Sangati News Bulletin | May 29th 2007 | No. 35 | Edu System in India

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Sangati News Bulletin | May 29th 2007 | No. 35 Dear SNB Readers, This issue of Sangati News Bulletin is on Opinions about Education

System in India - Part 2 .It continues the discuss from the previous Bulletin. Please continue to send in your opinions and comments.

 

Best Wishes. Shanmuga shanmuga33 (AT) dataone (DOT) in

 

1. Readers Comments Section 2. Announcements a) School Choice Campaign b) Small Science Books - Scholars without Borders c) Room to Read 3. Character Teaching - Lee Havis 4. Integral Education by Sri Aurobindo and Mother - Rashi 5. My opinion on the Educational System in India - D Madhusudana Rao

 

1] Readers' Comments Section

 

May 27, 2007

 

Dear Shanmuga,

 

Very interesting articles and very current problems of education ( lack of value for teaching as a profession and lack of trust) , very human oritented subjects( character building education) for introduction for the need to built the utopian society, one important subject is polical science and pub admmn that has been suggested, that needs to be introduced much earlier. i thank you for compiling these articles on education.

 

Aarthi ( teacher )

 

2] Announcements

 

a) School Choice Campaign

 

Fund Students, Not Schools

 

On 29 January 2007 the Centre for Civil Society launched its School Choice Campaign. It is a one-year campaign with concrete, measurable goals. Our nation has given each child the right to education; we must now make it meaningful by taking it a step further: The Right to education of Choice! Each child and her parent must be empowered so they can truthfully say: My Right, My Choice!

 

This is also your opportunity to join the education revolution. Put in your one year to assure quality education to the poor and secure their and India's future. Log on to www.schoolchoice.in and play your part.

 

Can poor women (urban, rural or tribal), armed with funds—corporate, bank or micro-finance—own the school where their children study? Can we attract entrepreneurs of the calibre like Narayana Murthy to open 200, may be 2000, schools and replicate the IT revolution in education? Can venture capital—for profit or philanthropic—help improve the infrastructure and quality of existing budget private schools around slums and in villages? Can good teachers of government schools be given an opportunity to manage schools and improve the quality and reach millions?

 

We feel the answer to these exciting questions is a resounding YES! It is time to think bold, outside the box of the current education system.

 

What is School Choice?

 

As you know, we at CCS have done considerable amount of research and advocacy work in the area of education. We have collected a wealth of data and analysis from around India and the rest of the world. And we are convinced that quality education for all can be achieved only by adopting a different strategy: School Choice!

 

School choice, particularly for the poor, can be achieved through education vouchers, cash transfers (like in Bangladesh), or tuition fee reimbursement schemes (like in Delhi), basically by schemes where funds follow students and not schools. Let the child's parent choose the school. It can be enhanced through broader measures like deregulation and delicensing of private schools, legalizing for-profit schools, and microfinance and venture capital for budget private schools. (Today it is virtually impossible to start a legally recognised school. Also, since many of the schools for the poor are unrecognised, they cannot get a bank loan to improve their infrastructure like any other enterprise).

 

School choice can be taken to government schools through decentralization of decision making and transfer of accountability to local governments, by tying state grants to enrolment and learning achievements, through management contracts, and charter schools. The funding for education in general can be increased by tuition tax credits to individuals and corporate scholarship tax credit programs.

 

Goals of the School Choice Campaign

 

We have set five measurable goals. They would give you a good idea of the scale and scope of our efforts. By the end of the campaign, 29 January 2008, we intend to achieve the following:

 

1. At least 50% of parents with children in state schools should know the ideas of school choice.

 

2. All state education ministers and secretaries should be briefed about school choice individually or in groups.

 

3. All elected representatives across all levels of the government (Members of Parliament, Legislative Assemblies, Corporations, and Village Panchayats) should receive persuasive material on the ideas of school choice and specific ways to implement them.

 

4. At least 1912 of the elected representatives should receive a delegation of citizens demanding school choice.

 

5. Establish or help establish at least 5 projects (including changes in education policies) that demonstrate the power of choice in school education. One of the projects would be a private school choice fund that would support at least 9400 students.

