is possible to introduce these services without a need to relocate away from their land and that it could actually be cheaper for the government. They see education as an important factor to help present and future generations of nomads to establish their own leadership; according to them, education services should be provided within nomadic context. In particular, they suggest an introduction of mobile tent schools. Their results show that introduction of such schools could be cheaper and more culturally sensitive way of management. Another important finding is that tent schools must be run by local nomads; these schools cannot be perceived as some foreign project, otherwise they are not successful (Foggin & Torrance-Foggin, 2011).
This could indeed be one possible solution for Ladakh; unfortunately, the trend there is the very opposite one. The mobile schools were disestablished in 2004 because teachers were not able to travel with nomads. On the other hand, the research of Foggin and Torrance-Foggin shows that it is worthwhile to try to solve the problem with teachers (possibly with some additional motivation) for the sake of maintaining the education close to nomads. Nowadays, there are already some teachers who belong to nomadic communities; those could be the change implementers. Such attempts could equip nomadic students with necessary skills to lead themselves and to enhance the nomadic way of life instead of changing it completely and sending 62
children into a city where they face a plethora of social problems (Goodall, 2004b). For further research on this issue, I would suggest to investigate how to re-establish nomadic mobile schools under nomadic management and how to motivate teachers to travel with nomads.
Saverio Krätli, a researcher who deals with pastoralists and education worldwide, also suggests short time intensive and specialized trainings instead of full year schooling as one possible (and proven) way. He also brings about certain very inspiring principles for nomadic education policy in general:
• “value pastoral livelihood systems as appropriate and technically adapted to their environment;
• equip pastoralists to adapt in dynamic ways to changes in the pastoral livelihood system resulting from external influences;
• be based in part on indigenous or local expert knowledge;
• be intricately linked to wider features of social organisation and institutions;
• recognise that pastoral children may need to be equipped for life in other livelihood systems, but do not assume this is the main objective of their schooling.” (Krätli, 2001, p. 72)
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7. Conclusion
Ladakhi society has developed an incredibly sustainable way of life during the centuries of living in a high-altitude cold desert. The traditional ecological knowledge of Ladakh, such as water and soil management (including composting of human waste), agricultural and animal rearing practices, local architecture (which is well- suited for the climate of Ladakh), knowledge of medicinal plants and many other practices, which kept the local culture in balance with the environment for generations, are definitely worthy of maintaining, not for reasons of over- romanticizing traditional culture, but because such practices are a tremendous source of knowledge for sustainable management of this area and an important cultural component. The aim of this work is not to claim that traditional practices are better than any modern technique in general and that people should live in a traditional way only – obviously, this is impossible. On the other hand, the very opposite has often been promoted – Ladakhis have been convinced that those valuable practices make them inferior (Norberg-Hodge, 1991).
Recently, new environmental challenges have come to Ladakh; education is definitely one of the best institutions to deal with them. Moreover, education helps students to be a part of a contemporary world. However, at the same time, children can be educated according to their place, using local language and local examples, at least at the nursery and primary level schools. They can be educated by practical examples; they can be taken outside schools to interact within communities and to learn from people. They can learn about the value of local traditions; they can see that these are not inferior, but rather very important. Nomadic children can obtain the necessary education within their own community. They could develop their own creativity, responsibility and leadership skills within the framework of a place-based education. By this work, I wanted to show that education is only a tool. And as a tool, it depends on the policy makers and the way in which it is used.
The main goal of the thesis was to examine whether and how respondents (government teachers formed the bulk of the researched group, but several students 64
and other people involved in Ladakhi education were interviewed as well) reflect contradictions of Ladakhi education, whether they perceive the lack of a sufficiently place-based curriculum and how they assess the impact of education on students’ life, especially in case of nomadic students of the Nyoma block in Changthang. Another goal was to search for possible solutions (or at least for ways of mitigation of the problems) in respondents’ suggestions and in some inspiring projects which already operate either in Ladakh or in other countries.
The field research was conducted in eastern Ladakh (Leh district) from August to October 2012. The research was based on a qualitative approach with elements of action research. The main methods used were semi-structured interviews and observation.
