6 दिसंबर 1992 से भारतीय मुसलमानों के दिलों पर कुछ ज़ख़्म हैं। उसी दिन संविधान और सुप्रीम कोर्ट की धज्जियां उड़ाकर बाबरी मस्जिद को गिराया गया। और जिन्होंने बाबरी मस्जिद गिराई थी वो मीडिया के कैमरा पर आकर बोलते हैं लेकिन अभी तक उनको कोई सज़ा नहीं मिल सकी। इसका भी दुख है वो बात अलग है।

लेकिन आज हर हिंदू और मुसलमान सिर्फ मंदिर और मस्जिद के लिए उतावले हैं क्या और कोई समस्या ही नहीं दोनों समाजों को? देश में मुसलमानों मे शिक्षा दर सबसे कम है|भारत में सबसे ज्यादा निरक्षर मुस्लिम आबादी ही है|धार्मिक समुदाय और लिंग द्वारा शैक्षणिक स्तर पर भारत की 2011 की जनगणना से जारी किए गए आंकड़ों से पता चला है कि भारत में 42.7% मुस्लिम अशिक्षित हैं। देश के किसी भी धार्मिक समुदाय में यह सर्वोच्च निरक्षरता दर है।

मुस्लिम एकमात्र समुदाय हैं जिसमें सभी समुदायों के बीच राष्ट्रीय दर से अधिक निरक्षरता है। हिंदुओं में यह आंकड़ा 36.3% है, जो अशिक्षित लोगों का दूसरा सबसे बड़ा अनुपात है।

(यह डेटा सेट सात साल से ऊपर की उम्र की आबादी को ध्यान में रख कर निर्धारित किया गया है।)

मुसलामानों की राजनीति और सरकारी नौकरी में भी बहुत कम भागीदारी है। 2014 में हुए लोकसभा चुनाव में मुस्लिमों का सदन में न्यूनतम प्रतिनिधित्व का रिकॉर्ड भी टूट गया और 4.2% हो गया जो कि 1957 का था। अधिकांश मुस्लिमों के बच्चे मदरसों में पढ़ते हैं जो कि बहुत सस्ती और प्राचीन शिक्षा पद्धति है। इसमें विज्ञान, तकनीक, गणित, अंग्रेज़ी तथा समाजशास्त्रों की उचित शिक्षा नहीं मिल पाती जिससे यदि बच्चे बाद में किसी विश्विद्यालय में जातें हैं तो उन्हें समस्या होती है। इस प्रकार मुस्लिम आबादी आधुनिक शिक्षा में पिछड़ रही है और सरकारी नौकरियों में भी उनकी भागीदारी कम होती जा रही है।

देश में कुल भिखारियों की संख्य में से हर चौथा मुसलमान है। इस प्रकार से इनकी 25% जनसंख्या भीख मांग कर ही अपना जीवन-यापन कर रही है। वहीं भारत में हर एक मुहल्ले में कम से कम एक मस्जिद तो होती ही है जिनमें हर महीने हज़ारों रुपये चंदा आता है। कितनी मज़ारें हैं उन पर कितना चढ़ावा आता है। जो चादरें चढ़ाई जाती है वो वापस दुकानदारों को बेच दी जाती है जिसका पैसा मज़ार प्रबंधन को मिलता है। इस पैसे में दुकानदारों की भी हिस्सेदारी होती है। वही पैसा मुसलमानों की शिक्षा पर लगे तो उनकी अशिक्षा कम हो सकती है।

नोट :- लेख में दिये गये आंकड़े 2011 की जनगणना के मुताबिक हैं।

The post “भारत के मुसलमानों को तय करना होगा उन्हें मस्जिद चाहिए या तालीम” appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz and is a copyright of the same. Please do not republish.

Imagine a 13-year-old student from a public school, on the verge of dropping out because they cannot handle the anxiety of not knowing what to do with their life. If left on their own, with little or no responsible support system from family or school, and the lack of role-models in his community, they are likely to make the wrong career choice, or end up staying at home to eventually find themselves employment in the informal labour market. What could play a vital role in changing the script of such a student’s life?

In developing countries like India, 115 million children are living in extreme poverty; 48% of children are stunted and 20% are wasted, and unable to reach their potential in cognitive development because of poverty, poor nutrition, and deficient care. Children and young people from vulnerable backgrounds like these come from experiences of adversity, which may range from poor care to violence and abuse. Research on the developing brain shows that early childhood experiences build the foundation for a skilled workforce, a responsible community and a thriving economy. Early experiences of adversity affect their ability to engage with the world, make healthy choices, and thrive.

It is high time we re-looked at our education system and actually began questioning what we are attempting to teach our children. The number of children attending primary school has grown considerably from 20 crore in 2002 to 23 crore in the following ten years in India. However, it will take another 100 years for children in developing countries like India to reach the same levels of education in developed countries. A study conducted by The Brookings Institution found that developing countries have average levels of education in the 21^st Century which were achieved in many western countries by the early decades of the 20^th Century. Our current education system is still geared towards the Industrial age and isn’t preparing young people to overcome adversity. By not re-imagining education, we will continue to have graduates who are unable to find jobs, retain jobs, or respond to hurdles with the resilience and confidence required to solve problems. We will not be able to bridge this 100-year gap.

Life Skills are the critical ingredient we need to help children and young people overcome adversity and thrive. This is not to be misunderstood as livelihood skills, which our country has been pushing for through its Skill India initiatives. Livelihood skills are those which could help an individual earn a living and make enough money to sustain themselves and their family. Life skills, on the other hand, lay the foundation which will help cultivate the ability to take initiative, solve problems, face challenges, deal with conflict, interact with others, and pay heed to instructions. These skills are required for executive function and are also termed as social emotional learning, but translate to the same psychosocial abilities that enable individuals to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of everyday life. WHO defines them as psychosocial competencies and interpersonal skills that help people make informed decisions, solve problems, think critically and creatively, communicate effectively, build healthy relationships, empathise with others, and cope with and manage their lives in a healthy and productive manner.

Why does a young person need this, you may ask? What happens when we help skill someone with empathy, the ability to cope with pressure, and a knack for creative thinking? The 21^st Century brings an unprecedented pace of change, which towards a future which is not only complex but absolutely unpredictable. This will present a new set of social, economic and environmental challenges for the next generation. A person needs to be in a position to switch gears and be ready to face the unexpected by not crumbling with anxiety and the inability to make quick decisions to solve problems. They need to be equipped with skills which will help them adapt and effectively face these challenges with confidence. Life skills will help them be world-ready.

The most effective way in which we can empower children and young people to overcome adversity and create safe environments which strengthen their development and be world-ready is through life skills. When children and young people are put in trying situations, these are the skills which will make them understand the physical and emotional changes, that will help them transition successfully from childhood into adulthood.

Life skills will help them have a good sense of self and be able to make sounds decisions based on long-term impact and leapfrog into the 21st Century!

Dream a Dream through three well-designed interventions has been successfully empowering children and young people with life skills to make them world-ready. To know more about their work, please click here.

The post The One Thing That Millions Of Students In India Urgently Need appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz and is a copyright of the same. Please do not republish.

