Doing things differently – for a reason

Jane Sahi From last month our school (Sita School) has become strictly illegal and technically we are liable for prosecution. Looking back at Education and Language Policies, for example, from the time of Macaulay’s infamous Minute of 1835 there is nothing sacrosanct in such policies which are often shaped by political and economic forces but nevertheless it is hard to feel both accountable in the public sphere and yet not allowed some space for difference. Efforts to have a different kind of recognition – e.g., to strengthen the Basic Education National Open School, have so far not been acceptable despite a number of meetings and petitions to the Ministry of Education. There are certain contradictions: for example, where Sevagram in Wardha has been awarded heritage status and been publicly lauded as a new model, they still face difficulties to get recognition. There are various options for Alternative Schools. Some are survival strategies like registering children in government schools but actually teaching them outside the regular system. Other responses require a re-orientation like starting Learning Centres outside school hours or concentrating only on children above 14 years. Judging by the present trend even these spaces may be closed in the foreseeable future as there are rumours of the government controlling coaching and tuition centres, nursery schools and schooling up to 16 years. The other option is to “lie low” and hope that officialdom is slow in following up illegal schools. None of the above is very satisfactory and many involved in alternative schools would prefer transparency. The RTE Act no doubt was rooted in a genuine concern to create a more equitable and just society, but in the process it has been co-opted often by market forces and a corrupt bureaucracy. Hesitation to go in for registration and recognition This is problematic on several counts: It is a long and laborious process which in itself is not the problem but it involves either corruption – I heard recently of a school where the BDO asked for Rs 25,000 for a site visit which is just one of the necessary steps to ensure registration – or the alternative of using ‘influence’ and to gain the support of highly placed people in the government. I was told that one person, who was highly educated, had no choice but to devote almost the whole year to securing this and even she was helped by a number of people. On the other hand, there are innumerable private schools being started

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Some concerns from an alternative school

Indira Vijaysimha There is probably a popular misconception that alternative schools are all alike and that while they differ from mainstream schools they are similar in themselves. It is closer to the truth to think of alternative schools as a diverse set of responses to the perceived issues, concerns, and deep philosophical differences between the founders of these schools and mainstream education. Having said that alternative schools may or may not be similar to each other; I want to go on to say that most alternative schools are focused upon a set of core values and seek out pedagogical processes that are aligned to these values. Differences in the core values may result in differences in the pedagogical approaches found in the different alternate schools. As an alternative school, Poorna is based on a vision of education that actively promotes greater equity and social justice. In order to be caring members of a social group, children need to feel understood and secure and need to be able to work with others. We are aware that actions speak louder than words… and we must practice what we preach! Thus our approach is child-centred, holistic, and inclusive. No doubt this makes the work of teachers at Poorna that much harder. In terms of social inclusion Poorna has always accepted children from families who are not able to afford the fees for private education. At present, well over 25 per cent of children across the different age groups are from economically weaker sections of the society. Has this posed a challenge for our work? Yes, and it has been one that we have willingly shouldered. One of our core values is that every child must feel unconditionally accepted as a member of the school community. To this end we have worked at the level of teachers and students to understand how inclusion can become a part of our daily interactions both in the context of classroom learning and in the context of the informal social interactions that form the bedrock of relationships between students from different backgrounds. Explaining how inclusion is practiced at different levels across the school perhaps could form the topic for a future article. Our approach to visible differences between children in terms of dress and appearance is not to gloss over these by prescribing a uniform and create a superficial semblance of sameness. We choose instead to celebrate diversity and actively converse with children when dress and appearance become linked to negative labels. We

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Parents must have a choice

Gurveen Kaur The Centre for Learning (CFL) has been running in Hyderabad for the last 30 years. It has a mixed group of students. Some parents enroll their children at CFL because they believe in the school’s philosophy but others because they don’t want to fit their child to an inflexible formal school routine. Some come because their child cannot fit into the rigid learning schedule. Some come because their children are rejected by other schools. A few are at CFL because of learning difficulties; some have emotional issues or are from an economically disadvantaged background. CFL thus works with children who for different reasons do not find the formal mainstream schools conducive to their needs. It has mostly been able to help children acquire academic skills and emotional maturity. Today it stands on the brink of closure. Because the RTE insists upon all schools being recognized. To get recognition requires an investment into infrastructure which a small, not-for-profit, alternative school cannot afford. It also means following other rules that conflict with what makes CFL effective. While the RTE is good and a much-needed step forward, there is definitely a feeling of disappointment with some aspects of the RTE. The Government must make it possible for all who want to go to school to freely access a school. The Government is overreaching itself when it compels children to go to only government- recognized schools or only one kind of school. There are two reasons for this. First, in view of the poor quality of many government and private schools, it makes no sense to compel children to go to such schools without first improving their quality and thereby ensuring that the child will actually gain from attending the school. Second, given its neo-liberal leanings is the government really taking on responsibility or under the guise of taking responsibility, is it opening a captive market for the private sector? It is also in some cases subsidizing the private sector with the voucher system while saying it does not have the means to support education for all. On the other hand, the loans taken to fund education from the World Bank and/or other countries make us more indebted and less free to make our own choices now or in the future – and that too for, what is at the best, a doubtful gain. If the government is really serious about a good quality education for all, the first thing it should have done is to make

