Sunday Musings

‘He needs to score more marks. He has lost 4-5 marks in language and literature, and in my subject, general science. Though he has got 100% in mathematics, I’m not sure if that is correct, as his math teacher is very lenient…’ That is how the conversation between my six and a half year old son’s class teacher of grade 1 and me, started yesterday. It was the first parent-teacher meeting after his first term tests. ‘And yes,’ she went on, ‘His handwriting has gone to the dogs…’ Sniff, sniff! My son sat next to me. I wondered what was going on in his mind. ‘If he had got ten more marks, I would have ranked him,’ she rued. Thus, in the general remarks section, she had written, ‘Good. Could do better. Try for higher rank.’ We discussed nothing else about his schooling experience.

As this monologue went on, I interrupted: ‘I’m not so much concerned about his marks…I know he is intelligent.’ What bothered me instead was this overt emphasis on scoring marks, almost to the exclusion of everything else. What a stifling way to begin one’s schooling!

Just the other day, as I was helping him with his math homework, I discovered that he had started learning subtraction with borrowing. He had been taught, ‘When the number below is more than the number above you have to borrow one from the neighbor…’ I soon found out that this had been taught without introducing the notion of place value. The teaching of mathematics depends on a sequence in which higher order concepts cannot be taught without first teaching the more basic concepts. This was just one instance where this rule had been violated.

I requested a meeting with the math teacher, an old woman who had probably seen many years of teaching. “We have taught them ‘units and tens’,” she said. For proof’s sake, she asked my son. He nodded in agreement. But her explanation was not satisfactory. What does ‘borrow the one’ mean? Are we really borrowing one? Why should we borrow only one? It was clear that this had not been explained. Likewise, in addition, children are told to ‘carry forward’. Unlike subtraction in which you can subtract only one number at a time, in addition, one can add any number of numbers. You can carry forward more than one: thus, when we add the numbers 9, 19 and 27, 9+9+9 = 27. We then write down 7 and ‘carry forward 2’, i.e. 20, which is actually two tens (or two units of ten). All of this looks like a bag of tricks which children learn quite fast through endless repetition at school and home. What they do not learn is the underlying structure of the numbers, and how this structure comes into play during number operations. For this, a basic idea of place value is necessary. This expands the child’s conception of number and prepares her for greater learning adventures.

I have seen much older children going around chanting this ‘borrow the one’ procedure as they solve subtraction sums. Thus, by limiting ourselves to a teaching of mathematical procedure, we are preventing the child from understanding the deeper structures and patterns of the subject. This is not surprising, since teachers have also come through the same system for years. It has worked because exams also do not test understanding. Even if they cannot understand everything in the first instance, it is our job as teachers and parents to set them up on that path. I have come across many 90%+ children whose understanding of the basics is very suspect.
One of the aims of education, I would believe, is to foster understanding in children. Much to my frustration, I continue to discover this aim being bypassed without much thought, day after day. ‘I must change his school soon,’ I thought. Finding a school which teaches for understanding is going to be difficult…

Giri
18th November 2007
Bangalore

What are we doing with our children?

The development of the Kargil Education Strategy (KES) document has now entered the final stage. After many months of hard work beginning from March this year, we are now in a position to present our key findings and suggest ways forward in order to improve the education we provide for our children in the coming years. While we are very excited about sharing what all we have found with the people of Kargil, we are also very disturbed with many of our findings. These have often angered and frustrated us. Sometimes, we have also been puzzled as to why things are the way they are. Of course, there has been no shortage of explanations – we have our own theories to explain what we have found!

A key aspect that attracts a lot of attention in children’s education is their achievement on some agreed upon indicators – through these parameters, we would like to find out what children have learnt after a few years of schooling. Some indicators are universally recognized – go to any country, and you will find many a person interested in education, discussing them -- the so called ‘achievement’ indicators which test children’s abilities in basic arithmetic and language. For me, these indicators are not the only things which tell us if our education system is functioning well. Still, they are an important part of what children should achieve after a few years of schooling.

As part of the field studies in 24 villages all over Kargil district, we investigated various aspects that determine children’s education. One of these was the testing of children’s abilities in arithmetic and language. We tested 99 grade 5 children (29 boys and 70 girls, i.e., all grade 5 children from these 24 villages) for elementary arithmetic and oral, reading and writing skills. Please note that the tests were all pitched at grade 2 and grade 3. We have summarized the results of the arithmetic test for you. In a nutshell, this is how the results look:

Addition -- 76% boys and 65% girls could do the addition sums
Subtraction -- 63% boys and 55% girls could do the subtraction problems
Multiplication -- 55% boys and 44% girls could solve simple multiplication sums
Division -- 31% boys and 31% girls only could correctly solve division problems

I would leave you to understand the figures we have obtained. You can do your own analysis and put forward your own explanations. Still, let me leave you with some thoughts and questions. Firstly, what are we doing with our children? Why are these results the way they are? Who is responsible for this state of affairs? What worries me is that after five years of schooling, grade 5 children are not able to solve the most elementary grade 2 or grade 3 level arithmetic problems. I would be tempted to say that we are cheating them and wasting their time in school! What would the results have been like if we had administered a grade 5 level test, instead?

On the whole, the difference between boys and girls is not as high as one would have expected. There are significant inter-block variations, though, like in Kargil, Taisuru and Zanskar blocks, for example. The only block where girls outsmart boys is in Drass. The figures for Drass bring some respectability within the overall % for girls. Otherwise, the overall differences would have been stark. One more point – we should do an ‘error analysis’ to find out what are the kinds of mistakes children are committing, and identify the reasons for the same. The teaching and understanding of place value, for instance, seems to be one of the key problems.

