ASSETScope February 2008

Excerpt: “Poor Rich Countries: The Challenges of Development”

A speech by Indian Finance Minister Mr. P. Chidambaram at the Harvard University South Asia Initiative on 18th October, 2007

We have some of the best schools in the world - but they are few - and we have some of the worst schools in the world. The challenges that we face include enrolment in school of all children between the ages of five and ten, retaining them in school for at least five years, appointing a sufficient number of teachers, dealing with teacher absenteeism, and equipping the schools with books and teaching material so that the child experiences the joy of learning. Many schools, including government-run schools, do make the mark, and that is why we turn out every year hundreds of thousands of qualified engineers, doctors, accountants, managers and other professionals. Nevertheless, it is becoming increasingly clear that we are not doing enough. Too many children are still out of school, too many drop out before they finish school, too many cannot read or write or do basic maths, and too many are ill-equipped to be employed. At the other end, we produce too few teachers, professors, researchers and scientists. Even in the professions, we have too few doctors, nurses, engineers and judges for a population of over a billion and an economy that is growing at a rapid rate. The reasons are obvious: the early development models that we inherited are simply incompatible with the demands of a globalizing economy. Besides, there is the inherited and widely-held belief that education is, and must be, a not-for-profit activity, despite overwhelming evidence that our reluctance to adopt new models has spawned a huge industry that has fully commercialized education and imparts education without any values.

Education - apart from healthcare - is our most formidable challenge. The failure to rise to this challenge and overcome it will affect precisely those sections of the people who have been victims of neglect for many centuries. These are women, the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, and many socially backward communities that have remained at the bottom of the pyramid. We now have a policy that promises “education for all”. We have backed the promise by increasing many fold the funds provided by the federal government for building schools, purchasing equipment, appointing teachers and providing a cooked meal for all children in primary and upper primary classes.

To conclude, India is rich because of its natural resources; it is poor because it is unable to exploit those resources efficiently and profitably. India is rich because of its native entrepreneurial talent; it is poor because many policy and procedural hurdles stand in the way of the entrepreneurs. India is rich because of its young population; it is poor because it is unable to deliver quality education to all its children. India is rich because its people set great store by values and moral standards; it is poor because of declining standards in public life. India is rich because its people are hardworking, resilient and pragmatic; it is poor because often commonsense is devoured by ideology.

Ladies and Gentlemen, that is the story of a poor rich country. While my generation which spearheaded the crossover will do its best, I have faith that the next generation of Indians, and the generation after that, will eliminate the scourge of poverty and make India rich. Then, the poor rich country would have deserved its inheritance.

Book Review

Writings of Teachers
Ideas for the Classroom

Sections from the Journal of the Krishnamurti Schools, Nos. 1 to 9
Publisher: East West Books (Madras) Pvt. Ltd

One of the most critical aspects of school education is the teaching-learning process in a classroom. Real learning happens when children find their acquired knowledge meaningful in various real life situations. Hence the book ‘Writings of Teachers - Ideas for the Classroom’ brought out by the teachers of the Krishnamurti Schools with an objective to expose teachers to various dimensions of classroom teaching. The book covers ideas of teaching various disciplines - Art, Humanity and Science. It gives us an insight into teaching specialised and sensitive topics like religion or globalization. The practical tips, such as how to conduct a field study and the chemistry of everyday life, help teachers to create a more hands-on classroom.

Today the school fraternity of India is at the crossroads of change towards a better system of teaching-learning. The book is expected to add a new perspective towards this change.

News Bite

CBSE to introduce new exam system
Bihar girl’s inspiring story in NCERT Textbook
Delhi Govt introduces ‘Chalta Firta’ Schools for children

CBSE to introduce new exam system

The 10th and 12th standard examinations conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) will have 20 percent of the questions dedicated to testing the student’s critical thinking skills rather than rote learning. Mr. Ashok Ganguly, CBSE chairperson said there was a paradigm shift in the CBSE from More of The Same (MOTS) system based on repetition and stereotypes to Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) with emphasis on interpretation and synthesis of knowledge.

Bihar girl’s inspiring story in NCERT Textbook

A teenage girl’s success story in educating herself against all odds while rearing honeybees for a livelihood has found a place in a school textbook produced by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT). Anita Kushwaha, 17, has encouraged and inspired thousands of women in rural Bihar to be self-reliant. Anita embarked on the path of self-reliance by collecting Rs.1,500 by giving tuitions to children and purchasing a box containing a queen bee. She is currently studying for her Bachelors in Arts (BA English) degree from MDDM College, Muzaffarpur.