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Innovation is important

Aditi Mathur and Ratnesh Mathur We are an alternative school. This means we provide an alternative system of learning to the mainstream education system being followed countrywide. We want to wholeheartedly support the objective of RTE (which is to offer the opportunity of an education to one and all). However, RTE does not support us! RTE prescribes a certain kind of education as suitable to all. RTE does not support an alternative pathway to learning. Hence, any organization or groups of individuals who do not necessarily subscribe to what the government terms as education suffer. Some of these groups are loosely called alternative education systems and individuals are called as home schoolers. The common thread that binds us is that we do not necessarily align ourselves either to the goals of education as proposed by the government, or the methods, or in some cases both. About a couple of hundred years ago education was structured by western societies. Even our society adopted this structure. Now, however, questions are being raised about this very structure and its usefulness. People are looking for alternative religions, lifestyles, vocations, and education. Open learning (specially bolstered by the internet) is the name of the game. People are being employed not because of their degrees but because of their abilities. In such a scenario, it becomes imperative that the government give space to innovations in education. We need license and legitimacy to bring fresh thought outside the structure, to bring deeper meaning into education as postulated by great minds like Gandhiji, Aurobindo, and Krishnamurthy, to name a few. To us at Aarohi, education is synonymous with living one’s life. And if a family is allowed to live its life in the way it pleases (within legal boundaries) – the same needs to be extended to education. At Aarohi each child decides what to learn, how to learn, how much to learn, when to learn and how well one has learned. This means we may not adhere to the structure of conventional class (age) and curriculum based schooling. Rather ours is child- based learning. While government fulfils its mass education objective, it could ensure that individuals or groups who are keen to bring fresh perspectives into education are given their space. Here are some suggestions: Let NIOS continue to offer a legitimate way to every child who wants to opt out of regular schooling, yet get the education he or she deserves. Allow parents to opt out of regular schooling by registering

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Adivasis, education and the RTE Act

B Ramdas In the Gudalur Block of the Nilgiris District 99 per cent of the drop outs are adivasi children. Hardly 40 per cent of those who enroll finish school. Our surveys at the Class 5 level in Tamil language and Maths show that only 60 per cent of the adivasi children can just about pass Tamil and not even 30 per cent pass Maths. This is the kind of challenge that we are faced with. This is not an isolated instance that adivasis face. A quick glance at UNICEF’s report on the status of education among Adivasi children in India based on the study conducted by the National Institute of Advance Studies, Bangalore, and which is now tabled in Parliament, shows the pathetic state of education among the adivasis in this country and how they are being steadily and almost deliberately marginalized. Without going into the details, I have culled out here four of the nine Key Problems taken out of the Findings Chapter of the Report: Overall, the mainstream does not recognize the contemporary conditions, predicament, diversity of aspirations and needs of most Adivasis Systemic (political, policy, administrative levels) marginalization and inivisibilization of Adivasi interests account for the failure to provide adequate, relevant and quality education at all levels (elementary, secondary and higher) to most adivasis. The education administration apparatus that oversees the delivery of educational programmes has been developed and deployed in a mode of assimilation and domination which only reproduces the range of inequalities and disadvantages that most Adivasis face. The neglect of adivasi knowledge forms,languages and cultural practices has been detrimental to the cultural core of Adivasis and to the knowledge corpus of the nation. New curricular approaches such as multilingualism and locally specific education have been few and far between. Retaining the positive ethos of Adivasi life-worlds while also enabling them to engage with the larger world continues to be the major challenge.1 Our school, the Vidyodaya Adivasi School, has, I believe, overcome many of these challenges and provides a necessary model for anyone who wants to see. How did we go about this? When we began our work 20 years ago the conversation between the Headmaster of the Tribal school and the adivasi parent would go like this: “What is your son’s name?” the Head Master would ask the adivasi father who had come to admit his child in the Govt. Tribal Residential school. “Karalan” the father would reply. “What kind of a name is that?” the Headmaster