One last comment – notice the huge difference in the number of boys and girls in grade 5 in these 24 government schools. There were 29 boys and 70 girls at the time of the test. Where are the rest of the boys? My guess is that they flood the private fee-charging schools. This shows clearly where parents are putting their money to educate their children. Of course, this demands another article.

Do write in, and tell me your reactions.

Its the small things that matter

Small things count. Sounds clichéd, right? The sooner we realize this, the better. Let me start with a simple example. Then, we can go on to something more complex. This will require another article though.

For about ten years now, I have religiously followed the habit of collecting small change in the form of coins. I began this when I landed in Delhi on a wintry day in 1997. Pretty soon, I discovered how useful this practice was. At the end of the month, with a few days to go before the next salary cheque came my way, I discovered that the amount I had collected was enough to help me through the remaining days. Over time, as my financial situation improved somewhat, I decided not to spend this amount.

In due course, marriage happened, in 2000. The small change collection continued, though. I introduced the idea to my wife, and she seemed to like it though at first there was amusement expressed. Pretty soon, the counting of coins together became a regular feature of our married existence. As the amounts swelled, we swelled too, from inside, with happiness and with some pride. On an average, we discovered, we could collect rupees five hundred every month – bus travel, auto travel, eating out, buying vegetables and fruits, and other daily chores, selling old newspapers and magazines, brought in the moolah. We made it a point not to transact with coins. Once we had collected some coins for the day, we would fiercely ‘protect’ them – we never used them to make any payment, unless there was no alternative. I followed this more strictly than my wife. The coins were collected in different containers after sorting the 25 and 50 paise coins, and the one, two and five rupee coins. We used a combination of plastic containers and two or three small baskets that I had got from the famous Jagannath Temple in Puri, Orissa, on one of my travels. Our practice therefore had a divine sanction!

“At this rate, we can start one LIC insurance policy per year”, I quipped once. We had by then started two LIC policies, each requiring nearly six and a half thousand rupees per year. “On second thoughts, I suggest we use this as a travel fund…once in a while, we need to go out of Delhi to see different places…” This worked once, when we drove out to Mathura on a hot, humid day in August 2002. Our son, nearly one and a half by then, was with us.

The third suggestion I had was to use this as a ‘construction fund’. By then, we had purchased a plot of land in a very beautiful location of Bangalore. I had started dreaming about our ultimate home, where I would have a study with loads of books, where I could invite friends for a conversation, and give them coffee and pakodas on a rainy day. My wife had laughed at this suggestion. “So you’ll buy one tap, or half a door…?” “Even that can make a difference”, I had said adamantly. “One tap at a time, one door at a time…that’s how a house is made…”

Seven years later, we still continue to collect coins, in the same plastic containers and baskets. My own estimate is that we have collected about thirty thousand rupees! Tomorrow, I will deposit another two thousand rupees in the bank where we have an account specifically for this small change. For now, I have given up ideas about travel and construction, though they are still tempting. We are open to spending this money in a useful way should the need arise in the future.

Small things count, right? We are still counting…

August 2007

Words as refuge

Words have a way of obscuring the real thing. We often take refuge in them and use them to say one thing, and mean something else. This happens both in our personal and professional lives. So, for example, when someone says ‘I love you’, it is a nice way of hiding many different emotions, ideas and impulses under the word ‘love’. The person to whom this statement is made also has the option of choosing meanings she thinks is appropriate in that context. In due course of time, both persons involved will know if what was said was in consonance with what happened. Actions, it is said, speak louder than words. I have used the above example because it happens to be the most used and abused statement.

Actually, I was prompted to write this article as a result of a workshop that I facilitated in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands recently. We were talking about the impact of the tsunami on young preschool aged children. The last session was a sort of visioning exercise in which the participants were asked to visualize the kind of scenario they wanted to see a few years hence with respect to young children affected by the tsunami, their growth, their environment and their development. For the sake of our discussion, I have reproduced some statements below.

‘The parents and community should participate more…’
‘The quality of the centers should be better…’
‘Those concerned should show greater commitment…’
“The preschool center should have more materials…’

This is like a nice wish list. Still, I’m not complaining because one cannot deny the situation or state in the future that these statements reflect. I also do not doubt the intentions of those who made these statements. Where I have a problem is in the utter lack of visualization in these above statements – they do not tell us much, and they cannot help us move forward. When I asked the participants what they meant when they used words like participation, quality, commitment and so on, most of them struggled to explain. The one notable exception was the statement from a participant that ‘I would like to see someone from the community walk into the preschool center everyday to see what is happening, spend some time with the teacher and children…this is part of my vision of how young children should be growing up.’ The same participant also went on to share her images of how children would be using the physical space at the center, and the activities they would be engaged in. There was feeling in what she said. You could sense it.

Imagination seems to have gone out of our lives. I realized this as I was facilitating that final session. Following years of interactions, discussions, presentations etc around the same themes and issues, we tend to convert these (and many other…) words into abstractions. It is then assumed that the other person knows what this abstraction means. Words become symbols that convey a variety of meanings, depending on the context.

This tendency for abstraction may be a natural feature of any language, and it is certainly an effective way of communicating with one another. It allows us to economize the way we use language. The danger we fall into is that we allow these words to take the place of images, so vitally important for us to dream, conceive of a better future, and invest all our energies towards making this future happen. At this epoch in human history, the exercise of imagining is even more important than before, for we face gargantuan challenges as a species to even exist.

Let us then reclaim space for imagination, dreaming…Three years ago, in 2004, I happened to attend the World Social Forum in Mumbai. The slogan at the forum was ‘Another World is Possible.’ How powerful! How beautiful…! There were so many discussions about what this slogan meant to each one of us, and many of us shared our dreams for the kind of world we wanted to see and leave for our children. This is the point I wish to make: dream, imagine, feel…for our individual and collective futures.

29th July
Leh, Ladakh, India

Movement...

