[Hoshangabad Science Teaching Program is a pioneering middle school science teaching program (HSTP) running in rural areas of Madhya Pradesh (India) for more than two decades. The Govt. is planning to shut down the programme. This alternative education initiative lays emphasis on doing experiments and learning through activities. HSTP is a part of Ekalavya an organization of radical educationists and pedagogues who design people centered teaching content, based in Bhopal,. See an SOS message below from Eklavya]

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Date: Wed, 6 Feb 2002 07:44:59 +0530
From: Eklavya Hoshangabad
Subject: HSTP–SOS

Dear Friends,

On 7–2–2002, the District Planning Committee of Hoshangabad decided to recommend to the state government the closure of the HSTP in Hoshangabad district. The following is a brief resume of the recent developments.

During the last week of January we were told that Dr. Sitasharan Sharma, BJP MLA from Itarsi has written a letter to the District Planning Committee (DPC) of Hoshangabad questioning the relevance of HSTP and demanding that the programme be closed down.

This agenda was taken up in the Education subcommittee of the district panchayat on 29th of January. The district education office gave all the relevant details and also said that any decision in this regard can only be taken by the state government.

Subsequently district education office also prepared a brief note for the DPC agenda, which was held on 7th of February. We discussed the matter with the collector and couple of DPC members. Unfortunately Ms. Savita Diwan Sharma the Congress MLA from Hoshagabad, who may be more sympathetic to the programme, was away in UP and could not attend the meeting. Eklavya representatives were also invited to the DPC meeting to put up our case. Kamal and Rajesh attended the meeting.

When this particular agenda came up the Itarsi MLA had following to say:

1. In this era of globalisation you should not have something that is restricted only to some pockets, either a programme should be implemented all over the country or should be stopped altogether.

2. HSTP follows an approach where a child is supposed to try out everything that s/he has to learn, the book says that to figure out whether the current is flowing in the wire, the child should touch live wire and find out.

3. HSTP does not link either with the lower or the higher classes.

4. Children are supposed to collect leaves in HSTP and they find it quite inconvenient. (this was stated in his letter to DPC).

5. The HSTP approach might be good for schools with low teacher-student ratio and where the teacher is committed but neither in Madhya Pradesh, nor anywhere else in India do we have such a situation so the HSTP should be closed down.

Kamal was given a few minutes to respond. The Chairperson i.e. the minister who is in charge of Hoshangabad district, Ajay Narayan Mushran, (the finance minister)–asked Kamal to speak as even the ‘condemned were allowed to defend themselves’. After Kamal had spoken for a few minutes, the chairperson intervened and said that the house unanimously feels that HSTP should not be followed any longer in H’bad district. As Kamal protested and requested more time to explain, the minister concluded the discussion saying that the verdict for capital punishment has been given (fansi ho gayi).

There were banner headlines about this decision next day on local pages of two of the major regional newspapers. Expecting that we had also given an immediate press release which was carried partially in these.

Matters relating to school curriculum are not in the purview of the DPC; at best it can only give recommendation to the state govt. Nevertheless, we feel that the issue should be taken head-on. In response, at the moment we have planned and are carrying out the following actions:

1. We will be submitting a detailed petition to the secretary and chairperson, DPC with copies to all the DPC members asking for a review of this decision.

2. Approaching members of the DPC and trying to see that at least 2–3 of these ask for a review on the basis that there was no adequate discussion on the issue, they were not posted with all the facts and aspects of the case….

3. We have started a signature campaign amongst teachers, parents and students who have cleared middle school.

4. We are also trying to keep the balance in the local/regional media as far as the coverage is concerned.

5. We plan to hold some kind of meetings at least in the major towns like Itarsi, H’bad and Pipariya so that resolutions from these meetings can be presented to the elected representatives.

6. We will be sending the details of the petition with relevant papers to all our resource teachers and resource persons, so that everybody can decide on the possible action plan at the respective level.

We are mailing this summary to as many addresses that we have. Please do forward it to (or inform) others who did not get this mail.

It would help if you can send a letter of protest to the district collector, Hoshangbad with a copy to us.

And do get back to us with any suggestions, queries etc that you might have,

We will keep you posted on the developments,

HSTP Group & other members of Eklavya