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Our efforts will continue

Jaya Rangarajan There is a thin line of difference between failure and success…… an appropriate education makes all the difference. This core belief, has sustained the education offered at Little Angels’ SAPLING, an alternative school in Mumbai, for nearly 28 years. A pioneering institution, SAPLING as the school is more popularly known, absorbs students who are forced to leave mainstream schools mainly due to academic, behavioural, or medical reasons. By adopting a curriculum that offers myriad opportunities for learning in varied situations and areas, SAPLING is able to transform these students into successful learners with hopes of a productive and fulfilling future. Much before ‘life skills’ became a popular concept, SAPLING incorporated it into its curriculum as it did in other areas of learning like arts, vocational learning, regular physical training, outdoor activities that included mountaineering camps, field trips; enabling the participation of each student in the activities offered by adapting the same to suit their unique needs and further ensuring that learning takes place for all. Education for all, learning for all, a student-friendly and student-centred education in an atmosphere of mutual respect and tolerance: these are intrinsic to SAPLING as they are to the RTE, and yet today the school is in danger of having to close or change direction because it is unable to fulfil a crucial requirement of the RTE Act; that of being recognized by the government. Not just SAPLING, but other alternative, innovative, and experimental schools find themselves in the same situation. We cannot go into defining these terms but for the purpose of discussion, we could take schools that differ from the government notified rules and regulations pertaining to educational institutions as being alternative. It is sad that while there has been a great deal of debate and discussion on the issue of 25% reservation for disadvantaged children under RTE, not much notice has been taken of the RTE’s neglect and dismissal of alternative forms of education currently existing in India. The government’s flip-flop on this has hardly helped matters. In July 2012, the MHRD in response to a petition filed by Shreya Sahai who petitioned the court for the government to include home schooling and alternate education under Sec. 2 of the RTE, said that the RTE is not against alternate education. In October of the same year, the government changed its stand and affirmed that alternate education is not permissible under RTE. More recently, the High Court of Delhi, in response to the petition of Shreya

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Give us this day our daily… lesson plan!

Sayujya Sankar and Sangeeta Menon Ms. Ruchi Arora, a mentor teacher for English at Sancta Maria International School, believes that lesson planning is essential for a class to go on smoothly. Using the information in the curriculum as her point of reference, she plans what she is going to be doing in class for the entire week. The lesson plan, while theoretical, is based heavily on the students she is working with. She notes that it is essential to understand the learner’s ability in order to prepare for his or her class. She introduces a general worksheet or questions the students orally, thereby finding out where each student stands in relation to the rest of the class with regard to a given topic. After this introductory activity, she groups the students according to their learning capability. While the introductory activity is the same for the whole class, the lessons planned based on these activities are different, so that they cater to different levels within the classroom. At the end of every week, she believes that it is necessary to evaluate what has been done in class. This gives her a clear understanding of whether and to what extent the student has managed to understand the concept. Thus, according to her, the lesson plan is fixed, while the way it is executed differs from student to student. The lesson plan, however, is not only the information that is taken from the curriculum, but also involves research material used for the class. This material can come from anywhere. For instance, Ms. Arora uses resources as varied as the Internet, books, and ideas incorporated from prior experiences as well as her own innovative techniques. Mrs. Ratnalekha Shetty, teacher and principal of Sancta Maria International School, believes that “Only if you plan, you deliver well.” She also says that it is necessary to break down a forty-minute class into slots of 10 or 20 minutes each, so that the student does not get bored during the session. This helps maintain the concentration level in the classroom. Finally, she also says that every lesson plan ought to have room for reflection. It is this, in fact, that will help the teacher even more than the actual planning, as knowing which ideas failed and which worked will help teachers evolve their teaching methodology. It gives a good idea about what one can take up in the lesson plans that they would create later as well. Ms. Meghana Musunri, teacher and president

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Adding the experience element

