Who we are

Antaranga Pre-primary and primary school is a 25 year-old community-based Early Childhood Care and Education unit of Antaranga Society for Social and Economic Development based out of Santiniketan in the Birbhum District of West Bengal. Started in 1992, by Sucharita Seal, an educationist and Montessarian, the school provides free education along with nutrition and health coverage to local children in the age-group of 3 plus to 10 years as well as after-school tutorials for children in the 10 plus years studying in Secondary schools. All of Antaranga’s 150 odd students belong to local families engaged in daily-wage labour as rickshaw pullers, domestic help, farming, construction work, vending and so on. They are either first-generation learners or second-generation ones whose parents had been educated as first generation learners at Antaranga. Children with ‘learning difficulties’ are also admitted to the school.

In recent years, programs on adolescence and young adults have been emphasized with various events and workshops collaborating with Kolkata Sanvad and Bondhu. As the students of Antaranga grow into adolescent and young adults, their problems and vulnerability are addressed and tackled with these initiatives. Various workshops and programs are in the pipeline with NGOs like Kolkata Sanvad and Bondhu in the coming days aiming at enhancing their creative abilities and empathy in the face of screen addiction, violence, sexual abuse and other vulnerabilities.

Antaranga is a free school and a non-profit run purely on the basis of individual donations. All contributions to Antaranga are exempt U/S 80G of the Income Tax Act of India. Antaranga also has an FCRA account to enable donations in any foreign currency.

How We Teach

Departing from the usual ‘chalk and talk’ approach that leads to rote learning (that is usually forgotten following exams), we strive to ensure holistic and personalized learning that leads to building of value systems and character and brings out the joy of learning.

The learning takes place in two sessions:

a) Pre-primary and primary (Around 100 children enrolled) - Nursery to Class IV
b) After-school Tutorials to give homework and remedial learning support (Around 50 children enrolled) - For children enrolled in other schools from Class V onwards.

*Funds are raised from individual donations to run these sessions.

Our Teachers

Over the past 25 years, Antaranga has evolved under the guidance of its founder Sucharita Seal to grow with a team of community-based teachers trained in ‘child-friendly’ teaching methods that lead to ‘learning for life.’ Building of teacher capacities so that they can stay abreast with the latest developments in Early Childhood Care and Education is a core activity at Antaranga. Topics ranging from hands-on learning pedagogy, class management, methods of assessment and evaluation, accelerated reading and writing techniques, ensuring learning of children who need support to hygiene and health care and organic living.

Nandalal Jha (HEADMASTER)

Nandalal Jha is born and brought up in Santiniketan. His grandfather Late Joynarayan Jha had been closely associated with Rabindranath Tagore throughout his life. Nanda’s father Bachu lal Jha had also been closely associated with Tagore’s son Rathindanath Tagore from the age of eight. As for Nanda he finished schooling from Siksha Satra at Sriniketan and completed his Masters degree from Visva Bharati University, founded by the Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore. Nanda’s love for children and passion for teaching drove him to join Antaranga School as the Headmaster since 2001. So his association with Antaranga Society for Social and Economic Development is now for more than 17 years. Nanda attended several pre and primary Teacher training sessions in order to upgrade his own knowledge on Child’s pedagogy and also learn about modern and alternative teaching techniques. He strives constantly to make the school grow. Because by developing the School, he and team Antaranga are engaging in developing a community!

Bithika Jha

She is with Antaranga for the last 10 years teaching nursery and class 1 students of the school. Apart from imparting education to the children she also deals with the parents of our children educating them on hygiene issues. With her Master degree in history from Biswabharati University she is also involved in taking classes in the evening school which is a free coaching centre for our ex-students. She has also spent around 5 years working on various literacy and gardening projects involving the local villagers. She is an expert in stitching and in different types of knitting methodologies.

Jharna Murmu

An ex student of our school, she is a bachelor degree holder and is associated with our school for the last 3 years as a teacher. She has taken formal training in stitching and is currently involved in imparting stitching lessons to mothers of our school children. She was also exposed to different modules of teacher trainings.

Nayanmoni Bauri

A Bachelor’s degree holder, she is with Antaranga school for the last 7 years as a teacher in class 2. Every day she travels around 14 kms (one way) in her bicycle to reach Anataranga school. She has taken teacher’s training at different occasions on different modules. Mother of one child, she has also taken training on ‘Kantha Stitch’ a traditional stitching form from the Birbhum District of West Bengal.

Lakshmi Murmu

An ex student of our school she is with us for last 10 years teaching the nursery group students. She also takes a lead role when it comes to the adult literacy program where we deal with the parents of our school children.

Kush Mete

He is associated with Antaranga School for the last 20 years as a teacher taking care of the Kindergarten section. He has been exposed to Montessori teacher’s training.

The Innovation, The Journey

The State Syllabus is encapsulated in a creative curriculum that apart from infusing basic literacy, hones children’s age-appropriate cognitive (language & numeracy), fine motor, gross motor and social skills (group-work, paired work, peer-based activities), nurtures emotional intelligence and builds character. Thematic teaching of content makes Reading and Writing a ‘fun activity.’ Application of music, dance, theater, pottery, nature study and so on in the themes helps to reinforce learning. Cost-saving innovations using local materials for the well-tested teaching and learning aids, pragmatic usage of audio-visual tools and hands on teaching and learning materials make learning at Antaranga an intellectually and creatively stimulating experience for children.

Kitchen Garden

Parents and children are engaged in building a kitchen garden at children’s homes with seasonal vegetable seeds being distributed and guidance given on organic food-harvesting for self-consumption.

Weekly Nutrition Program

Organically harvested food is also used for the weekly nutrition program of the school. Khichri with vegetables and eggs are served 3-days a week and lessons given on knowing locally grown nutritious food.

Health Camps

Health check-up camps are also held on a periodic basis – covering overall health, eye, teeth, skin health and so on. Deworming and iron-supplements are also suggested.

Program for adolescent and young adults

Their native lands are open to rapid urbanization and consumer materialism which is creating a huge impact on the lives of these adolescents and young adults. Read More

Livelihood training for mothers

For years, mothers at Antaranga have received livelihood training in different forms. These range from growing vegetables to making pickles for sale in the local ‘Shonibarer Haat’, a major tourist attraction on Saturdays at Shantiniketan.

Donate

We need donations to run the Antaranga school at every point, from paying teacher salaries, to buying teaching and learning materials, to paying bills to running the Nutrition and Health programs. We have set up a short home-stay accommodation space in the school-building, which can be booked in advance. Payments for the accommodation go towards supporting the school activities. Apart from that, any voluntary contribution is Welcome. All contributions to Antaranga are exempt U/S 80G of the Income Tax Act of India. Antaranga also has an FCRA account to enable donations in any foreign currency.

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Contact Us

For any query or suggestion, feel free to contact us at any moment.

Antaranga Society For Social And Economic Development
School project at Ratanpally. SANTINIKETAN
India
Mobile: +91 7602346161
email: contact@antarangaschool.org