जब से नीतीश कुमार ने कुर्सी संभाली है तब से वह लगातार समाज को, नौजवानों को नुकसान पहुंचाते आये हैं। लगभग हर विभाग में ठेके पर लोगों को काम पर रखा जा रहा है। इसका लाभ किसे मिलता है? अफसरों, नेताओं के बच्चों को और दूसरे पैरवी लगाने वालों को? आम आदमी, गरीब आदमी के पास ना घुस देने के लिए पैसे हैं ना ही पैरवी करवाने के लिए बड़े अफसरों तक पहुंच। परिणामस्वरूप वे फॉर्म तो भर लेते हैं लेकिन उनका नियोजन नहीं हो पाता, सब फिक्सड रहता है पहले से।

नियमित शिक्षकों की नियुक्ति के बदले नियोजित शिक्षकों की बहाली की जा रही है। फर्ज़ी शिक्षकों की संख्या कितनी है यह किसी को नहीं पता। कई बार ऐसे न्यूज़ आते हैं कि बिहार में भारी संख्या में फर्ज़ी शिक्षकों का नियोजन हुआ है। यह देखने को भी मिलता है और शिक्षकों की कार्यशैली से भी लगता है कि ये फर्ज़ी हैं, अयोग्य हैं। अब यह अयोग्य, फर्ज़ी शिक्षक बिना किसी सेटिंग्स के तो नहीं बहाल हुए होंगे?

सबको पता है लेकिन वोट बैंक के लालच में नीतीश जी शिक्षा की ऐसी तैसी कर रहे हैं। शिक्षकों की कमी को लेकर अब तो कोर्ट को कहना पड़ रहा है कि आपने शिक्षा का मज़ाक बना दिया है।

हम बात कर रहे थे नियोजन की, नियुक्ति के बदले नियोजन से भी मन नहीं भरा तो अब गरीब नौजवानों को बर्बाद करने के लिए एक और फॉर्मूला लेकर आये हैं, अतिथि शिक्षक का।

जी, यह तथाकथित विकास पुरुष जी सिर्फ अतिथि शिक्षक की भर्ती करेंगे। इसमें सेलेक्शन उन्हीं लोगों का होगा जो सेटिंग्स वाले हैं। बिहार सरकार की कार्यशैली देखकर इस बात से इंकार नहीं किया जा सकता है कि धांधली नहीं होती है। मान लेते हैं कि अगर धांधली नहीं भी होगी तो आप अतिथि शिक्षकों के भरोसे बच्चों को क्यों छोड़ना चाहते हैं?

जब अभ्यर्थी, शिक्षक बनने की सभी योग्यताओं को पूरा करते हैं तो आप उनकी नियुक्ति कीजिये उन्हें नियोजन या अतिथि वाले डिब्बे में क्यों धकेल रहे हैं? अतिथि शिक्षक बनाने का क्या औचित्य है?

अतिथि शिक्षक या किसी भी विभाग में ठेके पर बहाल होने वाले स्टाफ को कुछ समय बाद स्थायी कर दिया जाता है। इसकी चयन प्रक्रिया में ही सारा “खेल” हो जाता है। आखिर, इस रास्ते से नौकरी देने का कौन सा नया खेल खेल रहे हैं नीतीश जी और उनकी सरकार के कर्ताधर्ता? किस वर्ग को फायदा पहुंचा रहे हैं? कौन हैं वे लोग जो इस रास्ते से नौकरी बांट रहे हैं?

जहां तक मैं समझता हूं कमज़ोर वर्गों, दबे-कुचले, वंचितों, आम आदमी, गरीब आदमी के लिए यह रास्ता नौकरी में हिस्सेदारी से वंचित होने का रास्ता है। नेताओं, अफसरों का एक खास वर्ग नहीं चाहता कि समाज के निचले स्तर का आदमी नौकरी में आये। यह रास्ता जनता के लिए दरवाज़े बंद करने जैसा है। पिछले दरवाज़े से अपने लोगों की भर्ती करने के लिए है।

एक लेटेस्ट न्यूज़ है कि बिहार सरकार जनवरी 2019 में, 4257 अतिथि शिक्षकों की भर्ती करेगी जिसके आदेश दे दिए गए हैं।

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नोट- यह लेख पहले The Critical Mirror में प्रकाशित हो चुका है।

The post परमानेंट की जगह नियोजित और अतिथि शिक्षकों की बहाली क्यों कर रहे हैं नीतीश? appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz and is a copyright of the same. Please do not republish.

Don’t teach medical students about HIV, although it’s reality but taboo. Don’t teach students of history about Nazism, for they may turn into a power-obsessed maniac. Don’t teach students of psychiatry about depression, for they themselves may fall victim to the same. Lastly, don’t even think of teaching the students about the shortcomings of the present organisation of society, for their mindset may become prejudiced. Does logic seems to be in its place? Absolutely not. And it is far from being perceived as rational.

Just like any other question on a provision of the Indian Penal Code, the third semester end-term examination paper of Indian Penal Code which was conducted on December 7 2018 at GGS Indraprastha University, New Delhi, had the following question:

“Q.1. (a) Ahmed, a Muslim kills a cow in a market in the presence of Rohit Tushar, Manav and Rahul, who are Hindus. Has Ahmed committed any offence?”

Now, if you ask any law student, (s)he would say that the question is pertaining to the Sections 153-A and 295-A of the Indian Penal Code, which criminalizes “deliberate and malicious acts, intending to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs.”

The impugned question has a simple illustration which is to be analysed in the light of these two provisions i.e. Ss 153-A and 295-A of the Indian Penal Code, 1860. But, it has taken an unfortunate turn and has resulted into a political issue.

As reported by The Indian Express, the Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia wrote the following note to the Higher Education Secretary on December 11, “It has been brought to my notice through media reports that a highly objectionable question was asked in the LLB third semester exam in the college, namely School Law at Narela, affiliated to GGSIPU. How could such a reprehensible question with a communal overtone be framed for an LLB exam? Secretary (Higher Education) to get the matter inquired into and status report be sent to the undersigned within five days.”

The minister terms the question as a “highly objectionable” and a “reprehensible” one. But, if you go on to analyse the same with logic that rests on rationality and reasoning, there is not an iota of academic incorrectness in this question.

It is reported, through various sources, that the reasons for such condemnation by the minister lies in the recent incident in Bulandshahr and the unfortunate lynching of 2015, but even if one goes by the thinking of the minister, then also can you expect a lawyer to do their job without knowledge of legal provisions pertaining to such incidents in order to appear before a court of law? Who shall conduct the prosecution of such incidents if the legal issues are not taught in the law schools out of fear of being politically incorrect? Moreover, does the minister really believe that law students, who supposedly are one of the most aware lot of students, frame their personal opinions depending on one question in an examination?

Interestingly, it was not the first time that such a question was asked in an examination conducted by the university. The IPC third semester paper in the year 2016 had the following question:

“Q.1. e : ‘X’ a Mohammedan kills a cow in an open place in the presence of 4-5 Hindus. What Offence he has committed?”

The question again was supposed to be answered in the light of the same provisions of the IPC i.e. 153-A and 295-A. But, there was no controversy created at that time. Moreover, this examination was chronologically closer to the unfortunate incident of 2015, but no one objected to it. In fact, Sisodia was on the same portfolio, but he didn’t even express his views, leave alone writing to the Higher Education Secretary.

Another thing that has followed the ‘un-intelligent’ action by the minister is regret expressed by the Registrar of the University. The Telegraph quotes him as saying, “We regret this question. It is, of course, communal in nature. The question stands deleted and no marks will be given for it, irrespective of whether a student has attempted it. The controller of examinations will issue an advisory to the examiners so that such things don’t happen in future.”