Harini Kumar Eliminating mediocrity in education is a motto of EZ Vidya, an education solutions provider for schools. What is it that mainstream schools are not doing that would need supplementary efforts from such organizations? Founded ten years ago in Chennai with the mission “Let the child blossom”, EZ Vidya provides products and services to schools with respect to academic curricula, training of teachers and helping schools enhance their approach to education. Chitra Ravi, founder and CEO of EZ Vidya says that technology has played an important role in their interventions, through their products. While they share schools’ basic objective of imparting knowledge, organizations like EZ Vidya propagate a different approach to learning that many schools are now lapping up and reaping the benefits of. “We noticed that teachers are unable to get into the mind of the learner, and this is where we come in,” says Chitra Ravi. “Through an interactive and participatory approach that addresses the learning needs of today, our products motivate children to learn by providing multiple stimuli.” EZ Vidya’s flagship product, Chrysalis – a complete information and communication technology (ICT) curriculum package that includes textbooks, workbooks and audio-visual material – offers what have come to be known as ‘21st century skills’. Schools that enroll with them replace their conventional materials with those provided by EZ Vidya, which ensures that there is a fit with the syllabus that the school follows. EZ Vidya also offers training for teachers in order to bridge the gap between education research and what is being imparted in schools. Curricula in mainstream Indian schools are often regarded as being heavy with content, weighing down students with concepts and definitions. Learning then becomes a weary, monotonous exercise that runs the risk of stunting a child’s personality growth. By using technology meaningfully, such products and services serve as a wake-up call to educators to improve their teaching methodology, question the basics, and offer a new curriculum while still adhering to the National Curriculum Framework (NCF) of 2005 and working within the guidelines laid out in national and state education policies. Through interactive workbooks, EZ Vidya seeks to trigger the thoughts of students by appealing to their different senses, giving them a chance to learn experientially rather than through a didactic method. For example, when a scientific phenomenon is explained through a poem to a student who likes poetry, it could create a more lasting impression than a simplistic definition that one usually sees in textbooks. Qualitative growth is

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Parent as teacher? Views from centre stage

Purvi Shah My experiences as a student have largely defined the way I view my children’s education. Having done well academically all my life it was only when I attended my MBA classes at NMIMS that I started questioning what education was all about. When the time came for my son to join a pre-school, the journey was marked with many emotions, lots of talks and discussions with a lot of like-minded people. Somewhere I oscillated between Waldorf, Montessori and homeschooling. Finally I decided on a new Montessori started by two wonderful teachers. What moved me towards the school was an environment where he felt safe, where he was happy and most importantly where there was no “pressure to perform”. While I think homeschooling is wonderful, it didn’t really suit us. I had been exposed to homeschooling about 11 years ago when I was in the US and simply fell in love with the concept. But once you become a mother you start to realize what your own strengths are. For kruthath (my son), because of his allergies, I had to homeschool him for five months and I did not enjoy it. So I guess to each his own. But I think if I were to go back and see what I had loved about the homeschooling family, it was the fact that the children did diverse things; explorations were 360 degrees and much beyond their age. This is something that I also do with krutarth on a particular topic even though he goes to school. Samina Mishra I don’t know enough about homeschooling but based on the little I do know, I don’t think homeschooling is an option for Imran. Both Kunal and I need to work full time and my understanding of homeschooling is that it requires a fair amount of time from the parents. In another kind of situation and perhaps, if we were not living in a big city, I would have considered this. But the pressures of living in a big city do not leave us with a lot of time in our everyday life, and so I would like the time that we do get to spend with Imran to be as free of structure as possible – to read, play, watch and just be together without any agendas. And I think homeschooling – as opposed to unschooling – would require some kind of structure, some engagement with what he’s learning. I do understand that learning takes place in

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Looking back… moving forward

Reena Ginwala If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured and far away… – Henry David Thoreau We become parents by default. Today we know better than to take our role of parenting for granted; lest the joyful opportunities for celebration and personal growth pass us by and the threats loom larger than they may actually be. Did we know that parenting would be a unique opportunity to witness the life of our own precious creation? That our children would be the driving force for all the choices we make? Parenting is a phase in which our daily lives are a combination of ups and downs, pulls and pushes at such an intimate and intense level that parenting is no longer a phenomenon of choice. ‘Once a parent always a parent’: our energy, skill sets, conditioning, creativity and innovation define our own experience and the impact we make on our children. I feared my destiny, until I realized that I had the power to change my life. I feared change, until I saw that even the most beautiful butterfly had to undergo a metamorphosis before it could fly… – Author Unknown As a mother of three daughters, one of my most important missions was to create a learning environment which would be a combination of the nurturing environment of a home and the challenging environment of a school. Homeschooling was the obvious answer, and I even felt excited and confident of taking up that challenge! However, my need for financial independence as a single parent did not allow me the luxury of staying at home to ‘teach’ my daughters and explore the world of science, arts, languages and more with them. Thus began my journey to guide them on their search for knowledge through the least ‘damaging’ schools, fearlessly changing schools if I found a better alternative. I believe a good school can offer a healthy, creative, encouraging and intellectually stimulating atmosphere for a child to explore various facets of life, as she steps into the real world. It can offer a non-judgmental space to children, to make mistakes, learn from the outcomes and be responsible as well as emotionally strong. It may not be able to offer complete protection from conflicts, accidents, failures, and unnecessary exposure as a nurturing home can. I hoped to inculcate values of honesty, empathy, co-operation and commitment

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