A holistic approach to education

Empowering children through arts and martial arts in rural Bengal

Last year I wrote about the Art classes that take place as an extra-curricular activity at the New Life Centre on a Saturday so that the children who are keen to do even more Art classes than their curriculum allows can pursue this. This year Alindra Naskar, the Director of the school, has introduced extra -curricular music and karate.

The karate is proving to be very popular as the photos show, with girls and boys alike. When I spoke to Alindra recently he told me that he was initially reticent about the karate classes as he didn’t want the children to become aggressive, but he realised that this Martial Art was about instilling discipline in movement and action.

It is also encouraging to see a mixed class of boys and girls showing equal opportunity in a society, when according to Unicef ‘most women and girls in India do not fully enjoy many of their rights due to deeply entrenched patriarchal views, norms, traditions and structures.’

This highlights the ethos of this exceptional school.; a community which embraces the holistic nature of education. The academic results are important as this area of rural Bengal has been neglected in the past, and the older generation have lived at a subsistence level, so it is important that their children have the best possible chances in life.

However, Alindra recognises in a very prescient way, as is evident from further education in the west, that when academic results are higher across the board, it is the extra-curricular activities that enhance the overall C.V. and proves the breadth of education.

Breadth of vision has epitomised this school from the start, and these new classes are just another example of this.

Written by Tess Molloy, HATW Trustee