Why express regret? Regret that the students were made aware of the realities of society? Regret that the students were made to think of legal mechanisms available to curb such mishaps? Or regret that although we were academically correct, we missed out to be politically correct in the eyes of a few?

What can we possibly achieve by deleting the question? The issue is far from being about five marks in an examination. Aren’t we leaving an impression on young minds that we would bow not to academic correctness but to political incorrectness?

The legal fraternity, especially law students, have always been the exemplification of idealism and zeal for societal progress, so why keep them in a cocoon when the question of sensitive realities of society pops up?

Why should anyone stop students from pondering and deliberating upon realities of the world we live in, despite how uncomfortable it may be? As Justice Kurian Joseph said in his retirement speech, “Silence of the law-men is more dangerous to the society than the violence of laymen.”

Academia, in order to retain and enhance its glory, must stand firm for academic correctness rather than political incorrectness.

Featured image for representative purpose only.
Featured image source: NILS India/Facebook.

The post Manish Sisodia May Think This Question In A Law Exam Is Communal In Nature, But I Disagree appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz and is a copyright of the same. Please do not republish.

नमस्कार!

शायद आपने बैचलर्स की पढ़ाई की होगी या फिर डिप्लोमा या मास्टर्स डिग्रीधारी हो सकते हैं। आपने बैचर्स की पढ़ाई की होगी, इसके अधिक चांसेज़ हैं लेकिन ध्यान रहे मैं आपका मज़ाक बिल्कुल भी नहीं उड़ा रहा हूं क्योंकि मैं भी आप में से ही एक हूं। इसलिए Just Chil!

हमारे देश में हर साल 10 लाख से ज़्यादा इंजीनियर बनाए जाते हैं। उनमें से अधिकांश विद्यार्थियों का यह कहना होता है कि यार पैरेन्ट्स ने इंजीनियरिंग में एडमिशन करवा दी या फिर इंजीनियरिंग करने के बाद कुछ तो हो ही जाएगा। कोई कहता है, ‘कुछ नहीं मिला तो इंजीनियरिंग ही ले ली।’

कुछ ही विद्यार्थी ऐसे होते हैं जो बड़ी शिद्दत से इंजीनियर बनना चाहते थे और उन्होंने अपना सपना पूरा भी किया। कुछ मेरी तरह होते हैं जो चाहते तो थे एक बड़ा आदमी बनना मगर जानकारी के अभाव में और बिना किसी दबाव में इंजीनियर बन गए।

अगर आप भारत में इंजीनियर हैं तब आईआईटी आपने लिए उस हसीन सपने से कम नहीं है जिसमें आपको सभी बेशकीमती चीज़ें अपने पास रखने की चाहत होती है। इस चक्कर में आप पूरी शिद्दत के साथ आईआईटी में एंट्री लेने की कोशिश में लग जाते हैं। यहां तक तो ठीक है पर हम आखिर ऐसा करते क्यों हैं?

आईआईटी में जाने के लिए लोग मरते क्यों हैं? चलिए मैं बताता हूं, जिस प्रकार से 10 लाख लोग इंजीनियरिंग करते हैं और सफल केवल 10% ही हो पाते हैं, ठीक उसी प्रकार से 10,000 स्टूडेंट्स आईआईटी करने आते तो हैं लेकिन उनमें से ज़्यादातर विद्यार्थी सिर्फ करोड़ों की नौकरी की लालच का ख्वाब अपने मन में पाल रखते हैं।

अगर आप मुझसे सहमत नहीं हैं तब आकड़े उठा लीजिये और आपको पता चलेगा कि कितने प्रतिशत इंजीनियर्स वाकई में इंजीनियर का काम करते हैं। मैं यह भी कहना चाहूंगा कि मैं पूरे सिस्टम को एक ही चश्मे से नहीं देखता हूं। अगर ऐसा ही होता तब हमारे देश के आईआईटी से नारायण मूर्ति, सूंदर पिचई, नंदन नीलेकणि जैसे इंजनियर्स ना निकले होते।

मैं अपने अनुभव के हिसाब से कह सकता हूं कि हमारे देश में सिर्फ 1% इंजीनियर्स ही आईआईटी से इंजीनियरिंग कर पाते हैं, बाकी 99% तो आप समझ ही गए होंगे। चलिए अब 99% की बात करते हैं जो पहले साल से ही अपने को कुछ कम महसूस करने लगते हैं क्योंकि आपने आईआईटी जेईई जो नहीं क्लियर किया होता है (झूठ मत बोलिये, हम सब जानते हैं)।

मैं भी आप ही में से एक था, तो मुझे इस बात को कुबूल करने में कोई दिक्कत नहीं है। शायद यही चीज़ें हैं जो हमारे मनोबल को ना सिर्फ कमज़ोर करते हैं बल्कि बड़े सपने देखने से रोकते भी हैं। यकीन मानिए, आपकी इच्छा और आपकी सोच ही आपके सपनों को पूरा करती हैं, आईआईटी या कोई और इंस्टीट्यूट तो सिर्फ एक ज़रिया या यूं कहिए कि उन सपनों तक पहुंचने के लिए सीढ़ी है।

अब विषय यह है कि आपको अपने सपनों को पूरा तो करना है लेकिन आप में से ज़्यादातर लोग अधिक पैसों वाली नौकरी को ही अपना सपना बना बैठे हैं। चाहे  वो आईआईटीएन हो या किसी दूसरी संस्था इंजीनियरिंग की पढ़ाई करने वाले छात्र। अब जब आपने इसे ही अपना लक्ष्य माना है तब कोई बात नहीं।

इस मामले में तो आईआईटी ही बाज़ी मारेगा क्योंकि इतने सालों तक घिसे जो हैं, पहले 10वीं से 12वीं तक और फिर इंजीनियरिंग की पढ़ाई के लिए जो चार साल उन्होंने दिए हैं।

तो चलो भाई, “आईआईटी मुंबई के स्टूडेंट ने पाया 1 करोड़ का पैकेज, फेसबुक और गूगल बने Highest Payer।” अब जो आईआईटी से नहीं हैं वे सिर्फ Cognizant और TCS से ही खुश हैं लेकिन तभी दूसरे दिन अखबार में खबर आती है कि ‘XYZ’ कॉलेज के स्टूडेंट ने मारी बाज़ी, गूगल में मिली नौकरी।

फिर आप सोचते हैं कि यार मुझे क्यों नहीं मिली ऐसी नौकरी। आपको भी मिल सकती थी ऐसी नौकरी लेकिन कभी खुद से पूछकर देखिएगा कि आपने अपने ऊपर विश्वास किया था क्या? क्या आपने उस हद तक मेहनत की थी? अगर हां, तो लगे रहिए, एक दिन सफलता ज़रूर मिलेगी।

अब जब इंजीनियरिंग कर ही ली है तो क्यों ना कुछ इंजीनियर जैसा किया जाए। अब आप सोचेंगे कि मैं कुछ टेक्निकल बाते करूंगा लेकिन आप ऐसा कैसे सोच सकते हैं क्योंकि ‘इंजीनियर्स’ इंजीनियरिंग छोड़कर बाकी सब करते हैं और मैं भी वही करूंगा। अगर आप इंजीनियर हैं तब आपको अपने कॉलेजेज़ में होने वाले Fests के बारे में तो पता ही होगा।

