Introduction
Every policy of any country depends on certain given factors, principles, motto, aims, rules and a framework, which acts as a guiding document. The Constitution of India, for example, has a guiding document in the form of the Preamble to the Constitution, which acts the heart and soul of the constitution. The same constitution after decades of struggle gave birth to the Right to Education under article 21A of the Constitution in 2004-05 and is in process and under effect. This signifies what importance the principles and aims of any document may have on the rights and duties if the people and on the nation as a whole, that too in a country like India where Literacy and access to Education has been available based on caste privileges historically, as well as class privileges in the more recent history. Thus, the National Curriculum Framework that came out in 2005 also charted out the Aims of Education, giving the background, implications and strategies based on observation of previous years and was based on certain specific themes that most probably must have stemmed through observations of years if implementation of previous educational regimes, good or bad. Observations of the focus group In the introductory part itself, the focus group on aims of education lists out several observations which the NCF 2005 sought to work on:
It is a bit surprising that the document says that the focus group has ‘fairly a clear idea’ of the aims of education and after around 17 years of NCF 2005, we know that these aims haven’t quite had a desired effect on the system that prevails today. The observations listed above are true and needed to be worked on but the aims, as worded, seem to have not foreseen their overconfidence that the aims are not an end in itself and the system would not be inclusive entirely and even resistive too, to these aims, but briefly, as I understood it, the aims of education are-
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“Why now does this burden have to be mine? But that was an irrelevant question. All we can do is choose our code, not our circumstances or our times.” Anurag writes a very emotional and deeply penetrative, intriguing and introspective opinion piece for the Mint. The very first image that you see when you begin to read is of a funeral pyre, giving you an impression and a perspective of the author’s thought and sets the tone for rest of the piece. Get an idea of thought process behind this piece by reading these following lines: “‘What happened?’, I asked. ‘Well, they came from too far and too late’, he said. ‘His SPO2 reading was 45. He was 26.’” As we see the foundation’s work on Vaxit, on vaccination for the young and the old, the camps, the oxygen plants set-up, Anurag shares quite a heart-breaking story first and then the following observation, which perhaps preceded the foundation’s work with force in the second wave: “The day made It clear that I was 2-3 weeks too late. If I had been to that place or somewhere similar, 3-4 weeks earlier, I would have noticed and weighed differently the canaries being snuffed out across the country in mid-March. I would have acted. And with our organizations’ reach and depth, and the experience through the pandemic, we would have saved lives.” Is this not why the foundation is working day in and day out on not just education, which had been the primary and only focus till 18-20 months ago, but also on humanitarian support and healthcare facilitation along with the authorities? What Anurag felt then and has mentioned in the piece last week, have we not felt the same time and again, in the first wave, in the second wave and again apprehending the fear of the looming third wave? But what prompted Anurag to share these experiences? Was it the howling best friend of the human being that did not get enough attention before Anurag’s intervention? It was empathy. “Fuelled only by empathy”. A feeling that we must keep and in Anurag’s words, the ‘zidd’ that the foundation’s members have had working to help save lives, to go out without fear and worry. To help as much as they can, and now, as much as we can, again, save lives and save people from the destruction, the loss which is not perhaps a loss of learning but a loss of humanity. In these troubled times, this opinion piece must put into perspective and reignite the foundation and its members to do the job it has already done and for all who are reading these words, not in isolation but in the perspective of the present times and your work for the greater good. “Rivers of corpses and fields of funeral pyres from 2021 cannot be erased. But if enough are ziddi, and I have seen many during the cataclysm, the arc will bend.” Author: Arddhendu Shekhar Dash
Arddhendu ji talks about two major issues in his article, based on observations and plan of the two years engagement of learning loss from classes III to VIII and on foundational numeracy: learning loss itself and behavioral change, the latter of which delves into the emotional, physical and mental aspects such as patience, attention span, sitting through in a class, habit of coming to school, interaction with teachers and classmates etc after 16 months shutdown. “The children of classes III-V were grouped based on their needs and were assigned to learning stations based on their understanding of number sense, four functions and their grade-level readiness.” Thus, this experimentation gave out problems different children or set of children were facing in foundational numeracy. Thus, through sectional grouping and dedicated teaching methods, the teachers who had identified 27 out of 90 students who had issues in FN, “about 11 (out of 27) of the students achieved foundational numeracy, achieving class-level competencies related to number sense and the four basic operations”. Thus, the plan is now continued to 2nd year targeting FN and grade appropriate competencies for all students, which went up from 63 by 11 to include all 90 students to reach the grade level. Reflections: A need based approach The identification assessment and appropriate grouping irrespective of class is one very good way to work on a particular student. Moreover, one beneficial factor in primary schools, as the author himself notes is that the primary teachers can teach all subjects and thus, every of the 27 students who had issues of foundational numeracy and four basic operations got equal attention or appropriate attention enough to help them move on to grade appropriate learning level, thus, giving every child the attention they need in specific areas by grouping method. In other words, every teacher could assess, analyze and approach the needs of the students accordingly, rather than focusing on the children like it happens in a traditional class room environment of teaching a concept and moving on to the next. Furthermore, Arddhendu ji clearly explains the methodology, the planning and the approach he and his colleagues took, thus, if one deciphers the idea and the process behind the experiment, one could easily draw from this experience and implement similar if not the exact same model in the respective schools. Author: Hemraj Bhatt
Publication: Azim Premji University Introductions and contexts: At the outset, the book is literally what the title says. It is the daily journal entry of a schoolteacher working with primary school students; however, this collection of the journal entries has been published posthumously as the author died untimely due to an accident. Thus, the foreword sets the tone of the book and is a very unique beginning to any book I have read so far. As to the reason why I chose the book… it is more than just a single reason. To begin with, it has to do with the fact that one of the first things that our foundation asked us to do as a member of this family is to write daily, maintain weekly reports and monthly reports of our professional experience as an associate visiting the schools as part of the SUP. Having been doing that for the past month, I found this to be a very interesting avenue to explore. Additionally, after reading the foreword of the book before finally deciding to read and write a review on this book, something about the efforts of those who wanted to get the publish the work of a friend and a colleague appealed to me, reeling from a personal loss myself. Lastly, a teacher’s perspective and observations would be a very helpful thing while the year’s engagement with the SUP. Thus, I present the following review. The Review: The book has 18 months of diary entry of late Mr. Hemraj Bhatt. It starts from 10th April, 2007 and ends on the experience of the day shared on 19th October, 2008, documenting the challenges, perspectives, mindset and a teacher’s approach to problems and solutions being an assistant teacher at a primary school of the now passed away teacher, and the system he fought and wanted to challenge and change from within. At many points, an associate at the foundation may relate to the experiences shared by Bhatt ji in this book, especially observations related to administrative workload of the primary teachers, learning losses and outcomes and some of us who also have been observing multigrade teaching where there are less teachers than classes and more students. In the first entry itself, for example, I could relate to what the author is trying to say when he talks about how one of the meetings at the NPRC (Nyaya Panchayat Resource Centre), an administrative job is useless and how this distances him from his real job of teaching and until the time systematic change is made and the assistant teachers are also given an opportunity to participate and speak at these meetings. So right from the first entry, the writer has pointed out a problem, a challenge in the larger organizational system in place and how it could be solved from his perspective. In my interactions with the teachers in PS Mudpar, I was once a part of the conversation which had similar problems of administrative tasks being too much of a fetter on the time shared between the student and his teacher in a classroom learning process. Later on in the book as well, the author notices and writes that the system of regular learning and according to periods gets hampered if either the teacher or the student is on leave as the children tend to forget the things very quickly. Another problem highlighted and another robservation which us associates can relate with is that of multigrade teaching. It is not very easy says the author even if it looks good in theory and on paper and this gets even more troublesome when the children are not at the required level. Thus, when talking about this with a fellow colleague and a friend who attends the school of a similar multigrade setup, albeit, with two teachers, the author’s observation found resonance. Imagine this in the context of the covid pandemic. Two teachers, 35-40 students spanning 5 classes, all at different learning levels. From this perspective, what the author is trying to say makes sense. In yet another entry, there is a mention of how another of administrative jobs of a teacher made him skip the class, making it the second day of missing classes in 7 days, this time due to TC issuing and admissions at school. All this makes one wonder, what if a clerical post is created at the primary school