 

Looking Ahead

 

The task ahead is not an easy one. But we firmly believe that all of us, by implementing school choice, can make a serious positive impact in the lives of millions of children, for generations to come. That thought and the tremendous encouragement and partnership we have received from all quarters—dalit and tribal activists, government officials, politicians, entrepreneurs, and parents and well wishers of poor children—in the short span of our campaign energise us to march ahead.

 

All good campaigns depend on good people, planning and execution. We have assembled a team of dedicated and competent women and men in New Delhi and in many states. We have partnered with enthusiastic organisations and individuals who are now the foot soldiers of the campaign. Our mass campaign and political outreach is in full swing in many states across the nation. It is especially heartening to receive overwhelming support from leaders and organisations representing the marginalised women and men of our society. Dalit and tribal activists, for example, are becoming the key leaders of this campaign. They are taking the powerful message of parental empowerment and choice to communities and elected representatives.

 

Our mass campaign has attracted hundreds of thousands of parents. In New Delhi we will be providing 400 vouchers to poor children to demonstrate the power of choice and empowerment. We will unveil similar schemes in other states. Encouragingly, many government officials have shown interest in implementing choice based schemes in their states and cities.

 

It has been a discovery process for us too. We have sensed a change in the thought process of philanthropic organisations and donors. Instead of charity for the sake of charity, they envision funding projects that empower people in a scalable and self sustaining manner. Many have found school choice, with its parent empowering message at its core, very appealing. Many have or intend to join us in our pilot projects and mass campaigns.

 

While we rejoice our achievements, we are fully aware that this is just the end of the beginning of the campaign. We have a long and hard, yet exciting, road ahead. Join our campaign. Together let us create an education system that puts Students First! Together let us make quality education and a good future a reality for millions of our children.

 

Join the School Choice Campaign!

 

Raj CherubalVice PresidentCentre for Civil Society, Chennai Campaign Office,3A. #18, 'Sindur Waves', New Beach Road, Thiruvamiyur,Chennai 600041 Mobile: (91) 938101 3498Website : www.ccsindia.org

 

b) Small Science Books - Scholars without Borders

 

May 09, 2007

 

Dear Sangati,

 

I got your contact from Prof. Jayashree Ramadas of the HBCSE. We havebeen looking for ways to make it easier for teachers and studentsacross the country to get the Small Science books. The attached letterwill make it clear as to what has been done. We would be most gratefulif you can publicise this via your network.

 

Thanking you,

 

Ram Ramaswamyfor Scholars.

 

Dear Friends

 

As many of you might know, the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education(HBCSE) of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai hasdeveloped a primary science curriculum that is enjoyable and yet teachesreal science: the Small Science series.

 

Based on research and field trials, the series links science with thenatural curiosity of young children, helping sharpen their skills ofobservation, analysis and articulation. Each Text Book is accompanied bya Work Book, to enable continuous assessment, and a Teacher's Book toprovide conceptual guidance and practical hints. A full list of what isavailable (in English) is given below.

 

1. Small Science. Classes 1 & 2 Teacher's Book 15.00

 

2. Small Science Class 3: TextBook 60.00

 

3. Small Science Class 3: WorkBook 65.00

 

4. Small Science Class 3: Teacher's Book CD 34.00

 

5. Small Science Class 3: Teacher's Book 34.00

 

6. Small Science Class 4: TextBook 72.00

 

7. Small Science Class 4: WorkBook 85.00

 

8. Small Science Class 4: Teacher's Book CD 37.00

 

9. Small Science Class 4: Teacher's Book 37.00

 

10. Small Science Class 5: TextBook 85.00

 

11. Small Science Class 5: WorkBook 80.00

 

12. Small Science Class 5: Teacher's Book CD 37.00

 

The Teacher's Book print versions are stocked by HBCSE and the other booksand CDs are published by Oxford University Press.

 

The books for Classes 3 and 4 are also available in Hindi and Marathiversions as "Halka Phulka Vigyan" and sold by HBCSE at highly subsidisedrates.

 

In an effort to make the books more easily available all across India, theSmall Science Series in English, Hindi and Marathi can also be ordered from anonline bookstore, Scholars without Borders. The series can be ordereddirectly online, or by sending an email toorders (AT) scholarswithoutborders (DOT) in or even by sending an SMS by cellphonewith your full details. On the website the books can be found underBooks> For Children. Postage charges are extra, and payment can be madevia cheque/draft or other possibilities.