In the results of the research, we can see that most of government teachers find formal education beneficial for the society. On the other hand, they were aware of many important problems within Ladakhi education, such as a lack of education goals, insufficiently local-based curriculum on a primary level (especially not enough space devoted to a local language), overly theoretical teaching and the emerging confusion of nomadic students who are educated towards a very different lifestyle. However, teachers themselves feel powerless to solve these problems – according to them, local government should take the initiative. However, members of local government apparently do not share teachers’ visions. Therefore, there is an unfortunate lack of communication and understanding between teachers and the government.
The changes within Ladakhi education towards more locally relevant curriculum were already happening until the end of cooperation with the SECMOL organization. In this research, we have seen that there are teachers who still care, teachers who call for more changes along the same lines.
At the end, I would like to add an overview of suggestions for a change towards a more place-based education; these suggestions are based on respondents’ visions, as well as on relevant literature.
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First, there should be an improvement of communication between local government and schools. Possibly, some forum for all the teachers of the Leh district to come up with their suggestions and claims could be established; it could also be just an event where teachers would meet the deputies of local government and where they would have a space to share their concerns. A similar space could be created for teachers themselves to exchange ideas and examples of good practice.
Another suggestion relate to the SECMOL organization. They developed incredible place-based education practices and they are highly respected by the teachers all around the district. If there was a chance to re-establish the cooperation with the government, it would be very beneficial for Ladakhi education. SECMOL, and also some private schools, such as Druk Padma White Lotus School, could serve as an inspiration in terms of actual implementation of a place-based education.
The last suggestion refers particularly to education of nomadic children. According to the experts (Foggin & Torrance-Foggin, 2011; Krätli, 2001) education should be brought as close as possible to nomadic communities and re-establishment of mobile schools should be reconsidered; alternatively, according to Krätli (2001) a series of trainings instead of a full year of schooling could be provided, so students would not need to change their way of life drastically.
For further research, I would suggest to explore how such mobile education could actually be provided in the conditions of Changthang and how the teachers could be motivated. The point of view of nomadic parents should definitely be taken into account as well. My thesis could not explore the parents’ opinions properly; some future research might bring in their views, and views of young nomads who already finished the school as well.
For researchers with pedagogical background, I would suggest to explore further possibilities of implementation of place-based practices in terms of particular methods. Finally, political science could bring more light into problems of negotiation of more autonomy (in terms of education) for Ladakhi educators.
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8. List of tables
Tab 1: Population according to the blocks (LAHDC, 2012), p. 26
Tab 2: Table of the core interview partners – teachers of government schools, p. 35
Tab 3: Table of other important respondents, p. 35
Tab 4: Answers of government teachers: Main goals of education, p. 41
Tab 5: Answers of government teachers. The most important things students can learn at particular school, p. 41