I wanted to share with you some thoughts that were thrown up in my mind recently, on my train journey from Bikaner to Delhi. I managed to dash off again to the desert for just a day after a hectic round of traveling...!

The Delhi-Bikaner train runs on meter gauge, and is a smaller train. My guess is that it therefore shakes and vibrates that much more…While I was returning on that night, I couldn't sleep easily...too many thoughts were whirring around in my poor brain...

Suddenly, I realized how interesting it would be, if one could plot on paper, the motion of my body -- you would of course get a curve showing the general direction in which the train was moving. This curve would have many squiggles on either side of it, representing the sideways and up and down movement of the train. In three dimensional representation, perhaps, the motion of my body could also be represented...

Suddenly, I realized how much movement there was, generally...

While I was moving towards Delhi thus, the earth was rotating on its axis...and was hurtling through space, around the sun, at 18 miles per second...the sun was rotating on its axis, the planets were going around the sun in their prescribed paths, rotating and revolving, taking their own times...the sun itself was moving, revolving around the center of the Milky Way galaxy...it would take 250 million years for one revolution of the sun around the center of the galaxy...the Milky Way contains 1,00,000 million (!) suns, all moving in their own paths, rotating and revolving around the center...the galaxy itself was rotating, and hurtling though space at an incredible speed...and there are billions of such galaxies...the mind recoils from imagining such vastness and complexity...!!

The fundamental thing is that there is so much movement everywhere...within and without.

Lovers move, when they make love, in erotic, erratic and unpredictable ways...leaves and flags flutter in the breeze, butterflies move from flower to flower...trains, buses, planes, bullock carts, horses, donkeys, dogs, cats, snakes...all move of their own volition...water...blood moves and oozes out...and clots…

The fundamental thing is that there is so much movement everywhere...within and without.

We move in our sleep...and when we are awake...organs inside of us move...each cell is moving...it has a purpose...huge aggregates of molecules inside these cells move...cells die, humans die, are born again, and there is movement...

The fundamental thing is that there is so much movement everywhere...within and without.

Molecules move, and atoms move inside them...electrons move inside the atoms, rotating and revolving around the nucleus...the nucleus itself moves, rotates, vibrates...there are particles inside these sub-atomic particles, which move mysteriously, and of their own
volition...particles within particles within particles -- where is the end? Is it a particle or a wave...? There is a universe within, just as there is a universe without...again, my imagination recoils and I'm awestruck at this creation...where is the end...the beginning...what am I, who am I?

The fundamental thing is that there is so much movement everywhere...within and without.

Thought is movement...our feelings, passions, sensations...cannot happen without movement...good thoughts, good movement...? Bad thoughts, bad movement...? Evolution is movement...Insight...is movement...Love...is movement...lust...is movement...

The fundamental thing is that there is so much movement everywhere...within and without.

Is there anything that is completely still...without any movement? Can stillness exist with chaos?

The act of writing this is a movement...

Delhi
16th October 2001

Education as Dialectic: Children in Dialogue with a Community Member

Education as dialectic: children in dialogue with a community member

I had the opportunity of translating this very interesting diary entry of a teacher from Bodh Shiksha Samiti’s Bodhshala (in Jaipur) when I undertook an in-depth documentation of Bodh’s work last year (2006). This classroom transaction shows us the possibilities of an education that encourages rational thinking and enquiry…

“Today, there were 19 children in the ‘Badal’ group (ages 8-10 years) of the Guru Teg Bahadur Basti Bodhshala. The topic for discussion was identified by the children themselves. Four days back, we had all felt the tremors of an earthquake. The children had begun discussing this event in the Badal group. They also discussed their experiences of the tremor with me. I observed them following assertions being made in conversations with each other:

1. ‘The earth rests on one horn of a cow. When this horn gets tired, the cow shifts the earth on to the second horn. That is when the earth starts shaking…’
2. The earth rests on the hood of a snake. When the snake starts swaying and hissing, the earth shakes…’

There must have been many more such imaginative examples generated by the children in their numerous conversations.

That year, the Bodhshala was regularly inviting parents and community representatives to take part in its activities. We had two objectives. One, we wanted them to become familiar with what was happening in the Bodhshalas. Two, we wanted them to share their knowledge, understanding and experiences with children. Bodh believes this to be important.

It was Diler Singh’s turn at the Bodhshala today.

I could see that the children became happy when they saw Diler Singh walk in. He was a calm and soft looking person, and the children liked him very much. They were waiting to discuss with him the question ‘What does the earth rest on?’ They had already decided on this before he came. Once he was seated and settled, they placed for him the question: ‘Please tell us, what does the earth rest or stand on?’

Diler Singh pondered for a while. Instead of responding with an answer, he asked another question: ‘What makes you all think that the earth is standing or resting on something?’ Promptly, the children shared with him their experiences of the tremor, and the questions that arose from that experience.

He then said, ‘Look here! This whole thing is a miracle of nature. Your ideas that the earth rests on the horn of a cow or the hood of a snake are all wrong. In reality, the earth rests on a pillar on which is inscribed the name of Lord Ram…When there is much sin on the earth, Lord Ram becomes angry. Then the pillar shakes and so does the earth…’ Barely had he finished speaking, when a barrage of questions was hurled at him by the children even as the group lapsed into chaos.

One child asked: ‘Have you seen God?’

Another child jumped into the fray: ‘What is this Miracle of Nature?’

A third challenged him: ‘How can you prove that the earth does not rest on the horn of a cow?’

Diler Singh was shaken and disturbed. I was not used to seeing him this way. He normally came across as a calm human being. I fell silent. As the volley of questions subsided and as silence set in, a soft voice persisted: ‘Have you seen that pillar of Lord Ram?’ The group again became restive and chaotic. In that din, I could hear Diler Singh’s angry voice: ‘What kind of education is this? You have given the children such a long rope…without any proper discussion they ask all sorts of questions. They do not listen silently, to understand the reality…’ Thus, he raved and ranted.