मैं आपसे यह इसलिए कह रहा हूं क्योंकि बेशक हमारे देश में हज़ारो इंजीनियरिंग कॉलेजेज़ हैं जहां से हर साल लाखों इंजीनियर्स निकलते हैं लेकिन इन कॉलेजों की एक खास बात है और वो यह कि वे आपको प्लैटफॉर्म देती हैं जिनके ज़रिए आप अपने अंदर के टैलेंट को पहचान पाएं। यही वो चार साल होते हैं जिसमे आप एक नई दुनिया से मिलते हैं अपने आप को बेहद करीब से पहचानते हैं।

यह ज़रूरी नहीं कि आप हमेशा अपने सपनों या अपने पैशन को फॉलो कर पाएं लेकिन कुछ अलग करने का जुनून तो आपके अंदर ज़रूर रहता है। ऐसे में ज़रूरी यह है कि आप उस जुनून को मरने ना दें।

अब मुझे ही देख लीजिये मैंने इंजीनियरिंग की जिस यूनिवर्सिटी से पढ़ाई की है वह आईआईटी तो नहीं है लेकिन फेमस ज़रूर है। वहां मुझे वह वातावरण मिला जिसके ज़रिए अपने अंदर के टैलेंट को समझने का मौका मिला। मैंने अपने मन को पहचाना, अपने अंदर छिपे आर्टिस्ट को समझा और खुद को खुश रखना सीखा (By The Way Placement भी ली वहां से)।

इतना तो काफी था मेरे लिए लेकिन कहते हैं ना जब तक आप अपने सपने को पूरा ना कर लें, चैन कहां मिलती है। आखिर मैं अपने पोस्ट ग्रेजुएट के लिए आईआईटी में आ ही गया मगर आप सोच रहे होंगे कि अब तो इसके सारे आर्टिस्ट-वार्टिस्ट वाली बात की तो वाट ही लग गई होगी।

भाई एक बात ध्यान रहे कि आईआईटी में आने के बाद पता चला, ‘यह सारे के सारे ‘Extra Curricular Activities’ में भी तीस मार खां हैं। तभी तो देश के बेस्ट कल्चरल और टेक्निकल फेस्ट भी यहीं होते हैं। इसी एनवायरनमेंट की देन हैं, जयराम रमेश, मनोहर पर्रिकर, अरविंद केजरीवाल, अशोक खेमका, नितेश तिवारी, चेतन भगत, राहुल राम, टीवीएफ कंपनी और पता नहीं कितने ही हैं।

चलिए अब मैं अपनी बात करता हूं। मुझे लिखने का शौक पिछले एक साल में आया और मैंने लिखना शुरू कर दिया। मुझे पता नहीं था कि कैसे लिखना है, क्या लिखना है पर इतना पता था कि बस लिखना है। जब आप कुछ ठान लेते हैं तब रास्ते अपने आप ही निकल जाते हैं। मैंने सिर्फ लिखना ही शुरू नहीं किया, बल्कि उसे ऑनलाइन माध्यमों में पब्लिश भी किया और मुझे साथ मिला एक बेहतरीन प्लैटफॉर्म का जिसने मेरे लिखावट को पहचानते हुए मेरी सराहना भी की।

Youth Ki Awaaz ने  मुझे अपनी स्टोरीज़ कहने की आज़ादी दी और मानो मेरे इस शौक को मुहर लग गई हो। आज मैं लिख रहा हूं, मुझे पता नहीं मैं क्यों लिख रहा हूं लेकिन बस लिख रहा हूं, अपने मन को तसल्ली देने के लिए और अपने शौक को बढ़ावा देने के लिए या उस बीज को ज़िंदा रखने के लिए, जो मुझे हमेशा कुछ करने से डराता नहीं बल्कि साथ देता है।

एक बहुत महत्वपूर्ण बात है और वो यह कि आप जो भी कर रहे हैं, उसे अच्छे से करने के लिए आपका खुश होना या रहना ज़रूरी हैं, तभी आप अपना बेस्ट दे पाएंगे, चाहे वो पढ़ाई हो, एग्ज़ाम हो या फिर प्लेसमेंट्स। यही वजह हैं कि आज मैं अपने ड्रीम कॉलेज में अपने सपनों की ओर बढ़ते हुए, पढ़ाई में भी अच्छा कर रहा हूं और प्लेसमेंट का भी सुख प्राप्त कर लिया है।

मैंने अपने अंदर के आर्टिस्ट को भी ज़िंदा रखा है। यही तो ज़िन्दगी हैं, जिसमे थकना मना हैं, पर थकना कहां है, वह आपको तय करना है। आप कभी भी अपना फ्यूचर प्लैन नहीं कर सकते, क्योंकि यह ज़िन्दगी काफी अतरंगी है।

प्यार और आभार

आपका अपना Engineer!

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महर्षि दयानंद विश्वविद्यालय के 6 स्टूडेंट्स 20 नवंबर की सुबह 10 बजे से भूख हड़ताल पर बैठे थे। विश्वविद्यालय प्रशासन ने उक्त छात्रों का परीक्षा रॉल नंबर जारी करने पर रोक लगा दिया था। रॉल नंबर जारी करने के एवज में छात्रों से 5000 रुपये की लेट फीस की मांग की जा रही थी। भूख हड़ताल पर बैठने वाले छात्रों में लोकेश (छात्र युवा संघर्ष समिति) ज़िला अध्यक्ष रोहतक, संदीप, आशा,अनु, बलविंदर और नवनीत शामिल थे।

छात्रों पर यह जुर्माना 28 अगस्त तक अपनी डिग्री नहीं जमा कराने के कारण लगाया गया था जबकि उक्त छात्रों की डिग्री ही गुरु जम्भेश्वर विश्वविद्यालय द्वारा 15 अक्टूबर को जारी की गई थी। ऐसे में यह समझना होगा कि छात्रों को जो डिग्री 15 अक्टूबर को मिली थी, वे उसे 28 अगस्त से पहले कैसे जमा करा देते?

इन्हीं मांगों को लेकर 22 नवंबर की शाम 4 बजे बड़ी संख्या मे छात्र कुलपति से मिले। पहले तो कुलपति बिजेन्द्र के पुनिया ने मिलने से ही मना कर दिया था लेकिन छात्रों द्वारा लगातार अपनी बात पर अड़े रहने के बाद वीसी को आना पड़ा और उन्होंने छात्रों से बात की। इस दौरान निम्नलिखित मांगों पर सहमति बनी।

• दस्तावेज़ ना जमा कराने और 5000 का ज़ुर्माना ना देने के कारण जिन छात्रों का रॉल नबंर नहीं जारी किया गया था, उनका ज़ुर्माना भी रद्द किया गया और रॉल नंबर भी जारी कर दिया गया।
• यदि किसी विद्यार्थी के दस्तावेज़ किसी विश्वविद्यालय के कारण देर से जारी होते हैं तब उन पर जुर्माना नियम लागू नहीं होगा। उक्त बातें वीसी ने कही।
• जिन छात्रों के दस्तावेज़ विश्वविद्यालय के कर्मचारियों के कारण समय पर उपलब्ध नहीं किए जाते हैं, उनका ज़ुर्माना भी छात्रों को नहीं देना पड़ेगा।
• आगे से प्रत्येक छात्र को दाखिले के समय रसीद दी जाएगी जिसमें यह लिखित तौर पर होगा कि कौन से दस्तावेज़ जमा हो चुके हैं और कौन से बाकी हैं।
• जिन छात्रों से विश्वविद्यालय प्रशासन ने नाजायज़ तरीके से लेट फीस वसूली है, उन्हें वह वापस की जाएगी।
• 5,000 रुपये की लेट फीस के सम्बन्ध में कुलपति ने कहा कि अगली कार्यकारिणी की बैठक में इसे कम कराया जाएगा।
• किसी भी दस्तावेज़ यानि रॉल नंबर, नाम, विषय, डिग्री, अंक तालिका आदि में हुई गलती का ज़ुर्माना छात्रों को नहीं देना पड़ेगा।