Tab 6: Answers of nomadic children from Nyoma block, p. 44
Tab 7: Answers of settled children from Durbuk block, p. 45
Tab 8: Summary table of opinions of government teachers on 1st criticism, p. 49
Tab 9: Summary table of opinions of government teachers on 2nd criticism, p. 51
Tab 10: Summary table of opinions of government teachers on 3rd criticism, p. 53
Tab 11: Summary table of opinions of government teachers on 4th criticism, p. 55
9. List of acronyms
CBSE Central Board of Secondary Education
JKBOSE Jammu and Kashmir State Board of School Education
LAHDC Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council
LEDeG The Ladakh Ecological Development Group
MHRD Ministry of Human Resource Development
MTA Ministry of Tribal Affairs
NCERT National Council of Educational Research and Training
SSA Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (Education for All)
SECMOL Students' Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh
TISS Tata Institute of Social Sciences
UN United Nations
WAL Women’s Alliance of Ladakh
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10. Name index Levin 15 Mack 15, 19, 23
Adams 11 MacQueen 15
Ahmed 28 Marvasti 15
Andreotti 6 May 58
Bainton 11, 12, 32, 58 Mitchell 12
Battiste 11, 12, 14, 58, 59 Munir 75
Behera 25 Namey 15
Berkes 12 Nag 25, 29, 30
Berry 10 Norberg-Hodge 3, 30, 32, 34, 64
Bhasin 25, 27, 29, 30 Pandey 3, 57
Corbett 10 Prakash 9, 10, 58
Cunningham 25 Rahnema 6, 7
Dana 32 Robson 7, 20
Demenge 61 Saldaña 20
Deyhle 11 Schofield 25
Esteva 9, 10, 58 Silverman 15
Foggin 3, 62, 66 Smith 13, 19, 59
Folke 12 Sobel 13
Freire 9 Souza 6
Gadgil 12 Steward 11, 12
Gandhi 10 Torrance -Foggin 3, 62, 66
Goodall 29, 61, 63 Trinidad 14
Greenwood, D. A. 9 Vaswan 25
Greenwood, D. J. 15 Woodhouse 13, 57
Guest 15 Woodsong 15
Hornberger 58 Yin 15
Chakravarthy 12 Zahrádková 5
Illich 7, 8, 9, 10
Knapp 13, 57
Krätli 62, 63, 66
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11. List of the attachments
Maps (pp. 75-77)
Map 1: Ladakh in the context of neighbouring countries. (Munir, 2011)
Map 2: Ladakh in detail. (StateExpress, 2010)
Map 3: Changthang – the Nyoma block. Map not to scale. (TISS & LAHDC, 2010, p. 13)
Map 4: Changthang – the Durbuk block. (TISS & LAHDC, 2010, p. 13)
Interview questions (pp. 78-79)
Example of an interview (pp. 80-85)
Teacher 1
Students’ drawings (pp. 86-90)
Pic 1: Miniatures of students' drawings, Nomadic Residential School Puga, the Nyoma block (Changthang).
Pic 2: Miniatures of students' drawings, government school in Tharuk near Tangtse, the Durbuk block (Changthang).
Photographic material (91-100)
Pic 2: The landscape of Ladakh. Confluence of the rivers Indus and Zanskar.
Pic 4: The landscape of Ladakh. A gonpa (Buddhist monastery).
Pic 5: The Leh city. Look to the west.
Pic 6: The Leh city. Look to the south-east.
Pic 7: The landscape of Changthang, the Nyoma block. Tso Moriri (Moriri lake) near Korzok.
Pic 8: Nomads in the Puga valley in Changthang. Lining up the pashmina goats for milking.
Pic 9: Traditional way of threshing corn. The Tharuk village near Tangtse, the Durbuk block (Changthang).
Pic 10: The SECMOL organization garden in Phey campus (near Leh).
Pic 11: Solar heating and kitchen built from local materials in SECMOL Phey campus, near Leh.
Pic 12: Solar heating in Druk Padma White Lotus School in Shey, near Leh.
Pic 3: The students of a government school in village of Tharuk by Tangtse (the Durbuk block, Changthang).
Nomadic Residential School Puga (the Nyoma block, Changthang). (pp. 96-100)
Pic 14: The main school building, Puga.
Pic 15: Morning assembly of pupils, Puga. 69
Pic 16: During a math class, Puga.
Pic 17: Students’ hostel, Puga.
Pic 18: Teacher’s invention – practical teaching about cubic metre, Puga.
Pic 19: Nomadic students getting ready for the workshop, Puga.
Pic 20: Nomadic students in their traditional dresses, Puga.
Pic 21: Dolkar, student from Puga.
Pic 22: The author of the thesis with children at Puga.