I tried to collect my wits and regain my confidence following his outburst. Suddenly, the children sensed that something was amiss. As I cautiously looked at them, I could make out that they were all looking guilty, as if they had owned up for a crime they had committed. I tried to reassure them with a smile which was meant to say, ‘Don’t worry, it is not your mistake.’

Diler Singh eventually calmed down and asked me, ‘Why are you keeping silent? You are not saying anything to me or the children.’ His question made me feel at ease. I then decided to continue this process and suggested that everyone could take a piece of paper and draw a picture of the earth and the object on which it rested, as they imagined it. Diler Singh too participated in this exercise. As he started drawing, I noticed that he had a difficulty of balancing the earth on the pillar of Lord Ram…coupled with this frustration, and his curiosity to find out what the children were drawing, he started looking around.

As the minutes passed, I could sense that something seemed to have happened inside him. Something seemed to have changed in him for ever. Resignedly, he said, ‘This is very difficult….I learnt today that talking about something is so easy. So is accepting what someone says, without asking any questions. To prove things, however, is far more difficult. I’m beginning to see that it is not alright if we accept anything without first understanding it. Before this, I used to think that only those children are ‘good’, who learn well, who silently listen to what is being taught and give answers when asked, based on what they have been told.’

There was no need for me to explain any further. The children and I continued to discuss the question. ‘What does the earth rest on…?’

[Translated from the notes of Kusum, then Bodhshala teacher (1992)]

Giri
January 2006

Jaipur

Living with and Learning from Conflict

Living with and Learning from Conflict

There are so many examples I can give about what I am now going to say. Through examples, we can argue, make a point, build a theory, deepen our understanding about ourselves, about those around us, and about the universe in which we live.

Just the other day, our maid servant left us without any warning. I guess she was not looking forward to it any longer. The arrival of our daughter meant the extra workload in terms of washing nappies, more vessels, more cleaning and more odd jobs in and around the house. Silently, she took her salary for the month and left, and all our efforts to contact her came to nought. The womenfolk in the house felt snubbed. ‘How could she do this? How arrogant she must be! How much have we given her all these years!’

My wife and mother-in-law and sister-in-law desperately looked around. I was worried for my wife and daughter. Stress levels mounted for a while. Sure enough, within a week, a few women came by. They were all tough negotiators, and they knew what they were looking for. ‘Too much work’ they all grumbled. ‘The house on the first floor is too big’, one of them said. We continued to pay them on a day to day basis, hoping that one of them would settle in. The womenfolk were anyway unhappy with the quality of their work. I tried consoling my wife with ‘You first need to relate with them and tell them what you expect. It will take sometime for them to understand.’

A young woman in her twenties, who was thrown out by her husband for an unwanted pregnancy, came in one day. I did not get to see her, as I was out on some meeting when she came in. My wife was pretty pleased even as she complained. ‘She does her work well, but she stayed for three hours, washing and scrubbing!’ The other thing that irritated my wife, mother-in-law and my son was that this woman had brought in with her, her three year old daughter who wouldn’t sit in one place and went around touching everyone and everything. But they were quite sure that the little kid would not come along everyday.

The next day, my son told me as a matter of fact: ‘You should tell her not to bring her daughter to our house.’ I was curious to learn his reason. ‘She came and touched me.’ I reacted immediately. ‘So? Is she not a kid, like you? You can play with her.’

The earliest years of a child’s life last a lifetime, it is often said. How true! Our children watch us, and size us up everyday. They think about everything we say, and they learn even more from everything that we do. Pretty soon, they are able to see through what we say and what we end up doing. Values are formed, opinions are made, and beliefs are set. These will often last a lifetime, and they will often escape scrutiny. In our middle class homes, and in the closed and rigid schools that our children attend, there are very few opportunities or children to question what they are taught. Schooling, in many ways, mirrors who we are and how we live. It reproduces family and societal norms, values, beliefs, upbringing and so on, often without critical exploration and assessment. Pretty soon, children actually stop asking questions because the adults are either inept at answering them, or do not want to answer them. Children then learn to live with authority. They learn to ignore or bury deep within themselves the many questions that keep popping up in their minds about the way they live, eat, play, relate with others, and grow.

I can give many more examples. We can each make our personal lists! Each example, I’m sure, will illustrate how our worldviews, biases and prejudices operate in our daily lives. Each of these examples, I’m sure, can be traced back to childhood experiences and how these experiences have shaped each one of us. However, the underlying point for discussion is how we as parents and teachers can help children imbibe those values that will make them recognize and respect diversity even as they recognize sameness. By diversity, I not only mean colour, religion, language, location etc – diversity, in my opinion, also encompasses the problems of poverty, the problems that give rise to the haves and have nots, the problem of access to resources and so on – in short, understanding diversity means understanding all about who we are, where we came from, and why we are that way. As parents and teachers, we indeed have a tall order in making children understand the complexities and contradictions of our lives. For this to happen, we need to first start moving out of our comfort zones. We need to prepare ourselves to examine these complexities and contradictions.

Naturally, I worry about all these things as a parent. I worry when my son doesn’t want to touch another child just because an adult voice of authority asks him not to. I worry when he gets exposed to the many mind numbing saas-bahu serials where men and women are busy plotting each other’s downfall. I worry when he has to follow ludicrous rules about dirt and contamination everyday. I worry when he is told not to ask his teacher questions. I worry…but I also want to act.

