The gates of the AREDS Play-way School opened on the 4th of June 2002. As a play-way school it is the first of its kind in Karur District. At present there are classes from Kindergarten to Standard V. 160 students study here and the staffs include 9 teachers, 2 assistants, 1 driver and 1 assistant to driver. The school was constructed in Pothuravuthanpatti village with the help of local constructors and the enthusiasm and physical labour contributed by the ONM group in Belgium. On the 27th of August 2005 the school gained the recognition of the government.

Why the school?
Education in India: The commitment to provide free and compulsory education for all children up to the age of 14 is enshrined in the Indian Constitution. Although successive national plans have recorded significant improvements, the final goal of providing quality education to all eludes the country. Education is now mostly a commercial endeavour. In urban areas private Matriculation Schools cost on average INR 5000 – INR 10000 just as admission fees. This of course can be afforded only by middle and high class families living in the area. The general trend is also toward an English medium education.

The victims:
It is children from Dalit families, the landless poor, agricultural workers and other such vulnerable groups who are deprived of their right to education. When it comes to dalits and girl children the oppression is more intense as their estrangement even within the vulnerable groups means constant stigmatisation of these children at the village schools as well as in the village. Field observations reveal that if this is not addressed it will lead to the legitimisation of social divisions through schooling.

The result:
The AREDS Play-way school is simply the natural result of the evolution of the process of development that AREDS is involved in for the past 27 years in Karur District. AREDS has always believed that to be educated is to be empowered. Right from the beginning, when AREDS commenced its Non-Formal Education (NFE) program for illiterate adults in the 1980s education programmes have remained a mainstay in AREDS’ approach to development and empowerment. With the help of NFE and the other such education programmes the rural and vulnerable population in the areas of AREDS’ work are able to comprehend how important it is to educate their children. Taking into consideration the need for equal and quality education to children from the above mentioned sections of society and the limitations of the government to provide the same, the AREDS Play-way School began with the following objectives:

• To provide children with the opportunity to learn with qualified teachers within a healthy and
receptive infrastructure.
• To bring education and learning close to nature and realities.
• To help children, especially, to develop their individual potentials and talents.
• To provide the children with a platform, where they can exhibit their potential, a fair ground to gain
competence and a loving environment to grow in.
• To bring forth young who are confident of their individuality and empowered by their unity.

Why Playway?
There are numerous methods of teaching that can be employed. Each method helps a child understand the same lessons from different perspectives and acquire/tune a different set of skills and abilities depending on the method used.

AREDS chose the play-way method as it best suited the student demography that the school catered to viz. Dalits, girl children and the rural poor. These sections of society need to understand their realities and acquire the ability to express their emotions thus take the first steps to becoming liberated. This liberation becomes key to the development of these children as they shed the limitations and inhibitions that have been thrust upon them for generations in the name of caste, gender, economic status etc.

In the play-way method the children are taught their lessons with the help of dance, theatre, play, discussions and audio visual aids. The method helps to attract and sustain the interest of the children in their lessons. By learning while playing children are helped to ascertain and are sometimes introduced to their right to childhood. It facilitates the space and opportunity for the children to forget all about castes, gender, wealth and poverty and concentrate on being simply children.

This method also helps them to understand lessons in a personal context. For example, a standard 3 lesson on plants is conducted in the school garden and the discussion that follows is based on the agriculture that the parents do and why it is important etc. The children, as they are discussing something very familiar to them, understand the lesson better and are lively and interested throughout. The lesson is therefore learnt by choice and not by force.

Why at Potharavoothanpatty village?
This is a region where a particular caste constitutes the majority population along with the Dalits. This group does not allow girl children to go to school and when very young these girl children fall victims to child marriage and other forms of exploitation. The claim of the maternal uncle on the cousin is very strong and even the parents of the girl child have no control. This traditional practice has been followed for centuries. AREDS made a study involving the people of this region to consent to this initiative. Along with the many other criterions i.e. geography, population, lack of facilities etc, the possibility to change the realities of two of the most vulnerable groups of children viz. Dalit children and girl children, helped AREDS to open the school in Potharavoothanpatty village.

The years to come:
Experience has taught us that an overall improvement in the quality of education can be achieved more effectively only if individual schools are holistically targeted on their approach to and management of education. AREDS Play-way School aims at becoming a model institute of learning. Through this school we want to thrust the importance of customising education depending on the need of the people, the times and challenges and not commercialise it, thereby making it exclusive and just an accessory.

With this school we have an opportunity:
a. To affect a positive change in the lives of the rural and the vulnerable when they are young.
b. With time and support we aim to have classes up to standard XII and be a long lasting support to the children who will step into the world through our gates: Not identified anymore as Dalits, girls or poor, but as confident, talented and competent human beings.

The change will not stop there, because, when we educate a child we educate a new family and therefore foresee a new and better community.