Delhi Govt introduces ‘Chalta Firta’ Schools for children

The Delhi Government has launched a ‘Chalta Firta’ (mobile) schools scheme for children living in depressed areas of the city. Two ‘Chalta Firta’ (mobile) vans are equipped for this purpose with the basic infrastructure of a classroom along with a variety of latest teaching and learning aids like VCDs and learning kits. The objective of this project is to provide educational facilities to students who dropped out of school and those who do not have access to schools.

Teacher’s Bite

Mr. N. Madhusudan,
Principal, Bhavan’s Gandhi Vidyashram, Kodaikanal
Education system in India

Education system in India
The Indian system of education has come under severe scrutiny over the years and we can say that it has passed in various fronts. However, there is a general opinion that system of education promotes only rote- learning Other skills understanding, referencing, questioning, interpretation thinking take a back seat as both the teacher and the taught are in the rat-race to translate the information gained into marks Also our evaluation system measures a very limited range of faculties and has no provision to test other skills. Thus teachers become assembly line employees producing the same talents as engineers or doctors which is in popular demand.
Importance of Teacher Training
The success of any educational process depends on the quality, commitment and expertise of the teachers. So teacher training assumes great significance as it can enhance the teaching quality and thereby improve the level of student achievement.

This can happen only if there are periodical workshops or training programmes for teachers. Such programmes should enable teachers to think of new methods of teaching and assessment and evolve appropriate strategies for the classroom. At the same time, great care should be taken when organizing such workshops, to see that this is relevant to the real needs of the classroom, or else they become mere mechanical and futile exercises.

On ASSET
The major setback to our educational system is that we do not have proper assessment strategies. In the absence of skill based aptitude tests, it is assumed that a students have high abilities as they get ‘A’ grade in exams. The students of our school have been taking ASSET for the last three years.

Such standardized tests and the performance analysis are very useful in measuring subject-specific knowledge at school level. They also provide an insight into a child’s progress and identify areas that need improvement. The analysis of student performance provided by ASSET, can come as an eye opener to all the stake holders of a child’s education.

We need to lay more emphasis on learning by doing, learning from observation and pitting the learning to test. Self-learning and independent thinking are to be cultivated. If we can create a love for life-long learning, we can plug the loop-holes in our education system and help students march towards a well grounded success.

‘Passionate’ For Changing Lives

There are a set of students distinctly different from others of their generation. Instead of whiling away their free time, they are passionate about making a difference to the lives of the less privileged. And leading the young brigade is M.R.S.K. Chaitanya, a 12th standard student of Abhyasa International School and winner of UN award for Excellence in Community Service. He has been instrumental in re-enrolling many child laborers from in and around the village, back in school. He has also worked at setting up medical camps and AIDS awareness campaigns. One particular program that he led helped his classmates to counsel senior citizens in the village against addiction towards alcohol and tobacco. He was the only student from his State among 10 students across the world invited to the UN Youth Assembly to receive the award in August 2007.

Humour

Teacher: If 1+1=2 and 2+2=4, what is 4+4?
Student: That’s not fair! You answer the easy ones and leave us with the hard one!

Student Misconception Series
A Regular Column In Deccan Herald, Bangalore

Deccan Herald is a popular paper with a circulation of about 3,00,000 in Karnataka. It comes out every Thursday with a supplement called DH Education for parents, schools and children. Educational Initiatives contributes articles on student misconceptions based on their research study on “Student Learning in Metros”. Each article features one subject misconception along with actual student responses.

The Principal –Through The Eyes of A Student

Dear Principal,
What does a Principal do?

Ask the teachers in your school to pose this question to the students, and enjoy the responses. The students can describe their thoughts in the form of pictures and notes. Visit the classrooms and talk to the students about your work and their pictures. This could be another way for you and the students to get to know each other better. Some of the pictures can be used to make an interesting and meaningful bulletin board. Perhaps you could also create a scrapbook of the pictures to keep in your office for students, staff and visitors to enjoy again and again. Do send us a selection of these responses to bindu@ei-india.com. You may see them in an ASSETScope issue in the future.