 

For more information on the books themselves, please see the websitewww.hbcse.tifr.res.in/smallscience. Please get back to us for any otherinformation, including special rates for bulk purchases and subsidies forneedy students.

 

With best wishes,Jayashree Ramadas http://www.hbcse.tifr.res.in/smallscience

 

Scholars without Borders http://www.scholarswithoutborders.in SMS on 09871985820

 

c) Room to Read - Sunisha Ahuja

 

Dear Shanmuga,

 

I am registered on the Sangati Learning Session - Chennai group.

 

I would like to share with you about Room to Read and its programs. Room to Read India is registered as a charitable trust in India. We are part of an International organisation called Room to Read based out in San Francisco (www.roomtoread.org).

 

The India Country Office is in Delhi and we are currently implementing our programs in the states of Delhi, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Our largest program is setting up children's libraries in government primary schools. We are currently supporting 1000 such libraries. Apart from procuring books from different publishers in India we also publish books for children of primary grades. This program is referred to as Local Language publishing. Through this program we publish books for primary grades in Hindi and English. It was in the context of this program that I write this mail.

 

We have been buying books from different publishers. However we have found that there aren't enough books for early readers (grade 1 and 2) and science books for children in grades 3,4,5. We have attempted to publish some books in this area along with books we have also published posters which have poems, or stories that relate to the books that we have published. (I can send you some pdf version of these)

 

We are constantly looking for manuscripts which if selected we get them illustrated. Authors are paid for their manuscripts and so are the illustrators. We do print runs up to 8500 (5000 in Hindi and 3500 in English) for each book published.

 

I would appreciate your help to reach out to all those creative

teachers, person who are sensitive to young children and are

interested in writing for children. In case you would like further

information please send me your questions and I will try and answer

them.

 

Look forward to hearing from you.

 

best wishes, Sunisha Ahuja Country Director Room to Read India sunisha (AT) roomtoread (DOT) org (World Change Starts with Educated Children) 3] Character Teaching - Lee Havis

 

May 21, 2007

 

I appreciated reading the comments of others about the deplorable condition of education in India. Fixing this problem is at the heart of all fundamental change and improvement of the country as a whole in all respects.

 

The problem is "how" to get to the cause and heart of the problem. It is complicated by ego, corruption, indifference, ignorance, human nature, etc. Many forces of status quo intertia.

 

I think I have an approach that might work. It's called "character teaching" (CT), and is ideally suited for poverty situations with considerable illiteracy - and untrained teachers. These are ideal circumstances, actually, for the project success. The CT project goes right to the heart of the matter in a simple direct way. However, it is unconventional, and requires a conviction of faith that children have a perfect inner guidance for self-directed development. I attach some comments on the subject of relating education and poverty. (see below)

 

The plan, however, is only practical if there is someone in India willing to work together with me in the spirit of the project. I'm still looking for that person. In Bangalore, India, in February, and in Mumbai, I met with people to discuss the CT project. There is interest, but also doubt about such an unconventional approach. But, I think the results would soon speak well for the project. We start with a consultation visit and training workshop - a modest, but important, first step.

 

It is difficult to understand an unconventional idea, which requires faith and imagination. But India might be a place suitable to try. I wrote a letter to the president requesting support, and he said "probably not". I have not received replies to other letters of request for support to government officials - and no call backs from those who originally expressed some interest. So, I read in this a certain "doubt" about the basic philosophical concept.

 

So, even if the CT project is a "good idea", that is not enough with persons willing to put it into operation. Maybe you could propose it for discussion, and see if it ignites a spark of interest sufficient for someone to actually do something.

 

I'll be glad to provide more details if interested. Let me know.

 

Lee HavisCreating the New Education workshopsNext in Kenai, Alaska – July 28-29, 2007IMS web site: http://imsmontessori.org301-589-1127

 

Can Education Cure Poverty and Child Labor ?

 

March 16, 2006

 

In 2005, poverty and child labor are growing problems that threaten the stability and progress of all countries in our complex global economy. Many look to education as a solution, without realizing the true cause or nature of the problem itself.