इस प्रकार से तमाम मांगों पर सकारात्मक परिणाम प्राप्त हुआ है। स्टूडेंट जॉइंट एक्शन कमेटी ने अब यह फैसला लिया है कि अगली कार्यकारिणी की बैठक का इंतज़ार किया जाएगा। यदी विश्वविद्यालय प्रशासन लेट फीस को 5,000 से घटाकर कम नहीं करती है तब इस पर बड़े स्तर पर आदोलन किया जाएगा।

स्टूडेंट जॉइंट एक्शन कमेटी ने 300 रुपये तक की लेट फीस राशि रखे जाने की बात की है। छात्रों ने सत्यदेव नारायण आर्य (राज्यपाल एवं कुलाधिपति मदवि), मनोहर लाल खट्टर (मुख्यमन्त्री हरियाणा), रामविलास शर्मा (शिक्षा मंत्री हरियाणा), प्रकाश जावडेकर (मानव संसाधन मन्त्री भारत), यश गर्ग (डीसी रोहतक), जशनदीप रंधवा (एसपी रोहतक) के नाम भी अपना ज्ञापन प्रेषित किया।

22 नवंबर की शाम 5 बजे छात्रों की भूख हड़ताल समाप्त हुई। छात्रों को डॉक्टर हरबीर राठी और राकेश क्रान्ति सुरेश कुमार ने जूस पिलाकर उनकी भूख हड़ताल को समाप्त कराया। राकेश क्रान्ति और हरबीर राठी ने छात्रों को संबोधित भी किया तथा उनके संघर्ष और जीत के लिए उन्हें शुभकामनाएं भी दी।

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Atarwa village, Singrauli District, MP

Supported by a vibrant Self Help Group and with an undying spirit to bring change, a single woman in a remote village is effectively bringing new ways of engagement with pre-primary school children.

The Beginning

Shy and quiet, Tara joined the Self Help Group (SHG) mobilised by PRADAN nearly a decade back on the advice of her sister-in-law. She was newly married and a stranger in the village of Atarwa. The SHG provided her a platform to express herself and to know other women like her. Being the only literate member in the group, she taught her fellow women to sign their names and also introduced them to letters and numbers.

“It was my mission to ensure that all are able to sign and not give thumb impressions anymore. They should do basic calculations and count their savings on their own”, she says.

One day, SHG member, Santa chirped, “You should also teach our children in Anganwadi (pre-primary school) what you teach us”

However, the Anganwadi centre was always closed with no regular staff. Tara applied for the post of Anganwadi worker and started working with children below the age of 5 years. The existing space, near an open well, was not conducive for the centre. So, she negotiated with the school and got a makeshift arrangement there, thus, marking the start of her journey as a change maker in the lives of children in her village.

The Tragedy

Tara was thrown into an abyss in November 2014 when her husband died untimely. She was left alone with 4 daughters; the youngest was just a year old. She was shattered and her spirit broke. How could she raise them without their father? For weeks, she hid from the world unable to comprehend the change in her life.

The Undying Spirit

The women of her SHG stood firm with her. This solidarity could withstand any tragedy.

“For more than a month I could not even think of stepping out of the house. My daughters would ask for their father. The support I received from the women of my SHG at that point in time, was of immensely meaningful to me. It gave me confidence. I realised that if I withdraw, the children will suffer. I opened the Anganwadi centre once again.”

But, this time, there was a backlash. The fact that a young widow was going out of the house to work was akin to breaking all social mores of the area. The sisterhood of the group and an empathetic father-in-law helped her weather this storm.

Tara took up the Anganwadi work with renewed zest and her young daughters accompanied her to the centre as well. Every child’s birthday was celebrated, competitions were organised and children were given little rewards to cherish. The routine health check-ups and preventive measures were all done regularly.

In the schools in that area, even 3^rd or 4^th standard student failed to recognise alphabets or numbers adequately. In fact, identifying colours or shapes was also equally difficult for them. Tara decided to teach these skills in her Anganwadi with rigour, to equip them with knowledge necessary to navigate school with ease.

“Anganwadi can help the children learn alphabets and other basic aspects of education much faster and effectively. I honour the statement ‘Anganwadi shala-poorva shiksha ke neev hai’ (Anganwadi is the pre-school foundation of education)”, says Tara proudly.

Winds of Change

Many parents were simply indifferent to sending their children to Anganwadis. Tara, initially, had to go from door to door bringing children to the centre. Today, about 25 children visit the centre regularly. In many cases, their parents drop them there.

The momentum that Tara had built also spread to other villages. SHG members started engaging with officials to get their Anganwadis operational on a regular basis.

Seeing the effectiveness of her centre, Anganwadi instructors visit her to identify ways to improve learning outcomes and create a more conducive environment for all-round physical and mental development of children.

“Nothing could have been possible if I had not been a part of the SHG and learnt different methods of engaging with people. It’s from there that I learnt how to engage with people better. Skills that I learnt from my SHG trainings helped me to conduct more interactive and entertaining sessions for children. I want my Anganwadi to be a model for entire MP”, Tara says with a confident smile.

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With the coming of the Right to Education Act in 2009, we have seen a tremendous change in the Indian education system in terms of availability of schools in far-off areas and and an increase in national enrolment rates in schools.

As quoted in the Educational Statistics – At A Glance report published by the MHRD in 2016, the Gross Enrolment Ratio for all persons in elementary education increased from 81.6% in 2000-01 to 96.9% (provisional figure) in 2014-15.

Through this article, we will try to see if RTE has actually been able to achieve the objective it was sought out for, specifically in regard to provisions made for ‘out-of-school’ children.

In the RTE, Section 4 mentions, “…where a child above six years of age has not admitted in any school or though admitted, could not complete his or her elementary education, then, he or she shall be admitted in a class appropriate to his or her age.”

Starting from here itself, the glimpses of confusion can be observed. It’s easy to comprehend the age group for the kids who have never been admitted in any school, i.e. 6-14 years.

However, as we start to understand who to be counted as a dropout, many challenges emerge. After the coming of the RTE Act, the MHRD accepted to consider any child absent for more than 45 days from school to be counted as a dropout. Nevertheless, there is still no universal acceptance of this.

For example, in Karnataka, a child is considered a dropout if absent for more than 7 days, in Gujarat the timeline is 60 days, in Maharashtra it’s 15 days, in Rajasthan it’s 90 days, so on and so forth. More can be read upon in the research report by Centre for Policy Research published in July 2016 named A Pilot Study Of Estimating Out-of-School Children In India.

For now, let us ignore the difference of criteria used by states to define dropout children and move to percentages reported by government surveys. Educational Statistics – At A Glance, published by the MHRD in 2016 reported that “the annual dropout rate at primary level has come down by 1.28 percentage point (from 5.62% in 2011-12 to 4.34% in 2013-14) (Provisional figure) for all category students.” Though this reduction in drop out rates in a good sign for the education system in India, nevertheless, we are still far from achieving the goal of ensuring education for all.