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Dana, J. M. R. (2007). Globalization from Below: How Ladakh is Responding to Globalization with Education. Public Intellectual Essay. Retrieved from: http://www.macalester.edu/educationreform/publicintellectualessay/new%20pies/Da na%20Ladakh%20and%20Education%20PIE.pdf (Accessed on 28 August 2012). Demenge, J. (2010). Road Construction, Dependency, and Exploitation in Ladakh, North India. Journal of Workplace Rights, 15(3), 303-326. Deyhle, D., & Swisher, K. (1997). Research in American Indian and Alaska Native Education: From Assimilation to Self-Determination. Review of Research in Education, 22, 133- 194. Foggin, J. M., & Torrance-Foggin, M. E. (2011). How can social and environmental services be provided for mobile Tibetan herders? Collaborative examples from Qinghai Province, China. Pastoralism: Research, Policy and Practice, 1(21). Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the Opressed. New York: Herder and Herder. Gadgil, M., Berkers, F., & Folke, C. (1993). Indigenous knowledge for biodiversity conservation. Ambio, 22(2/3), 151-156. Gandhi, M. K., & Kumarappa, B. (1953). Towards New Education. Bombay: Navajivan Publishing House. Goodall, S. K. (2004a). Changpa nomadic pastoralits: Differing responses to change in Ladkah, North-West India. Nomadic Peoples, 8(2), 191-199. Goodall, S. K. (2004b). Rural-to-urban Migration and Urbanization in Leh, Ladakh: A case study of Three Nomadic Pastoral Communities. Mountain Research and Development, 24(3), 220-227. Greenwood, D. A. (2009). Place, Survivance, and White Remembrance: A Decolonizing Challenge to Rural Education in Mobile Mobile Modernity. Journal of Research in Rural Education, 24(10). Greenwood, D. J., & Levin, M. (2007). Introduction to action research: social research for social change. California: Sage Publications. Hornberger, N. H. (2006). Voice and biliteracy in indigenous language revitalization: Contentious educational practices in Quechua, Guarani, and Māori contexts. Journal of Language, Identity, and Education, 5(4), 277-292. Chakravarthy, K. K. (2000). Curaotrs of Biodiversity. The Hindu Folio, July (16). Illich, I. (1971). Deschooling Society. New York: Harper and Row. JKBOSE. (undated). Jammu and Kashmir State Board of School Education. Retrieved from: http://jkbose.co.in/ (Accessed on 15 March 2013). Krätli, S. (2001). Education provision to nomadic pastoralists. Institute of Development Studies Brighton, 126, Retrieved from: http://www.eldis.org/fulltext/saverio.pdf (Accessed on 15 February 2013) LAHDC. (2012). Statistical Hand Book for the year 2011-12. Series 33. District Statistics and Evaluation Office. Leh. LAHDC. (undated). Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council. Retrieved from: http://leh.nic.in/ (Accessed on 15 March 2013). LaNgonpo. (undated). Official webpage of La Ngonpo project by Multicultural Center Prague. Retrieved from: http://www.la-ngonpo.org/?locale=en (Accessed on 5 Frebruary 2013). Mack, N., Woodsong, C., MacQueen, K. M., Guest, G., & Namey, E. (2005). Qualitative research methods: A data collector’s field guide. North Carolina: Family Health International. May, S. (2012). Language and minority rights: Ethnicity, nationalism and the politics of language. New York: Routledge.
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MHRD. (undated). Ministry of Human Resource Development: Department of School Education and Literacy. Retrieved from: http://mhrd.gov.in/schooleducation (Accessed on 15 March 2013). Mitchell, B. (1997). Resource and Environmental Management. Essex: Longman. MTA. (undated). Official webpage of Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Government of India. Retrieved from: http://www.tribal.nic.in/ (Accessed on 5 March 2013). Munir, W. (2011). Map of Ladakh. In: India: Ladakh Awaiting Attention. Retrieved from: http://www.opinion-maker.org/2011/09/india-ladakh-awaiting-attention/ (Accessed on 10 April 2013). NCERT. (undated). The National Council of Educational Research and Training. Retrieved from: http://www.ncert.nic.in/index.html (Accessed on 15 March 2013). Norberg-Hodge, H. (1991). Ancient Futures: Lessons from Ladakh for a Globalizing World. San- Francisco: Sierra Book Club. Pandey, S. (2001). More than schooling: A critique of the modern education system. India Together, June (Retrieved from: http://www.indiatogether.org/opinions/pandey.htm (Accessed on 5 February 2013). Prakash, M. S., & Esteva, G. (1998). Escaping Education. New York: Peter Lang. Rahnema, M. (1997). Introduction. In M. Rahnema & V. Bawtree (Eds.), The Post-Development Reader (pp. ix-xix). London: Zed Books. Robson, C. (2011). Real world research: a resource for users of social research methods in applied settings. Chichester: John Willey & Sons. Saldaña, J. (2012). The coding manual for qualitative researchers. London: Sage Publications. SECMOL. (2006). SECMOL: Official webpage of the organization. Retrieved from: http://www.secmol.org/index.php (Accessed on 15 March 2013). Schofield, V. (2003). Kashmir in conflict: India, Pakistan and the Unending War. London: I.B.Tauris. Silverman, D., & Marvasti, A. (2008). Doing qualitative research: comprehensive guide. California: Sage Publications. Smith, G. A. (2002). Place-Based Education: Learning to be where we are. Phi Delta Kappan, 83(8), 584-594. Sobel, D. T. (2008). Childhood and Nature: Design Principles for Educators Portland: Stenhouse Publishers. SSA. (undated). Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. Retrieved from: http://ssa.nic.in/ (Accessed on 15 March 2013). StateExpress. (2010). Map of Ladakh. In: State Express: Leh Ladakh Tours. Retrieved from: http://www.lehladakhtours.com/ladakhmap.html (Accessed on 10 April 2013). Steward, S. L. (2010). Deconstructing Chinn and Hana'ike: Pedagogy Through an Indigenous Lens. In D. J. Tippins, M. P. Mueller, M. v. Eijck & J. D. Adams (Eds.), Cultural Studies and Environmentalism: The Confluence of EcoJustice, Place-Based (Science) Education, and Indigenous Knowledge Systems (pp. 247-256). New York: Springer. TISS, & LAHDC. (2010). Micro Level Plans 2010 - Leh district. 'Gyurja' (TATA - LAHDC Development Support Programme). In collaboration with DRDA Leh. Mumbai: TISS, Leh: Hill Council Secretariat. Trinidad, A. M. O. (2011). Sociopolitical Development Through Critical Indigenous Pedagogy of Place: Preparing Native Hawaiian Young Adults To Become Change Agents. Multidisciplinary Research on Hawaiian Well-Being, 7. UN. (2010). The Millennium Development Goals Report. Retrieved from: http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/pdf/MDG%20Report%202010%20En%20r15%20- low%20res%2020100615%20-.pdf#page=18 (Accessed on 7 March 2013). New York.
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Woodhouse, J. L., & Knapp, C. E. (2000). Place-Based Curriculum and Instruction: Outdoor and Environmental Education Approaches. Charleston: ERIC Digest. Yin, R. K. (2011). Qualitative research from start to finish. New York: The Guilford Press. Zahrádková, L. (2013). Research webpage. Retrieved from https://sites.google.com/site/researchzahradka/ (Accessed on 14 May 2013).
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13. Attachments
13.1 Maps
Map 2: Ladakh in the context of neighbouring countries. Map not to scale. (Munir, 2011)
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Map 3: Ladakh in detail. The field-research was conducted in the places underlined by the red colour (Leh city and its surroundings, Tangtse in Durbuk block of Changthang and Puga in Nyoma block of Changthang). Map not to scale. (State Express, 2010)
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Map 4: Changthang – the Nyoma block. Map not to scale. (TISS & LAHDC, 2010, p. 13)
Map 5: Changthang – the Durbuk block. Map not to scale. (TISS & LAHDC, 2010, p. 13)
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13.2 Interview questions
Basic set9
Part 1: Introduction
a) Personal level (information about the teacher)
- Information such as the place of origin of the teacher, his/her position at the school, subjects he/she teaches, how long he/she has been teaching there, does he/she like it... b) Institutional level (information about school and students)
- Information about the institution and its specifics
Part 2: Generally about education a) Positive assessment
What are the benefits of Ladakhi10 education?
What works well in Ladakhi education?
b) Problems
What are, according to you, the main problems of Ladakhi education?
How could it be changed? Who should change it?
c) Goals of education
What are the most important things students can learn in your school?
What should be, according to you, the main goal(s) of education?
Part 3: Critique (teachers react to critical statements – according to the criticisms I collected during the preparation phase; potentially ask about possible solutions)
a) Curriculum
9 Adapted for core interview group – government teachers (T1-T6); questions for other respondents where changed in an effort to cover specifics of each individual institution. 10 The Leh district particularly. 78
The curriculum does not cover the local context sufficiently (local environment, culture, language, history...) b) Traditional ecological knowledge
The education contributes to the loss of traditional ecological knowledge. (Explanatory intro: The traditional culture of Ladakh is well known for its sustainable practices, such as management of natural resources, e.g. building irrigation channels, preventing the overgrazing, using medicinal plants...)