 

Confusing cause with effect, conventional efforts to end poverty and child labor only add to the problems they seek to remedy. For example, if the cause of poverty were simply lack of money by poor people, we could readily solve the problem by giving them money. Likewise, if the cause of child labor were simply lack of conventional education, we could easily solve this problem by making the children attend ordinary formal schooling. In practice, however, applying this superficial logic will only add to the problem it seeks to remedy.

 

Sadly, the US government appears committed to following this faulty logic in its efforts to eradicate child labor through education. The Department of Labor (DOL) uses some $350 million dollars to fund "education initiative" grants, which limit funding to conventional education only.

 

Conventional education essentially delivers a predetermined curriculum to children through formal-ized teacher-directed group instruction. This ordinary formal schooling actually encourages depend-ency on external authority, discouraging those positive character qualities that children most need to overcome the negative conditions of poverty and child labor. It prohibits children from developing such positive character qualities as self-reliance, personal initiative, integrity and self-directed learning.

 

The Department of Labor disregards the substantive effects of its funding on character devel-opment, measuring success, value and progress of its various projects instead by how many children they physically move from abusive child labor to formal school instruction in a specified period of time. Whatever short-term benefit these projects may bring about while running, this will largely disappear after the funding is gone.

 

DOL pursues its misguided philosophy by funding projects that pay poor parents to cover ex-penses for their children to attend formal conventional schooling. However, when the free money ends, the children generally return to the same unwholesome life-style as before. Other projects seek to raise awareness of child labor by distributing notices or conducting lectures and workshop to urge greater attention to the problem of child labor. However, these efforts don't address the underlying issue of defective character development, which is the central cause in the matter.

 

Clearly the DOL doesn't know the cause of child abuse and poverty because it funds some pro-jects to study this matter in detail. Unfortunately, all these studies revolve around the same essential conventional education, which either ignores or does not recognize the cause it is seeking to find. Happily, there is a type of education that can effectively address and resolve the cause of both poverty and child labor. The International Montessori Society (IMS) offered this unconventional approach in several specific project proposals for DOL funding. Of course, the Department re-jected these projects as falling outside of its conventional philosophy and criteria. The IMS project is titled "Character Teaching", to designate its primary focus to the core issue of proper character development in children. It employs a novel "exchange of value" concept, which involves giving a small amount of money to poor working children in exchange for a brief amount of their time for instruction in basic academic skills. Detractors and conventional educators generally object to this concept because they say that giving even a small amount of money to poor working children will corrupt them and encourage their further harmful child labor. By contrast, Lee Havis, IMS director, ar-gues, "this `exchange of value' is vital for establishing a relationship of trust, respect and accountability with the children involved. It allows them to directly experience self-worth, integrity and personal ac-countability, which repeated over time will ultimately become deeply incorporated into their whole way of being and character for life".

 

The Character Teaching project follows the basic scientific approach pioneered by Dr. Maria Montessori in the early 1900's. In 1907, Montessori applied this approach with poor, neglected children in the slums of Rome, Italy. In this way, she discovered children having natural qualities of self-discipline, order and instincts for independence. In modern times, this Montessori teaching has largely failed to achieve the original promised results due to a lack of consistent and comprehensive technology for its effective practice.

 

According to Havis, a key factor in the potential success of the IMS character teaching project is using a new comprehensive technology he perfected and consolidated for Montessori education in 2003. He says, "Combining this new technology of Montessori teaching with the concept of `exchange of value', we now have a sound educational approach that can begin to cure the cause of poverty and child abuse in the world. It just awaits a country government willing to give this unconventional new education a chance to operate."