Let’s dive a little deeper and understand the reasons which are leading to this situation in the first place. Many surveys and research missions have been conducted by different agencies to grasp the same. Few of the reasons cited are the occupation of the parents/guardians specifically for seasoned workers, daily wage workers, corporal punishment in schools, dependency on children for income generation, to take care of younger siblings, distance of the school and others. One of the more interesting reasons noted is the children’s disinterest in going to school as pointed out in the National Sample Survey Of Estimation Of Out-of-School Children In The Age 6-13 In India draft report by the Social And Rural Research Institute.

This is again something which we could dig deeper into to understand the whys. More light on this has been provided in the working paper named Out of School Children in India: Some Insights on What We Know and What We Don’t by Kiran Bhatty, Radhika Saraf and Vrinda Gupta from Centre for Policy Research.

It will be interesting to see how we can now overcome these obstacles and ensure that each and every child’s Right To Education is safeguarded. Here’s hoping that we will be able to find some answers in the much awaited National Education Policy of 2018.

Please note, Government of India has approved the extension of the tenure of the committee for submission of draft till December 15 2018.

Fingers crossed!

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Featured image source: Books for Life/Flickr.

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In 2017, the University Grants Commission came under fire for not being able to disburse fellowships to students from various colleges in Hyderabad. The students who were covered under various fellowship schemes claimed that they had to live in a perpetual cycle of borrowing money and paying it later, whenever the dues came through.

This year saw no deviation from the trend with students at TISS protesting the administration’s decision to cut aids provided to students from the SC/ST community that were attributed to a lack of funds by the UGC. More recently, research scholars from IISc and IITs resorted to protests, requesting a hike in their stipends, stating the need for a better pay structure to progress the condition of research in the country.

On Wednesday though, the UGC announced the disbursal of all pending scholarships, owing to a grant of Rs 250 crore by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD). “There were repetitive complaints that the scholarships are not being disbursed timely by the UGC and the AICTE. We issued a special grant of Rs 250 crore and now the entire backlog has been cleared and from now on, the recipients will timely get their fellowships credited,” HRD minister Prakash Javadekar informed reporters on Wednesday.

He went on to talk about the total amount of Rs 4000 crore spent by the centre in the form of scholarships every year, hence providing aid to around 2.5 lakh students. Pointing to previous cases of delays in disbursal of scholarships, he also added, “[So] we reviewed the entire system. From last month, November, we started crediting scholarship amount by 30th of each month. As of now, there’s no backlog.”

On the other hand, on being asked about the recent protests by research scholars from IISc and IITs and the government’s response to the same, the minister said, “We are positive about it.”

However, he did not respond to requests for a timeline regarding the same.

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Featured image source: Ravi Chaudhary for Hindustan Times via Getty; Ramesh Pathania for Getty.

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The Delhi Government, in an innovative and bold move, introduced a policy level change in the way we look at education, with the launching of the ‘Happiness Curriculum’ in all government schools across its national capital territory. This was spearheaded by Manish Sisodia, aiming to make children from nursery to class VIII ‘happy,’ through mindfulness, self-awareness, critical thinking, reflection and inner stability. The thought behind this curriculum was creating an urgent need to implement a curriculum which not only promotes development in numeracy and literacy but stresses on the well-being and happiness of students. These could be seen as life skills which are of prime importance for young people to be prepared for life. World Health Organisation (WHO) defines life skills as psychosocial abilities for adaptive and positive behaviour which enable individuals to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of everyday life. Why do we need to think outside academic achievements?

In the process of ensuring the enrolment of 90% of Indian children in primary school, fretting about their poor literacy and numeracy levels and thinking about ways to skill them for employability, we have forgotten to think about our students’ mental well-being. With the largest demographic dividend, India also has the highest suicide rate in the world among youth standing at 35.5 per 100,000 people for 2012 (last year for which numbers are available). According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) 2015 data, every hour, one student commits suicide in India. The lack of economic, social and emotional resources, mainly academic pressure, workplace stress, social pressures, modernisation of urban centres, relationship concerns and the breakdown of support systems are attributed as reasons for these high numbers. Some researchers feel that urbanisation and the breakdown of the traditional large family support system is the reason for such a high rate of suicide amongst youth. This begs us to question, what can we do to ensure that our students have a positive learning environment at school?

Research shows that children develop in an environment of relationships that begin at home and include extended family members, early care and education providers, and members of the community. When these important care-givers are absent, it causes development lags in children which translates into impairments in their adulthood (Center on the Developing Child, 2007). When talking about a policy level change as radical as this, there is also a need to talk about a mindset shift when dealing with parents, teachers and the society the children grow up in, which influence their learning environment. Dream a Dream, one of the lead NGOs in anchoring the development of the Happiness Curriculum and its rollout in Delhi has been focusing on empowering young people from vulnerable backgrounds to overcome adversity and be life-ready, through a creative life skills approach in the presence of an empathetic and compassionate adult. The main responsibility of Dream a Dream is to build teacher mindsets which will lead to the success of this curriculum. By empowering teachers to nurture empathy, expand their creativity and develop listening and validation skills, we are helping them unlock their own potential and changing their attitudes towards being educators.

In an attempt to explore what happiness can do to students, I journeyed to a government school in Delhi to observe the Happiness Curriculum in action. I started my visit by speaking to the school principal and asking her what she felt about the curriculum. Her school has a strength of 900 and her students come from nearby bastis where they live in congested spaces, with 6-10 to a room (what they call the house they live in). She said, “School needs to be a place where they can come to feel like they matter so we make extra efforts to give them a positive learning environment. I have been speaking to a few students and nearly all of them have said that they look forward to the Happiness Curriculum periods in the day. I’m not expecting a drastic change. New things take time. I have noticed though that before between classes, the students were always loud, unruly and restless but now, I can see that they have become quieter and better behaved.” Could this be what happiness translates to?

I then met the Happiness Coordinator and asked her what she thought about the sessions she took for the students in school. She said, “There are days when I get moved by the lessons like today, when I suddenly remembered my father and felt the need to be grateful for all that he has done for me. In the middle of all the tensions of school and home, this one period helps me pause and reflect, along with the students, everyday.”

This piqued my curiosity and I eagerly looked forward to sitting in for a session conducted in Class 6. Slipping into the back row as I normally do, during classroom visits, I sat silently observing the class as Sheela Ma’am (name changed) greeted the class and settled them down. As the curious glances towards me and whispers quietened, the Happiness Coordinator (Sheela Ma’am) asked the students to close their eyes and focus on their breathing. After a few minutes, she asked them to open their eyes. She asked them to recollect what had happened as soon as she walked into the class. The students all screamed out answers and she reminded them about raising their hand first before answering, which they soon began to follow, post the reminder. One of the students said that when Sheela Ma’am walked in and all the students wished her, she asked them to sit down, to which they replied, “Thank you!”

She then began asking the students why they had thanked her, to which a lot of the students replied that it was out of respect or because she had asked them to sit down or because she was their teacher, etc. When asked what makes them express gratitude, most students found it rather difficult to explain why and the rest found the act highly conditional. It was more along the lines of, “when my friend helped me or when my classmate gave me water or when someone shared their dabba or whenever parents, siblings, relatives did something for me,” etc. When Sheela Ma’am pushed them a bit further and asked them why they said thanks, the students went quiet for a while and it seemed like they were reflecting on the what drove them to express gratitude. Gradually, one of the students slowly put up her hand and said, “Those who help us would feel that they were taken for granted and maybe not want to help again.” Another student said, “The teachers may feel like we don’t respect them.”