Additional questions:
How does the education, according to you, affect students’ relationship with the environment?
Do you think that education could create a feeling that the traditional practices are backward? c) Families and communities
The residential education cuts students off from their families and communities; it can be harmful for both sides. d) Confusion
The nomadic students are educated towards a different, urban lifestyle and they do not want to become nomads again; they would like to have a government job. At the same time, they love their home place (based on the Puga experience). However, there are very few job opportunities in Changthang, so they would have to migrate to the city and try to compete for jobs there, which might also be difficult for them.
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13.3 Example of an interview11
Teacher 1
Nomadic Residential School Puga, Teaches: math, science, social studies, english Third year at this school (no previous experience with teaching, government training) Duration of interview: approx. 50 min
Part 1
Introductory talks, taking permission for recording, discussing the feelings about the school and place, gathering personal information about the teacher.
Part 2
What, according to you, works well in Ladakhi education?
“When we compare with earlier times, there’s big improvement. Earlier in Ladakh there was only religious education, in monastery. And for that most of Ladakhis went to Tibet, Lhasa. So After Chinese captured Tibet Ladakhis had to learn religious education in Ladakh monasteries. And many of the monks went outside of the state like... What we can say, after Independence of India, 1947, Ladakhis went to Karnataka, into buddist monastery, learning institution is there. And Banaras university, there are some places where they are going, and later on, after Ladakh came under Kashmir state, only my parents-age-peoples went to middle school education in Leh, for higher education they had to go to Kashmir. And later on, people right now educated or government officials are getting education from Jammu and Kashmir. Recently, due to violence in Kasmir in early nineties, 1989, Ladakhi had to go for Jammu for further education. Jammu, and later on many goes to Delhi and Chandigarh also. Now every Ladakhi is scattered in many states of India, Bangalore, Punjab, Chandigarh, Jammu, even in South Indian site – for engineering, technical education...”
“And when we compare earlier system of education in Ladakh with recent, its further developed, but still lacking many important things.”
“As you noticed in Puga and other schools, teachers use only theoretical teachings, not using concretes, like models and all, minimally. In other states, maybe countries, they using many modern techniques like computers, projectors, these things are used very less here.”
What are the benefits of education here?
11 Authentic grammatically unchecked form. 80
“Earlier, Ladakhis depended only on self-sufficient agriculture. They only cultivated for themselves, not for profit. Now, when are migrants in Ladakh or tourists come to Ladakh, people want to make profit from agriculture also. Even when they are educated, they want to make profit from agriculture also. Like selling potatoes, vegetables, and apples... And by getting education, people are more clever. Earlier it was not like that. People were very nice and good. Now if you see in Leh – money- minded peoples. They want to built a guest house, and hotel everybody. Changing.”
“When British came in earlier period, in 40th I think, Idian peoples came to Ladakh, one tourist saw, when he asked question in the market – ‘Who are here the most backward people? People said – no, nobody is backward here, everybody is doing his work and fulfil his needs.’ After some time he went back to Ladakh and he again raised the question ‘Who is the backward?’ And everybody said ‘I, I’m the backward!’”
“Getting education makes people want more profit, we can also say it makes them selfish.”
“During my childhood, I saw many cattle, goats, sheep, and all these... yaks, dzo. I saw in my own family also. Now is everything finished. Only cow left for milk, butter and cheese. Everything like donkeys, yak, dzo, everything is now not there. It’s due to most of my family members are government employers, so nobody wants to work in agriculture and field. So now even we don’t have that much land to make profit from the agriculture. We have land only for our self-sufficiency. That’s why we have only 3-4 cows for ourselves. In my village everybody is now selling those things, now people depend only on jobs. Even those people who have large lands, even they don’t cultivate, they say it is not good for profit.”
“You also noticed, in the 20km-radius around Leh city, nobody wants to be a farmer or cultivate, everybody wants to get education and do the government job.”
“Now these changes are also coming to Changthang area. Most of the nomadic people want to live in Choglamsar and want to do jobs.”
What are, according to you, the most important things children can learn in this school?