Often, I find myself arguing with the other adults around me. Often, these arguments take on a violent turn. Sometimes, I get reprimanded if I break rules. Sometimes, there is space for dialogue. This is when my hopes soar, and my determination is regained. Very often, all of this is played out in front of my son. He often gets to see diametrically opposite views and actions that emanate from those views. Will this lead to confusion for him? Will this close his mind, numb him and put him in a shell, a comfort zone? Only time will tell. I don’t think confusion can be avoided. It will inevitably come. Patiently, if I can help him develop the ability to examine events and actions around him, and the ability to decide his positions and beliefs, I will have played my role as parent. Answers will not come easily. But it is the ability to examine conflict in and around us, and grapple with it, which can be said to be one of the chief tasks of education, in school or outside it. After all, it is not so much an issue about taking a moral or intellectual high ground – it is all about finding meaning and charting our own paths, without bowing to authority.

Giri
24 June 2007

Kargil

This is what we feel about our education...echoes from Kargil

These days, I keep visiting one of the remotest mountainous districts of this country. Thanks to the Autonomous Hill Development Council of Kargil district which has invited me to help them develop an educational strategy for the entire district, I have visited Kargil three times since January this year. As part of this work, I came into contact during my March visit with a group of young men and women who shared their experiences of getting educated in the schools of Kargil. They talked about what they liked about their schooling, and what they wished was different. It makes interesting reading and leaves us with several questions…

“First, let us tell the nice things. We liked the co-educational system which was good. It helps you mix freely with members of the opposite sex. This should happen from the beginning itself. We had good friends; we played a lot of games together and the company of friends was good. The school was close to our houses. Our school had lots of activities and games – in the classroom also they had lots of activities. There was discipline – the teachers and children were punctual; school cleanliness was maintained well. We had a good library. We enjoyed the school picnics we had now and then!

Some of the schools we studied in had a few experienced/senior teachers – they were good, and they taught us well. Some teachers often punished us, but also explained why they did so. Though we did not like it then, we realize now that it was useful. May be all that beating and punishment is sometimes useful! We feel that local teachers are much better than the ones who come from far away, often outside the district. These non-local teachers are not sensitive.

Some of us had supportive parents, who guided us. They were always vigilant about our activities in and outside school. You know, our communities are also powerful. They have sometimes brought in capable teachers, and got those transferred who were not teaching well.

Now, listen to the not so nice things. To begin with, we would like to state that we were given an aimless education that led us nowhere. We were often told that good marks would lead to good jobs. But is education only about getting good jobs? Not everybody gets good jobs anyway!

We did not know why we were made to study the various subjects. What is the reward for studying the various subjects? We were not told this, and we did not have a clue.
May be, we need to have a positive outlook. Then things will change. You know, everyone wants to do good. Maybe the methods that are used are not appropriate, like the beating of children. Maybe the focus on exams should go. Maybe rote methods and memorization should go…

Most of our schools did not have a library. The school surroundings were often not kept clean. We did not have extra curricular activities for us to express our talents, feelings, ideas, thoughts. Most often, our schools did not have benches for us to sit on. We would sit on long, narrow mats, one behind the other. Our schools did not also have a proper playground – whatever space was available, was very small for all of us to play and enjoy. Our schools did not have any lab facilities; we were only ‘told’ the theory. On few occasions we got to see some experiments and then we realized how nice it would be to always experiment and learn!

Our teachers were not disciplined, and they were not punctual. They would often abuse us verbally and beat us. Often, they did not wear clean clothes themselves. We found that there was no unity among teachers – they did not think well of each other sometimes. You know, they lacked the ability to teach us well. Our teachers lacked the experience to teach us well.

Did we play too much in school? We now wonder! Our teachers did not insist that we should study. We realized what we had lost, much later…

We should have been given more tests and exams by our teachers – this would have helped in monitoring our learning and our progress. Teachers who were not locals were not sensitive towards us – they were also partial in their attitude towards some children. Often they were not serious…the other problem was that we did not understand the language used by teachers who were not local – they also did not understand our language. Thus, we could not relate with them, and they, with us. Beating/physical punishment was common – teachers often used ‘innovative’ techniques to punish us! Some images will not go away, like the teacher shoving in our mouths a ball of paper and then beating us hard; being kicked hard by the teachers was common…

Teachers also treated the so called ‘weak’ and ‘strong’ or ‘intelligent’ children very differently – the weak children would often be asked to sit at the back. Often, such children even left school, unable to bear the humiliation. Many teachers engaged in tuition after school hours. If we did not attend these tuition classes, teachers would deliberately mark us less in the tests and exams, even if we did well. Rote methods and memorization were mainly followed by our teachers – the focus was entirely on doing well in the exams, and guides were freely used for this preparation. Teachers would get us to do things like dishwashing. Often, we ran errands for them, by bringing their children from other schools where they studied. We also brought firewood to keep the teacher’s room warm, while our rooms were not even heated properly! This ate into our time and affected our learning.

Who monitors these teachers? Who asks them what they are doing?

Our parents too did not bother to ask what we were doing. They were not supportive either. As girl children, we found it that much more difficult to come to school – our parents had this misconception that girls should not get ‘Duniyavi Talim’ (modern education), though nowhere in Islam is it stated that girl children should not study or even travel outside their villages. Our parents, even if they knew the problem, did not speak out. In most cases, they do not even go to school to see what was happening. Parents who are not very poor can afford private schools…but should these schools be allowed to exist? Who will respond and listen to parents?

Some of us did not have good friends, and fell into bad company. Years later, we realize where things went wrong.”

Why we don't need a people's car

Suddenly, the ‘Special Economic Zone’ (SEZ) is the hot topic. Those who fight against the establishment of the SEZ call it the ‘Special Exploitation Zone’ -- rightly so. Governments plan to set them up in the hundreds all over the country, by ‘purchasing’ land that rightfully belongs to farmers and those who live on the margins. Sops are then offered to companies to set up industrial units that manufacture all kinds of things ranging from computers to cars. The argument is that the SEZs will catapult us on to the global stage as a big economic player. India’s economic stock, it is said, will go up. The GDP will go up, and wealth will accumulate, we are told. SEZs, it is promised, will generate jobs which we all so desperately need. Who will get these jobs, I wonder…where will the displaced go?