Sheela Ma’am then passed small flash cards to everyone in the classroom and then asked them to think of people they want to thank and write a small note to each of them. She wrote a note on the board for them in Hindi to illustrate what the expectation was and to help structure their thoughts. Each of the students started writing and the bell went off in the middle but she ensured that every student read out their note in front of the whole class, motivating and encouraging students in the process. Their cards were then stuck on the wall, which she called the ‘Gratitude Wall.’ One of the students felt he wanted to thank his dogs. Hearing this, I initially laughed to myself thinking that a few students maybe needed some extra explanations. He soon continued to explain how they protected him from other dogs on the road. That’s when I realised how wrong I had been to assume that children didn’t understand gratitude. Another student spoke about how we forget the army who protect us, selflessly, putting their own lives at risk and how the nation is constantly questioning of their actions. The depth of their gratitude made me feel hopeful that we were leaving the world in the hands of young people such as them.

This activity had the participation of all the students in class, including those who had stage fear and who found it difficult to read and struggled through it. The students didn’t heckle each other or comment on what the others read. They were respectful of their classmates’ views; however silly the thoughts were. I felt that this acted as a small method of making students feel confident about expressing their feelings and sharing their opinions in front of an audience. While I was following Sheela Ma’am out of the classroom, I overheard the students thanking each other for small acts like lending a pen, notebook, eraser, etc.

The National Curriculum Framework 2005 states that the education system should connect knowledge to life outside the school, ensure that learning is shifted away from traditional rote methods, and enrich the curriculum to provide for overall development. Instead of solely stressing on cognitive development, creating situations where the young person discovers themselves, imbibes values of human dignity, empathy towards others through the development of non-cognitive skills like critical thinking, communication and team work, our youth will understand and adapt to the rapidly changing environment and thrive (Patri, 2017). Could the implementation of the Happiness Curriculum be a reflection of that intent?

The hope is that when these students through these activities, become aware of their thoughts and actions, like what does gratitude mean and why is it important to be grateful etc. A conscious change in their behaviour, being more grateful to those small acts around them, helps them coexist better. By becoming more aware, being more mindful of their actions, they begin to look deeper within themselves and reflect on the purpose of their lives. Sustenance of this type of happiness which stems from learning, reflection and awareness helps retain a sense of calm and peace when faced with hurdles and obstacles in life (A. Nagraj, 2015).

A number of studies have established a link between this domain of non-cognitive skills and education, employment and socioeconomic outcomes (Carneiro et al., 2010; Heckman & Rubinstein, 2001). Social and emotional competences do not only play a role in raising academic achievement and educational attainment, but also have strong correlations with personal satisfaction and growth, citizenship, and reduced risky behaviour like violence and drug use (Currie, 2001; Borghans et al., 2008; Bowles et al., 2001a; Duckworth & Seligman, 2005; 2006).

According to the World Happiness Report 2017, India is among the world’s least happy nations and ranked 122 among 155 countries in the global ranking, and further slipped to 133 among 155 countries in the World Happiness Report of 2018. Meik Wiking, the CEO of the Happiness Research Institute in Copenhagen feels that factors like togetherness, a sense of community, trust and kindness amongst others could explain the difference between the happiest and unhappiest countries of the world. This visit left me with hope along with a whole bunch of plaguing questions. Could educational innovations like the ‘Happiness Curriculum’ lead us to think of holistic approaches towards notions of progress? Will they soon override economic and material aspects of well-being and lay stress on emotional well-being instead? Is this model sustainable? How soon till we become one of the happiest countries in the world?

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Featured image source: Sanchit Khanna for Hindustan Times via Getty Images.

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With much fanfare a group of economists, most notably Raghuram Rajan and Abhijit Banerjee, published their “Economic Strategy for India.” Part of this strategy is also a reform by Karthik Muralidharan. We want to focus on two aspects in particular: teacher training and the Right to Education Act.

Teacher Training

The plan has a couple of aspects we appreciate (such as making teacher training more practice oriented), but they lack a proper strategy for implementation. It repeats the same mistakes from the past, such as the reliance on ICT for teacher training while ignoring the need to invest heavily in District Institutes of Education and Training. It reads for instance, “Specifically, we recommend developing a portal for in-service teacher training that can host thousands of videos (including translations in all major Indian languages), and training modules for various topics that are relevant for in-service teacher training.” The Central government has started a training platform for pre-service training of teachers on SWAYAM. The feedback by teachers has been negative. It seems that none of the vocal advocates for this kind of teacher training has taken a closer look at what is actually taught on these platforms.

Source: Ch-32 Teacher Education/YouTube.

This is unscientific nonsense presented on a national platform for teacher education.

Using ICT for teacher training is not a panacea. One still needs to have DIETs that are staffed properly and high quality content. Creating yet another IT-platform with ‘thousands’ of videos illustrates a lack of realization that the priority must be on providing content of high quality. Further, using Distance Courses while arguing for more practice oriented training is a strange combination. We do not need yet another platform and more videos.

RTE Act, Deregulation And Privatization

It is argued that learning outcomes have deteriorated. What is not mentioned is that the composition of school children shifted dramatically. What is also missing is the fact that the Right to Education Act, which is criticized, has not been implemented. Less than 10% of the schools fulfill the minimum norms. They criticize a law which was not implemented. We are wondering how they can know what would have happened if it was. What we know is that the quality of education is low in an India that did not implement the Act. How can you know the counterfactual (that is, an India where it was implemented)?

Second, they make the same mistake like NITI Aayog. They claim there is a dichotomy between the provision of inputs and the focus on learning levels. This is not true. Indeed, we see no reason why having toilets for girls, ramps for children with disabilities and a building would be a bad thing. We do not think it is smart to rely on meta-reviews that ‘prove’ that inputs just don’t matter. It matters whether there is a toilet where menstruating girls can go, a ramp for disabled children and a building. We should even think about extending the norms to electricity and ventilators.

Our Counter-Strategy For Real Change

The attack on the Right to Education Act is misleading. The Act is not the problem here. The issue is often to find in governance, in how States are managing to put the federal framework into practice, the priority and vision they have for public education, and how they attempt to change such a complex system. What is required is a vision and a strategy to muddle through. This includes improving the capacity and staffing of the middle tier of the bureaucracy, making teacher training a priority, focusing on DIETs, using technology to make SMCs more powerful, ensuring timely payments of teacher salaries, infusing trust into the system, steer all actors towards learning, fulfilling the RTE input norms in a time-bound manner, and so much more.

The oversimplification by the economists is misleading. To claim things will be just fine if only there were no input requirements is absurd. Inputs are not enough. A whole ecosystem, including teacher training institutes and the frontline bureaucracy needs to be transformed. But the idea that deregulation and privatization will lead magically to improved learning levels is not based on evidence, but ideology. It ignores many contextual factors and a highly complex implementation puzzle. Easy solutions which are ideologically loaded and largely imported will not solve the crisis in learning that India faces. Instead, the focus should be on homegrown solutions and ideas.

Such homegrown ideas do exist. For instance, the Bihar Education Policy Center has developed a concrete plan how mobile phones of SMC members can be used for large scale social audits and how funds can reach schools on time.

The need to invest in DIETs and its faculty has been known for long.

The Accountability Initiative has repeatedly the need to invest into the frontline bureaucracy.

We have a couple of other demands to make learning reality in our schools:

Rather than imported ideas, oversimplified pseudo-solutions and the same old failing demand to make education a tradeable commodity, we should create a strong and inclusive public education system. Indeed, as Jean Dréze pointed out: “We need to go beyond self-interest or we’re doomed.”

