How do we learn? What should we learn? Ahead of Teacher’s Day, a search for some answers.
In Delhi, where I live, one of the best schools admit predominantly upper caste, upper class children. This insulates them from the great diversity which is India. They will never sit next to a Muslim child or share their food with a Dalit. It is this narrow and skewed experiential base which makes people bigots when they grow up. They need to widen and enrich the experience of our children. Under the Right to Education Act, a certain percentage of seats had to go to the poor. But the rich schools have thwarted this reservation.
In the landmark book Totto Chan(1981), a memoir by Japanese actor Tetsuko Kuroyanagi, the principle of the progressive school she attends deliberately admits children with special needs, for he is convinced that it would make the other children sensitive. Anni koshi, the visionary principle of St. Mary’s School in Safdarjung Enclave, New Delhi, is another pioneer. Twenty percent children in her school are “special” children- with hearing aids, crutches or those who are visually impaired or mentally challenged. The other children help these children and learn their first lesson in compassion and empathy.
Dalit, Muslim and tribal children are constantly humiliated by upper caste teachers in schools. The Classic Letter to a Teacher(1967), was written by eight children of landless farmers and workers from the school of Barbiana, Italy. The book begins with this sentence, “School is a war against the poor”.
All surveys point to the failure of government schools. One out of every four class VIII child in rural India is unable to read even a Class II text. And one out of two Class VIII students cannot solve a basic division problem.
Educational- Initiatives, a group started by IIM Ahmedabad graduates, conducted a study in 2006, covering 30,000 students in India’s leading schools in metros. The results showed that rote learning is still dominated.
1. A 5cm. long pencil was placed besides a ruler. It’s end rested on 1cm and 6cm of the scale. Only 11percent of Class IV children could read the length of the pencil correctly.
2. Cutoff a square of side 1cm from a rectangular sheet as shown. What will be the change in perimeter?
The perimeter will increase by 2cm. Only 23 percent of students of Class VIII got the correct answer.
Since the start of liberalisation in 1990’s, the Indian government has deliberately cut funds to government schools. After degrading and making them non functional,the government is now all out to sell them to private players and religious trust in the name of PPP(public private partnership).
Why is the state of our government schools so bad? The upper and middle classes apparently have no stake left in them, as they have set up elite schools for their own children. The poorest classes have no choice but government schools. Four years ago Justice Sudhir Agarwal of the Allahabad High Court recommended that all government servants must send their children to government schools. That would be a sure way to improve them!