to help the teachers concentrate on more teaching than administrative work, especially in the schools where the teachers are less than the classes and students, proportionately. The author also shares how he has appointed a volunteer teacher to help them in teaching at the school and how he pays their salary from his own, with the volunteer taking classes 1-3 and himself taking classes 4th and 5th, while noting that the latter are actually at the foundational level of class 2 in reality and he works with them accordingly, hinting towards how systematic change is needed here as well. There also is a point about basic numeracy and addition without carrying over in the children of the school, something which is a very keen observation of mine as well as the past 2 weeks have been associated with class 5 and class 1 at the school I am associated with. While discussing this at the TLC with my fellow associates, we had a good interaction with respect to FLN and other points of the NEP 2020’s focus and how it seems to tackle this problem, however, without coming to a balanced one opinion whether it actually counters the problems posed. Perhaps the answer lies in the distant future after we have had a year’s experience with the teachers, the NEP and the system of education. Another similarity between the author’s words and the acts of teachers at PS Mudpar is related to the punctuality, or rather the absence of it in the two schools. The students in both instances come from nearby villages, yet far for our nanhe munhe friends to travel 2-5 kilometers in the morning, especially in winters and Saturdays. The author makes it a point to not punish or scold the children for coming late to the school. Often they come in between the prayers, and even after but none of the children are punished or sent back. There are a few entries which are examples of direct altercation with the system and administrators relating to the teachers’s worls. One such incident is mentioned (at page 29-30) as an entry where the teacher meets the BSA or the Basic Shiksha Adhikari, who makes a few sarcastic comments to Bhatt ji, the teacher-author, after being late to be on the visit to the school himself coming after the school had closed at 2.30. Remarks on the construction of the school and the other maintenance work, the BSA had made the teacher anxious but then there is that show of politeness and calmness at the same time as he makes an effort of great self-restraint and observations on the BSA’s words. The incident leaves the reader frustrated about the behavior of certain people in power positions and tells a lot about power equations and politics within the system. Another of the incidents that reminded me about my limited understanding of the overview of the NEP was the observation made by and objected by Bhatt ji back in 2007 itslef. The incident was regarding teaching through TLMs and whether the children knew the names of the vegetables and flowers etc from the images in much like a match the following mannered question. The entry notes “The concept of new textbooks, where reading is started with words instead of alphabets, and recognition of alphabets is introduced later, has been proved correct by these experiences”. Interestingly, this also happened to be one of the conversations I had with my fellow associates on the NEP and this form of learning method. This format of teaching alphabets through words is still not imaginable to me, given we were taught in the opposite manner and yet most of us had seen this being the practice in the schools we are engaged with for the year. Perhaps, then again the faculty of time and much more readings would be a driving force in understanding the other method. Coming back to the entry, the author notes that the children know from the images and pictures as to what is what but they use their mother tongue to describe it and which the traditional teaching method frowns upon and discourages while also ‘making fun of them’. (page 32) Similarly, there are other entries dealing with MDM management and how the cook was rather an abusive being to all and did not use to either come on time or prepare the food on time either. While the book has all these entries, it also has poems in between the entries, the meaning of which, I believe is lost in translation for I was not able to grasp the depth of it as much as I grasped the entries themselves. Perhaps a reading of the poems in Hindi, in its original form would be better for those who do read this book of amazing experiences. Overall, the book is a set of intimate understandings, reflections, and perspectives of a schoolteacher. At times, it is emotional in the form of frustration, the other times it is so eerily similar to our reflections and these entries validate experiences of Bhatt ji’s counterparts across India. Note: What started as a book review became an amalgam of thoughts and shared experiences of the teacher as well as mine. This method is regretted, as this is not how a book report should be I believe, but the temptation to reflect on each of the pointers was more as writing the report felt more like a conversation with the author and me, both of us sharing our experiences, given I was reviewing a diary entry, a piece of a man’s daily experiences which is rally a reflection of the man himself, just in words. Forgive me as this documents my first book review. In the end, I hope you enjoyed reading this amalgam and enjoy the book more. May Hemraj Bhatt sahab rest in peace and I thank him for this work of his and those who brought it in front of us, for all of us to read and reflect. |
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