The Poet's School: A History Of Patha-Bhavana And Siksha-Satra

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Swati Ghosh is an independent researcher and writer. She did her master's in English from Visva-Bharati. She has authored numerous articles and books, which include Rabindrabhabnaye Santiniketane Alpana (2011), Kobir Pathshala (co- authored with Ashok Sircar; 2015), Prasanga Bouddhadharma (translated from the English original by Sister Nivedita; 2015), Paye Paye Kolkata (translated from the English original by Prasenjit Dasgupta; 2018), and Design Movement in Tagore's Santiniketan (2019).

Ashok Sircar is professor at the Azim Premji University in Bangalore. He grew up in Santiniketan, where he studied at the Patha-Bhavana, and thereafter, the Siksha-Bhavana. He completed a PhD in Physics, and worked in the electronics industry for 15 years. Thereafter, he spent a decade in the social sector and finally moved to academia, spanning a working life of around 37 years. He specialises in land governance, local democracy, civil society and women's empowerment.

In 2010, a few alumni of the 1972 batch of the Patha-Bhavana gathered in Santiniketan after 37 years, coming together from the various parts of the country where they lived. Amidst all the reminiscences and conviviality, they began to ask themselves, 'Is there anything we can do for our favourite school?' Among the many propositions, there was one that seemed like an urgent calling, 'Our school has no institutional history. Can't we ask a researcher to gather the material and put it all together?' Everyone had seen that people outside of West Bengal were strangely unfamiliar with the two schools founded by Rabindranath, and they all enthusiastically agreed to right this wrong. The present volume is a result of that.

There are two primary reasons behind writing the histories of Patha-Bhavana and the Siksha-Satra-one historical and the other contemporary. Most of the material available on the histories of the two institutions comes from personal memoirs written at different times by alumni. Besides, there are numerous volumes on Rabindranath's educational philosophy. These can offer material, but can never stand in for a systematic institutional history. The history of the two institutions, namely Patha-Bhavana and Siksha- Satra-those two pioneers of alternative education-should offer a narrative on the schools' structures, curriculum, administration and infrastructure, as well as the challenges they faced in different phases of their lifespan. Such was the plan.

No less important is the contemporary need for such a history.

The school education system in our country is far from ideal. It has been but a few years that most children have had access to schools, and even now, not all the students who take admission clear their secondary examinations, and even fewer graduate. Besides, our present education system has failed abjectly to realise certain ideals of education, even though there has been a great deal of research and experiments regarding school systems in our country. Rabindranath's Patha-Bhavana and Siksha-Satra and Mahatma Gandhi's Nai Talim schools deserve special mention in this regard. Therefore, we must have a history of these two schools.

**Contents and Sample Pages**