“One benefit for children from Puga school is that children and teachers live here 24 hours a day together. As compared to all the schools, teachers spend more time with children. So teachers also motivate them: ‘It doesn’t matter if you get job or not’. It’s very important to preserve the culture, rearing cattle and all these things.”
What is according to you the aim of education in general?
“For me aim of education means that people know how to communicate with others, and how to live update with outer world and all these things. But for Ladakhis the aim of education is different. They study only for the government jobs. Aims are limited up to government jobs.”
Ok, but what should be the aim, according to you? 81
“It doesn’t matter whether I’m getting job or not, but it is more important how to learn... How we communicate with others, and understand things about environment. If I go outside, how I handle all situations, and all these things. It’s very important.”
What do you see as main problems of education?
“Main problems are lacking of infrastructure, and play grounds for the children. And here is no laboratory for science. So it is very difficult to teach students chemical reactions and all these things. Those are challenges for teachers. For students it is very abstract world. It is very difficult to understand chemical compounds and all these things.”
What could be the solution or who should change it?
“Government is providing education, but not full-fledged satisfactory education. They only brought students here and brought some teachers (laughter). Only giving textbooks, so not much.”
So government should do more.
“Yes, yes.”
Part 3
1) Curriculum
“Yes, there is not enough space... There are some activities conducted on the district level, recently there were books published by The Operation New Hope (SECMOL), in that book they are little bit giving... what we can say... knowing to unknown system... Like people of the Changthang know yaks, and all these things... So they give book from that level. If we look at books from J&K state, it’s very different for these peoples... They don’t know elephants; they haven’t seen elephants... camels and those things.”
And there aren’t many things related to the nomadic life...
“No... no way...”
“Now recently, one book is published by state government, Environmental Studies. In that book there are mentioned some nomads and their habitats.”
So it’s changing...
“Recently yeah, earlier there is no... Earlier we learned only abstract things always. Things we haven’t seen. So it’s very difficult for Ladakhis.”
What could be solution of this problem?
“Books must be published by district, (e.g. Institute of Educational Training). And curriculum must be set by here... according to situation and weather conditions, it must be kept in mind.” 82
Language
“From 90% we have to speak English with students, but here the biggest problem is that they are weak in English, we have to use also mother tongue. Dual things. Like teaching, reading – giving model reading, individual reading, and also giving and writing meanings of words. So here is more work as compared to Leh students. Leh students are watching television, cartoons, they are used to English.”
2) Traditional ecological knowledge
“Yes, as compared to Leh, here they are passing parents to child. Here in Changthang. Here are no medical facilities as compared to Leh, that is why they keep for any medical purpose the traditional doctors, amchi. And also using some herbal medicine, they know which one is used for what purpose. And even child also knows that. Two days back, when we just came from Leh, I just questioned student: Why are these horses so fat? One of the girls studying in sixth class, she answered me that in these days, after summer, they have enough grass to eat, that’s why they’re fat, after winter they’re looking thin, due to the lack of grass. After that I knew that they have some knowledge about all these things.”
But this kind of knowledge they get from their parents, do you think it should be taught also in school?
“No, from parents it’s enough. We have long winter holidays, three and half month and in summer 15 days, it’s enough.”
Inferior-superior feelings
“What we can say, in this world everybody wants to live in luxury. So nobody wants to live in bad conditions. So for future people want easy jobs, they don’t want to take hard jobs. That is why they’re feeling, that living in Choglamsar and doing government jobs or manual labour is easier then cattle rearing.”
Relationship to nature
“Obviously. Yeah, I think it’s maybe effect on child. Because he’s far away from his home, he gets education and he might think ‘No, I don’t want to stay in that area, I want to spent my life in urban areas’. So yes, it’s also effect.”
3) Families
“It depends on individuals, we can say. If he or she knows that the culture of Ladakh is different from others, here communities come every time when there is celebration of marriage or death, people come and help the families. If individual knows these things, he wants to live in that community. If one doesn’t know all these things, he might stay alone or live individual life.”
And what is the contribution of education?
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“ Yeah... It depends upon teachers. If teachers mention all these benefits, if later on also in books are coming these benefits of staying in villages... so it helps students to know.”