 

4] Integral Education by Sri Aurobindo and Mother

 

May 22, 2007

 

Integral Education by Sri Aurobindo and Mother- answers all questions and problems of current education system and what it should be. Here is a small excerpt from a brochure of the Centre of Integral education here in pondicherry -- "We can understand this better if we observe how a young child gains spontaneously the knowledge of his surroundings. He does it through a ceaseless activity which is natural to him whenever he finds interest in the objects at his disposal. He examines, touches, manipulates every object he can lay his hand upon, studies how he can use it for his own purposes (often very different from his parents' ends and views). He explores every nook and corner of the room, of the house, of the garden, sees how he can make use of them for his activities, his games (with little care for the purpose and the tranquility of the grown-ups). All this is done and pursued in conformity with the needs of his stage of growth. It is the learning by doing, as named by Dewey. When we say that a child is amusing himself or playing (alone or with playmates), it is almost always the purposeful activity (alone or with playmates), it is almost always the purposeful activity (solitary or collective) of a growing being deeply engaged in the process of building up and perfecting his instruments of knowledge and action. We are indeed in presence of a genuine education, leading to discovery and invention—discovery of the world around and of its meaning (for the child's mentality), invention of the usage he can put it to (for the child's aims and interests)—and it is a self-education as it does not require lectures or books. An adult's intervention is in most cases not sought for, nor is it effective, as the adult's understanding is too remote from the child's mentality.

 

"But the adult has an important part to fulfil. When a child is idle, restless or mischievous, it is either that his natural activity has been hampered or distorted, or that he had exhausted the opportunities given to him by his surroundings and his activity has no outlet. It is for the adult—parent or teacher—to keep the environment supplied with elements of interest. These objects should act by their presence, not by their purpose. Their aim is to satisfy an immediate and actual need of the child, not a future need as anticipated by the parent or teacher (pass an exam, get a good job, raise a family). The purpose of a child is always immediate : the satisfaction of an actual need, which is one of the forms taken by the deep fundamental urge in him to grow physically, emotionally and mentally. He does not paint with the aim of becoming an artist (such an aim belongs to the adult mentality, but it is often unwisely and untimely instilled into a child's receptive mind), but for the satisfaction of the creative impulse in him. He does not try to solve a problem of mathematics to become a mathematician or a good engineer, or even to know geometry and algebra, but for the satisfaction of the discovery, the lightning that suddenly flashes into his mind when he gets it, for the inner joy of having overcome a difficulty and succeeded. He does not play the mouth organ to have a large audience and be recognized as a musician (if he has these ambitions, he got them by the praises bestowed upon him by elders), but for the joy of self-expression and the pleasure he gives to his nearest mates and friends." Hope it was useful.

 

I am in Pondicherry to take Theatre workshops for a National Teachers Camp and deeply exploring the principles of Integral education. It is a great experience.

 

More can be read at, http://www.ncte-in.org/pub/aurobin/mothwrit.htm All the best Rashi

 

5] My opinion on the Educational System in India

 

by D Madhusudana Rao

 

May 23rd 2007

 

The main problem in Educational System is with the Teachers and their Unions. Unless we overcome this problem we will not be able to improve the quality of the Education and improve the pupil's skills.

 

We may be having some excellent institutions like Oasis's in the Desert but that is not going to improve the people's standard of living and improve the economical wealth of our country, the main problem to be tackled from the Primary Schools Level. As long as we neglect the Primary School, it is difficult to improve the Educational Standards. Whatever you take steps, once the damaged is done in the later years of the student is only cosmic treatment. But can be repaired so easily.

 

I do pray god that some day good sense will prevail in the minds of Politicians, Teachers and the Parents to improve the standard of Education. Unfortunately the Parents are not interested in their own children's education except criticising the Government and Teachers. The Parents should rise up to the occasion and take commitment to improve the Educational Standards of their own wards. Then things will be change automatically. The Politicians and Teachers will respond to give their best instead of playing games and politics with the lives of the children and our country, only with the involvement of the parents.

 

(Brief about me : I live in a village, practice Organic Agriculture and am in Printing Business. I am concerned about the Quality Education for the Rural Economically Backward People. I do my best to motivate and improve the same. I am keenly interested in PURA that is Providing Urban facilities to Rural Areas, so that there will not be influx of people from rural to urban.)

 

-------------------- Sangati News Bulletin (SNB) is non-profit & independent public interest news service edited and compiled by Shanmuga (shanmuga33 (AT) dataone (DOT) in, 094441 83955) for Sangati. If you find it useful, recommend it to your friends and colleagues. Subscribe by sending email to sangati-chennai-ls- Readers are welcome to send in articles, letters, critiques to be published in SNB. Experts in specific areas are invited to work with us on issues of their expertise. For Discussions please use, Sangati Chennai Discussion List, sangati-chennai--------------------