Not everyone is buying this story, which is why we have seen Nandigram and Singur happen in West Bengal. A few persons are able to detect this crap in our lives. Neil Postman, the American philosopher and education thinker, would be happy to meet some of these people. Of course, some of them are in it for political gains. They cultivate their vote banks. Didn’t Postman once famously say and write that the task of education should be ‘crap detection’ in our lives, in society? Whether (these crappy) schools manage to help children do this crap detection or not is another story. We will write that story another day.

More Nandigrams and Singurs are waiting to happen. The government and the companies have retreated for the time being, but they will be back for sure, with innovative ideas and doublespeak on SEZ’s.

Quite a bit has been written about the SEZ in the print media and we have been witness to heated discussions on the boob tube. I do not have anything to add to that debate. I can only foresee some horrors unfolding if these SEZs have their way.

Only a few days back did I find out that the proposed SEZ at Singur was meant for a car manufacturing plant. The Tatas, one of the largest vehicle manufacturers in this country, plan to finally bring out the ‘people’s car’ which will cost only one lakh rupees. With a growing and aspiring middle class and with banks more than eager to shell out loans to even more eager consumers who want to show they have ‘arrived’, the Tatas are sitting on a gold mine. Much is therefore at stake in Singur.

I returned to my home town Bangalore this January after spending more than a decade outside the state. The other day, after relishing a mouth watering butter masala dosai in a restaurant off Margosa Road in Malleshwaram, I was walking back home. Remember the movie Matrix? Those mean, fast machines with their tentacles which killed every human in their path? Those scenes came back as I walked up the gentle slope of Margosa Road. Vehicles of all shape and sizes hurtled past. They came honking at you angrily. One had to watch out! Bangalore has never been like this. It was such a gentle, beautiful city. So much has changed. I felt small, like I had, when I set foot in Delhi in the winter of ’97. I couldn’t recognize this city and I didn’t think it recognized me. It seemed to be moving in a desperate hurry. The techies called it the Silicon Valley of India. ‘See, we too have developed?’

More vehicles, more smoke, less trees in this Silicon Valley. More buildings that were box like, with huge glass panes that reflected the sun on your face. They called them the malls, where you could find everything under one roof, from underwear to books to condoms. They also called them the software companies; they called them the call centres, multiplexes and several other things. The temples of modern India, eh? With three million vehicles on the roads of Bangalore, the metro had set foot in the city this year. Also there were more flyovers and ‘fly-unders’ now…this city had never been meant for this abuse.

Everyone needs everything, right? That’s their right, right? That is what the economists would argue. Human wants are limitless and they have to be simply met. The industry wallahs would swear by it. After all, they survive on this slogan. Ultimately, the so called fruits of development have to ‘trickle down’ to everyone. They haven’t despite so many decades of this development. But we must keep trying nevertheless. The one lakh car is just one example. Do we really need it? Despite owning a car, my answer would be ‘no.’ Just the other day my friend appeared to be disgusted with this position that according to her smacks of double standards. ‘Don’t they have a right to a better life? Who are you to stop them from owning that car? Don’t you have one?’ I can understand her righteous anger.

The problem I have is with this model of development. Can everyone have cars, refrigerators, air conditioners and the like? Can everyone have everything? I’m not proposing that a few should have everything on the other hand, which is the case right now. We often hear that the world’s 20% population consumes 80% of the world’s resources. There is therefore this problem of gross inequity in terms of access, distribution and consumption of resources. But can this be used as an argument that entitles all those right now poor people who, when they ‘arrive’, have the license to lead the lives of the current haves? I’m not sure. In the absence of any other model, there is the danger that the have nots may follow the same path. Will the haves be willing to reduce their consumption? It does not look as if that is going to happen.

Kancha Ilaiah, the professor of political science at Osmania University, Hyderabad, while arguing for the empowerment of the lower castes, said this in a lecture I attended many months ago in Mumbai: “You (the Brahmins and other upper castes) pissed on us from above for 3000 years. The time has now come for us to do it to you. Only then will you understand.” He was focusing on the atrocities and discrimination practiced by the upper castes for centuries. In many ways, he was talking about ‘payback’ time. Though he did not mention the environment, I am tempted to extend this argument to bring in that dimension. The position that Ilaiah takes may sound right from a human rights perspective (I’m not sure if the thinly veiled vendetta does, though), but from an environmental perspective, it runs on a collision course with the earth, whose resources are limited. So we need to find out different ways of living. How often has this statement been made! There has to be both inner and outer control over our actions. Yet, we continue to make the dangerous error of treating natural resources as capital. This should change. That is why we do not need the people’s car, all other arguments for it notwithstanding. May be communism is not such a bad idea, after all. But Nandigram and Singur are located in communist land, aren’t they?

Giri
5th June 2007

Education as History of Half Hearted Efforts

Education as history of half-hearted efforts

The other day, I was involved in a discussion with two friends regarding the ‘challenge of resources’ that children’s education in this country faces. In this conversation, ‘resources’ did not mean only money. While we can keep arguing about how much money is needed to provide all children with a decent education[1], we often overlook what other resources are needed for education to take place. Apart from money, we need to talk more and more about ideas, concepts, materials, thoughts, approaches, experiences, stories of success and so on. These are all ‘resources’ that actually make education happen. The adage ‘Money makes the world go around’, simply doesn’t apply to education. Only money is not enough, and more of it does not solve our problems. In fact, going by the amounts of money that are under spent in large education programs of the government, one can surely say that the problem lies elsewhere. How that money is spent ultimately makes a difference. This is where we are short on ideas.

