Rousseau, in his pioneering treatise on education Emile, argues, “Everything is good as it leaves the hands of God, the author of things; everything degenerates in the hands of man, who wants nothing as nature made it, not even man; for him man must be trained like a school horse.”
I am not an ardent supporter of naturalism. The reason I began this piece with a naturalistic quote is my liking for it in so far as it vouches for tapping into the positive energies in children. It may not perhaps go down well with the teaching fraternity if I assert that almost all our schools fail. They fail to serve the real purpose of human life. There are more reasons for this failure than meets the eye.
The curriculum transacted in our part of the world is soulless and excruciatingly boring. A cursory look at the BOSE text books partially substantiates this claim. These text-books are error laden with unattractive pictorial quality.
Children are naturally driven to colours and pictures. They are supposed to be a source of motivation for learning. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, yet the BOSE text books present a bleak picture.
Mass printing of books does not mean quality has to suffer. This poor visual quality confuses the learners (often with mismatching colour combinations) and creates distaste among them. Despite borrowing around 40-50 percent content from NCERT text books, it still does not make sense because quality of print is pathetic.
Then we have a section of teachers who stick to the belief that learning only occurs inside the traditional brick and mortar classrooms. Learning through activities and play to them is not learning at all. Their central concern remains the completion of syllabi. Whereas, syllabi has little relevance in an environment where children do not even receive the basic competencies in reading, writing and elementary mathematics.
Children to them are vessels to receive concentrated doses of knowledge without regard for its assimilation.
In our school affairs, as a norm, everything else matters except the learner. In the absence of a healthy schooling culture, we stifle a child’s natural capabilities. The fact is we have institutionalised a spoon-feeding culture in our schools. This is how children get addicted to readymade solutions which in turn hamper their comprehension and initiative.
Such a mindset is not helping our cause in any way. Cramming and rote learning muffle critical cognitive abilities of children. The net result is failure and increasing aversion among children towards schooling.
In many cases our narrow expectations are so trivial in so far as the broader range of a child’s intelligence, creativity and talents is concerned. We always confuse learning with examinations, test scores and grades. Examination is just a narrow way of assessing the surface capabilities of our children.
Despite increased expenditure on grassroots education, we have not been able to bring desired levels of improvement in the student learning outcomes. The fact of the matter is that world’s best school systems are usually those who spend lesser yet are still on top.
Finland, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, South Korea for instance spend much less per student than other education systems, yet they achieve far better student performance. It is important to note that reform in these successful systems has not been overnight. It has been slow yet consistent.
On the contrary, Jammu Kashmir has the most unorganised and inconsistent approach towards education. Quality control in higher education and particularly in teacher training courses is the weakest link.
Research in the comparative educational systems suggest that for any successful educational system three things matter the most – recruiting right people for the job, best teacher training programs and best delivery system.
Nonetheless, in recent days there has been a lot of talk going on individualised instruction. Director School Education has been repeatedly emphasising Competency Based Education (CBE).
In explicit terms, the emphasis is on learning goals and objectives. It is a welcome shift from the traditional knowledge acquisition approach to a skill acquisition one. The problem confronting this approach right now is that most of us are unaware about how it works.
Our teacher training courses find no mention of this concept. This gap needs to be filled with orientation programs and awareness through print and electronic media if at all DSEK is really serious about it.
In the final analysis, public school students who are mostly first generation learners, come from the lower socio-economic strata of our society. These children enter schools with bigger challenges. They are both psychologically and socio-economically disadvantaged. These children need a wholesome and healthy schooling culture to mitigate their problems.
Our schools need to become nurseries of hope for them. We need to customize our schools according to what works and what does not. Our children need schools that are more engaging and meaningful for them and schools which cater to their psychological and emotional well being. They need healthy social and emotional learning environments. They need love, affection and inspiration. They don’t need tough disciplinarians who insult and bully them all the time. They need teachers who respect them and believe in their capabilities. They need teachers who create love for learning.
Success is almost inevitable in a congenial and collaborative environment where learner’s get due respect and teachers share common agendas and goals for the improvement of learners.
Once learners come out of their cocoons, they can show their real colours and become better learners. There is considerable scope for play-way and joyful learning strategies to develop a growth mindset. This way we can minimise the achievement gaps in learning.
REFERENCE:
16 May 2016.Schools need to become nurseries of hope for public school students.Rising Kashmir.