4) Confusion
“Yeah, here the situation is that if we compare students of Changthang with Leh students, the Leh students get more education, more exposure, they can leave, they can manage their life. But here, children of Changthang are facing many difficulties... like here is no laboratory, and all these things. Practically, they don’t get as much education as compared with Leh students. If they compete for jobs, it might get only Leh peoples. There is no reservation for people of Changthang. If he or she wants to live in urban area, it’s very impossible. That is why they’re facing many difficulties. Some of the Changthang people say ‘I’m not educating my child for jobs, after completing higher education at least he knows to write applications and read the government official orders, so it’s helping us. So that is why we’re educating them.’ Some people are very intelligent, they say like that. So it’s very good for them. So getting education and living in urban areas is little bit hard.”
Isn’t it frustrating for students, if they stay after school here in Changthang? You know, they experienced something different.
“Yeah, up to here, they haven’t seen Leh lifestyle. Except we’re participating in Leh cultural festival. But they’re not watching the lifestyle of Ladakhi’s people. They’re just seeing televisions, getting food, later on they also learn. Maybe they feel that people of Leh have luxury, and people of Changthang don’t have that much. Lifestyle is different, yeah, they’re also feeling that. But it depends upon the individuals. If he wants to promote their culture, wants to stay in same area, so he can do many things for their peoples.”
And what do you think could be solution for this confusion?
“We can say that if we educate also the leaders who belong to this area, they provide many facilities to these people, like medicine for their sheep and goats, and asking government for fodder (note - government provide fodder in non-grazing areas). They can do many things.”
Do you think education in this school should focus on this problem also?
“We teach about the world, different countries, and their lifestyle also, but we don’t focus on Ladakh and its culture. It’s due to many things. Ladakhis are just under Jammu & Kashmir, main focus is on J&K people, so it’s such a subpart of J&K. They never focus on Ladakh and its people. Its population is only few as compared with J&K, that is why.”
And should it be there (the focus on this area), according to you?
“Yeah, what we can say... Government focus on Ladakh only due to strategic geographical importance, Ladakh touches on the both sides two “enemies” we can 84
say, Pakistan and China, so they only focus on this. They don’t give that much importance to people and their culture.”
Would you like it to be changed?
“Yeah, that’s why people of Ladakh demand autonomy, separate state. If after some decades it becomes separate state, then people of Ladakh will think about this.”
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13.4 Students’ drawings
Pic 4: Miniatures of students' drawings, Nomadic Residential School Puga, the Nyoma block (Changthang).
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Pic 5: Miniatures of students' drawings, government school in Tharuk near Tangtse, the Durbuk block (Changthang).
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13.5 Photographic material12 Pic 6: The landscape of Ladakh. Confluence of the rivers Indus and Zanskar.
Pic 7: The landscape of Ladakh. A gonpa (Buddhist monastery).
12 All the photos are made by author of the thesis. 91
Pic 8: The Leh city. Look to the west.
Pic 9: The Leh city. Look to the south-east.
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Pic 10: The landscape of Changthang, the Nyoma block. Tso Moriri (Moriri lake) near Korzok.
Pic 11: Nomads in the Puga valley in Changthang. Lining up the pashmina goats for milking.
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Pic 12: Traditional way of threshing corn. Tharuk village near Tangtse, Durbuk block (Changthang).
Pic 13: The SECMOL organization garden in Phey campus (near Leh).
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Pic 14: Solar heating and kitchen built from local materials in the SECMOL Phey campus, near Leh.
Pic 15: Solar heating in Druk Padma White Lotus School in Shey, near Leh.
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Pic 16: Students of a government school in the village of Tharuk by Tangtse (Durbuk block, Changthang) during the workshop, filling out the questionnaires.
13.5.1 Nomadic Residential School Puga (the Nyoma block, Changthang) Pic 17: The main school building, Puga.
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Pic 18: Morning assembly of pupils, Puga.
Pic 19: During the math class, Puga.
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Pic 20: Students’ hostel, Puga.
Pic 21: Teacher’s invention – practical teaching about cubic metre, Puga.
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Pic 22: Nomadic students getting ready for the workshop, Puga.
Pic 23: Nomadic students in their traditional dresses, Puga.
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Pic 24: Dolkar, student from Puga.
Pic 25: The author of the thesis with children at Puga.
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