Anyway, in discussions on education that I keep having every other day, there is this tendency to digress. Very soon, one gets into offering one’s theory about why this education system does not work -- almost any discussion seems to end with this theorising. Now, theories are not at all bad. They offer explanations of phenomena, and a useful theory can provide insights, goad us into action, and ultimately make a difference. Of course, one needs to examine any theory, any hunch, and any claim for that matter. We lose an opportunity if we move on otherwise.

At the end of this long winded conversation the other day, when one of my friends exclaimed, ‘So much has been done, but so little has been achieved…!’ I could relate to his statement. For those of us who have been at it for sometime now, the system seems to be moving at glacial pace. At times, it may even be moving backward. We are all impatient to achieve the ever receding goals of education in our own lifetimes. That is why it may seem as if little has been achieved.

I chose to examine the above statement and found myself questioning it. Have we really ‘done so much’? Let us take some of the more recent examples. The District Institutes for Education and Training (DIET) were established after the National Policy on Education (NPE) in 1986. Twenty years later, they are still considered by many as a ‘punishment posting.’ These institutions are by and large not working, and they are surely not delivering – vacancies abound, faculty are ill trained, motivation is low, and DIET faculty often wonder why they are there, and what they are meant to be doing! As a testimony to the ills plaguing the DIETs, large scale government programs like District Primary Education Program (DPEP) and the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) have often bypassed them.

Next, take the example of the Block and Cluster Resource Centres (B/CRC). They were established in the mid nineties, ostensibly to bring teacher support ‘onsite’, in a continuous manner. Nearly a decade later, barring the exceptional cases, these teacher resource centres are anything but that – they are more known as information collection centres. Their faculty members mechanically run training modules, and keep collecting information to satisfy the insatiable needs of reporting and ‘showing results.’ One does not even know if these structures will exist after the SSA is over and done with. The point I make is this – we have created institutions and structures, but have not nurtured them. That is why they are stagnating. That is why I say our efforts have been half hearted.

Next, take training. Modules are prepared with the best of intentions. What happens after training? Supportive monitoring, the other side of the coin, simply does not exist. We do not bother to find out if training has made any difference. Such is the state of affairs that I have encountered teachers even in a state like Karnataka who say ‘Leave us alone. This training is of no use…’ That is why I say our efforts have been half hearted. I wonder what will happen to the NCF 2005 a few years later.

The educational system is simply not geared to ensure continuity of effort. Frequent transfers, and change in leadership often arrests promising ideas and innovations. The moment somebody in an important position starts making something happen (there are not many who do in any case…), he is transferred – success is a problem! Promising efforts die a premature death. Who is accountable to whom?

Perhaps, we have not ‘done so much’, as my friend exclaimed. Perhaps, on the other hand, we have not learnt to doggedly pursue our ideas over time. We have started something here and there, and have often moved on to something else without looking back. That is why I say our efforts have been half hearted. It’s a frustrating history.

Giri
May 1, 2007
Kargil, J & K




[1] Since the education that most children currently experience is not good, to say the least, we often have to qualify what kind of education we want. So, statements like ‘He is getting a bad education’, are superfluous, because education cannot be bad. In this case, bad education does not qualify to be any kind of education! Education is inherently good, and ‘goodness’ is built into its definition.

Anything for the Universe!

Anything for the Universe

The year was 1983, and I was in grade 8. It was winter, and the skies were clear. We were living in our new home in Koramangala, Bangalore. During one of my various cycling trips in the area, I discovered that the Indian Institute of Astrophysics was just a few kilometers away. Excited, I went in one evening. Not knowing where to go, I kept wandering the lawns of the institute. A man, who was sitting on the lawn called me, and we started talking. I learnt that he was doing his research on the Sun. As our conversation went on, and I told him that astronomy was my favorite, he invited me to his room, and started sharing some of his ideas. My amazement knew no bounds. Here I was, talking to an astronomer, and astronomy was my pet subject, though no one in school was prepared to discuss it! Most of the time, my teachers just stuck to the books.

Finally, he asked me if I had seen through the telescope. When I said ‘No’, he offered to take me to the terrace, where the institute had a 6 inch reflector telescope, and said that he would show me the night sky. This was the ultimate treat! Unfortunately that evening, he did not have the keys to the terrace door, which was locked. I was disappointed. ‘Come after a week’, Balasubramaniam (Bala) said. ‘There is a lunar occultation of Saturn, and you could see that…but you will need to be here at 4 in the morning. I don’t know how you will manage that. And keep in touch, drop in anytime you want.’

In my excitement, I furiously cycled home, planning and plotting how to leave home at such an early hour the next week. I told my parents about it. They were clearly unhappy about my going alone at that hour. Just when I thought it was all over for the lunar occultation, I had a brilliant idea – just before my parents slept, when they were not noticing, I would advance the time of the clock in the living room by two hours. So, when the clock would show 0530, it would actually be 0330 in the morning – I would just have enough time to reach the institute! I somehow managed to convince my parents that leaving at 0530 was not a bad idea, after all! Of course, I had to keep a vigil on the clock, which meant that I couldn’t sleep all night…

The other condition was that they were not happy with my taking out my cycle – this meant that I had to jog all the way, some 2 or 3 kilometers away. So be it, I thought – I was ready to give anything to see the universe! The plan worked wonderfully well, except that I almost collapsed by the time I reached the institute at 0410. Before I left home, I adjusted the clock’s time back to normal, so that they wouldn’t notice!

The first peep was nothing short of a divine experience. Till then, I had only seen some photographs of the solar system in books in the school library. This was seeing it live! I caught the moon coming in front of Saturn’s rings, and then the entire planet itself was shut out by the moon. For the first time, I was able to see the craters on the moon, and the shadows they cast on its surface – amazing! Boy! Didn’t those Saturn rings look beautiful?! And then, Bala showed me Jupiter, and its four satellites (there are many more, but I could see only 4 – probably Ganymede, Io, Europa, etc). Of special interest was the red spot, the mystery red spot about which astronomers have all sorts of theories. In 2006, they probably know much more about it, though I’m not sure if anyone has the last word as yet. The red spot is several times the size of the earth…how big it must be, I wondered! I could also make out the various color bands of Jupiter.

