HOSARITTI, HAVERI : Sporting Gandhi cap and khadi kurta, students line up for prayers as early as 6am. And they are asked one question a day on Mahatma Gandhi. This is not just about learning by heart the Gandhian principles. For the last 36 years, Gudleppa Hallikeri Gandhi Grameen Gurukul in Hosaritti village of Haveri has been imparting education based on Gandhian principles—from non-violence to dignity of labour to being self-reliant. The school has adopted a system of rural education and the children of farmers are given preference during the admission.
Established on the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi on October 2 in 1984, the school is the brainchild of Gudleppa Hallikeri, freedom fighter, educationist and close associate of the Mahatma. Hallikeri was jailed several times and he was one of the persons chosen from the state to represent Karnataka at the Dandi March. When the village Hallikeri felicitated him and gave him an honorarium, he used that money to establish a trust for setting up a school of Gandhian thoughts.
Every year, about 40 children are admitted to class 5 and they study here till SSLC. The school is spread over 32 acres and has all the modern facilities. The school had the pride of becoming the starting point for one of the 50 torches which were taken to New Delhi on the occasion of the 50th Independence Day.
S R Patil, Principal, has been associated with the school since its inception. According to him, the children who study at the Gurukul learn to be self-reliant and are taught team work and respecting fellow humans in the society.
“We teach them the Gandhian way of living. We teach them to cultivate love and harmony towards other religions. The school attracts several known people, thinkers, engineers and scientists. Former ISRO chairman Kiran Kumar had visited the school recently and he was impressed with the system,” Patil says.
The Gurukul is implementing Mahatma Gandhi’s concept of education in many ways. Students are taught to clean their living area, school premises and kitchen and periodically also clean toilets in their hostel. They wash their own clothes too.They are taught animal husbandry, basic agriculture skills, horticulture, sericulture; they also try their hand at the spinning wheel. Their uniform is made out of pure khadi and wearing a Gandhi cap is a must. Students here have no tea or coffee in their menu.
They are made to recite prayers written by Gandhi twice a day. The school common board has a question a day on Gandhi. The students are not allowed to use mobile phones. They are allowed to meet their parents one day in a month.
Says a student, “I ask my parents to join me in prayers whenever I go home.” A majority of the students come from North Karnataka. “Besides the field work, the school focuses on science subjects,” says another student. The school has been noted as a Green School from the District Pollution Control Board. The management ensures there is no plastic pollution inside the school premises. The school has nearly 2,000 trees.
The alumni members of Gurukul held a convention a few months back and have assured the school of help. The school is dependent on the donors for infrastructure development and maintenance. The government provides salaries for the teaching staff, food and clothing for children. But there are no government funds for the upkeep of this school.
“The khadi units working under the government and government agencies could help us revive the spinning wheel unit, integral to the school. The unit has been lying defunct for a few months now as the resource person retired and we are still looking for a new teacher,” says Patil.