If I were to write this today in Winch’s terms, my love for astronomy with all its mysteries of the universe, made me take all these steps to catch that celestial phenomenon, occurring millions of kilometers away in time and space! My date with the cosmos had been kept. Like the occultation, which was an event in the cosmos (from the point of view of reference of earthlings like us), my being able to see it was another major event in my life, which remains vivid to this day. My parents wouldn’t believe I had gone to this extent to look up at the heavens. They did feel puzzled about how time had passed that morning for them…I kept the secret to myself.

My enthusiasm and love for astronomy and for discovering the mysteries of this universe in which we live, never waned. Years later, as a teacher, I managed to transmit this excitement to the children I taught in the Valley School in Bangalore. We repaired the damaged telescope that was lying in the lab, and enjoyed many hours of star gazing in the football field where sometimes elephants and panthers also roamed…I also started an astronomy club during my tenure as teacher.

Giri
September 2006

The Dance of Life...

Years ago, when I was in school, I was often asked by elders in the family about what I wanted to become after growing up. I remember that my answer always unhesitatingly was ‘astronomer’, much to their surprise. Then, on one occasion, when there was a family function at a temple in some congested street of Bangalore, my cousin’s husband, who had a ‘good career’ going as an engineer, told me in no uncertain terms that astronomy wouldn’t do as a career. At best, he said, I could get into some unknown college or university and remain a lecturer all my life! The ‘lecturership’ didn’t sound perturbing at all, as did his admonishing tone. Little did I realize then the harsh realities of the world, and of growing up in it -- the constant pressure to perform, be ‘molded’ as the adults around us wished, and take up careers ‘approved’ in society. Little did my cousin’s husband realize the joys of peering through the telescope and asking – how big is the universe? Where did it come from? Was it always there? Is there life elsewhere…? He perhaps thought that all of this would be best done after retirement!

Twenty years hence, I’ve missed my astronomy bus, and, working in the social development sector, I still ask these questions. My cousin’s husband has retired, and is now looking to marry off his daughters to ‘US-based’ grooms. My guess is that he still hasn’t peered through a telescope.

Some questions though, remain. To begin with, thanks to my exposure in the field of education, I constantly ask – what should the purpose of education be? Gandhi had said, ‘By education I mean an all round drawing out of the best in child and man – body, mind and spirit.’ That does sound vague and distant doesn’t it, if one goes by what one sees today in the name of education?

Let me not get stuck with definitions at this stage, and instead move on to a more complex issue – the relationships between the development of our potential as human beings, our upbringing, the education system, the work we do in our lives, and our ability to be happy. What are the mechanisms available for each of us to realize our innate potential through work that pays, and makes us happy?

The organization that I now work for has a laudable vision of ‘…a world in which children realize their full potential…in societies that respect people’s rights and dignities…’ I do believe, however, that we haven’t reflected what this vision means as regards action. What does ‘development of full potential’ mean? When do we know if someone has developed his/her full potential? What are the links with schools and education, for instance?

In my own case, these links are not straightforward. I graduated as a mechanical engineer, worked in the corporate sector, then became a schoolteacher with the Valley School, Bangalore (as part of the J. Krishnamurti Foundation, India), then entered the social development arena with ‘Samuha’, an NGO in Northern Karnataka, became a ‘consultant’ with the Govt. of India for a large primary education program, and presently ‘advise’ a funding agency regarding its investments in education. That’s longwinded, isn’t it? I may get back to teaching next. I’m not sure if my potential is being fully used, but I do feel strongly that this is one of the things I would like to be doing. The mechanisms in society were not enabling, and one had to work one’s way around. Then there were those who tirelessly pointed out that I had ‘got it all wrong, that I was an escapist…’, but this didn’t deter me from carrying on.

We may find some answers in the field of economics. The economy, it is said, is the ‘happening’ thing that defines peoples’ lives – how we live, what we wear, what we think and so on...Perhaps it may enlighten us if we understand it better. Large amounts of money, including those in mega scams, exchange hands; large volumes of goods move from one part of the world to the other…all these activities are supposed to bring more comforts, make more people happy, generate jobs, and ‘uplift’ people. Or so we believe.

The ‘state of the economy’ is often talked about, and I wonder what that means. This is a funny way of capturing the quality of people’s lives through some numbers. As an aside, what puzzles me, however, is that we have business leaders and politicians patting each other’s backs for ‘low inflation’ and India as a ‘knowledge superpower’, while millions sleep hungry every night…

Economy or not, I see many persons unemployed around me. The connections are indeed intriguing, if they are examined further. Our education system creates round pegs that have to fit in square holes – there are graduates and postgraduates who ride motorcycles and deliver Mc Donald’s pizzas at your door step; mad caps like me; business executives who earn six figure salaries every month and still cannot be happy. And don’t forget the hundreds that Osama Bin Laden, George Bush and the RSS/VHP have managed to inspire…

It takes, as they say, all kinds of persons to make this world, to produce all kinds of goods and services. You give something (your understanding, skills…), and take something back…I’m not sure if that maximizes our potential, keeps us and others around us happy, and pays reasonably. A quick look around at a world in which there are gross inequalities, violence, large-scale environmental degradation…leaves you with a feeling that something is terribly wrong, somewhere. I’m sure all of this is connected with the questions I have raised earlier about the ‘relationships between the development of our potential as human beings, our upbringing, the education system, the work we do in our lives, and our ability to be happy...’
As an afterthought, I also wonder if the business of happiness is connected to these things, or, as they say, ‘is in the mind.’ You decide.