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Featured image source: Global Partnership for Education/Flickr.

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“Schools are service providers where the client (student) has no freedom to make his or her choice,” is what young Rajat Sharma has to say about our current education system. For those who don’t know, Rajat Sharma is the founder of the company Mind Fuel and has authored two globally selling self-help books named The Conscious Destiny, and The Mindful Athlete. Various psychological and yogic programs are offered at Mind Fuel which empowers people to take charge of their mind, emotions, health and life without any external support.

Rajat started as a mind trainer for athletes and worked with young athletes from different sports. He says, “All my trainees used to say that why are we not taught these concepts in schools?”

This left an impact on him and he started working on his book along with developing programs for school students. “Ideas and inspiration can come from anywhere, we just need to keep our ears and eyes open. In my case, a 14-year-old cricket player gave me a new mission,” he said.

Considering the rising depression rates in India, Rajat has made the right move by introducing the youth to some empowering life related concepts which takes care of all major needs like life skills, emotional self counselling, career selection and so on. He has conducted his workshops in several schools which got him a lot support from the officials and students of the concerned schools, who realized the needs of such teachings.

He has been in touch with the officials of the education department for this cause. The fact cannot be ignored that our teaching system focuses way too much on theory without considering the natural skills or interest of students, and totally ignores life related skills and knowledge which are required for anybody to lead a happy life with high competence levels.

He concluded the conversation by saying “a system is meant to make things work smoothly, which might be working for the department in question, but surely isn’t working for the students.”

Countless debates revolve around this topic, movies are also made, but unfortunately no action is taken towards this cause.

Rajat Sharma is one of the few people who has taken the initiative to work for change, and we surely need more people like him.

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Since long, teachers in schools have only unilaterally taught students. A single approach to teaching around a hundred students who have different learning abilities and styles. When the students are so different, how can a single method work for each of them? Exactly!

A unique approach that caters to the minds of such diverse of students has always been a critical requirement in schools. Since our system has not had the adequate infrastructure and resources to train all teachers at regular intervals of their service, we have come to lack the quality it takes to teach the terrifying subjects with ease.       

Teachers are taught different approaches during preparatory courses from which they can choose and employ strategies as may be required according to the needs of a classroom. Many organizations are currently working on the different pieces of improving classroom transactions through teacher enablement, tech deployment and bringing more activity led learning to classrooms.

Million Sparks Foundation conceptualized the ChalkLit mobile application to provide regular professional development for in-service teachers through online trainings with SCERTs/DoEs, teaching tools and daily updates from an active teacher community.

The best part about ChalkLit is its unique and highly engaging approach to presenting helpful content for teachers that would support execution in the classroom and make it more interactive, fun and a place that invites student voice. Some teachers in the states of Delhi and Goa have already made small yet effectual changes to their teaching styles and they say they now connect better with their students. Let us have a look at some exciting aspects of classroom pedagogy that ChalkLit has to offer:

1) Providing The Estimated Time For Each Lesson

A great way to plan a task is by setting deadlines. And ChalkLit provides teachers with that estimate. Once teachers know when they need to finish with a topic, they can evenly distribute their sub-topics and also spare time for some activity or questions when required. A planned approach is any day better than chaos in a classroom. If you don’t have a plan for your students, they will definitely have one and learning together will definitely not figure there.

2) Curated Content For Each Sub-Topic

With highly experienced mentors and serving teachers on board, ChalkLit provides teachers with unique and engaging content for each subject and every topic. For example, if a class 9 Science teacher wants to take a class for the topic ‘Matter in Our Surroundings’, he/she can quickly locate the content for this within the app and plan his/her lesson accordingly.

3) A Clear Understanding Of Why This Needs To Be Taught

Yes! Teachers now get a fair idea to the most frequently asked question – But why do we need to study this? In the module the teacher selects, ChalkLit provides a clear explanation of why they need to teach this and what they need to explain. Along with this, there are learning outcomes which give a fair idea to the teacher as to what their class should learn and how should they set right expectations with their students.

4) Real Life Examples

A technique which has been almost non-existent in the Indian teaching system which has continued to lay emphasis on the mastery of theoretical concepts. Through real life examples, a student can connect the subject to his real life and surroundings.

This technique has two significant advantages. Firstly, the student can retain the concept/example better and next; they can analyze and connect the concept with other relevant ideas. For instance, a teacher teaching mathematics can ask students to measure objects around them to understand shapes and sizes and slowly move from physical to higher order abstract concepts in mensuration.

5) Recall

When recalling concepts studied before, a student can understand and retain them for a more extended period. No individual can assimilate and remember an idea in one go. Maybe some can, but in a class of 30, some students would be left out. An organically embedded recall of previous topics is an excellent way for students to connect to the subject and retain better.

6) Teaching Methods

Teachers require comprehensive means to teach students. Every student has a different learning curve, and the teacher is responsible for every student. Thus, a combination of techniques is a good option for making sure the entire class benefits from the lesson and not just a few. These could be activities, experiments, debates, recitation, etc.

7) Concept-Based Teaching

This process involves teaching the basic concept behind the subject and slowly building upon it as the lesson progresses. The idea could be illustrated with the help of examples, activities, demonstrations and other techniques.

8) Self-Evaluation

After every training, teacher undergoes a self-evaluation that helps the teacher judge their progress and make suitable amends to their technique. It is an excellent technique for growth and improvement.

9) Student Assessment Strategies

The app also provides evaluation strategies for students which help teachers gauge the learning levels of their classrooms and tailor reinforcement instruction accordingly.

These are a few of the teaching techniques available on the app which reinforce the conceptual techniques for teachers along with high quality and tested content that works for students as well. Only if the teacher is prepared for every class, can all students learn and benefit from that in a way that sets them on the path of lifelong learning.

ChalkLit adheres to fulfilling this need just in time!

Note: This article was also published at blog.millionsparks.org.

Featured image for representative purpose only.
Featured image source: Kalpak Pathak for Hindustan Times via Getty.

The post ChalkLit: 9 Ways This App Enhances Classroom Learning By Aiding School Teachers appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz and is a copyright of the same. Please do not republish.

An amendment to abolish the no-detention policy in the Right To Education Act 2009 is viewed as a favourable one by the states which have been demanding such a reform for a long time. Before the amendment, under the purview of Section 16 in the Right To Education Act, a student from Class I to VIII could not be detained on any grounds. However, that is set to change with the Lok Sabha passing the Right To Education Amendment Bill, 2017 which was subsequently, and recently, approved by the Rajya Sabha in its winter session. Following the amendment, it is upon the discretion of individual states to formulate their own detention policy. Those in favour argue that this is set to improve the ‘quality’ of education, keep lackadaisical behaviour towards exams in check, and ‘promote better learning’—whatever that is supposed to mean. However, it calls for a closer examination, and to critically evaluate the far-reaching consequences that the amendment can have.

When the policy of no-detention was implemented, it was done keeping the letter and spirit of the Right To Education Act 2009 in mind. The act is perhaps one of the most empowering and remarkable pieces of legislation in post-Independent India—owing to the well-encompassing promise of free and compulsory education as a fundamental right. Its achievement is evident with an unprecedented rise in the number of students enrolled in schools and a lower-dropout rate observed in recent years.

Although, that is set to change with the amendment of the no-detention policy. Students, who were earlier promoted to a higher class along with their fellow classmates, will be held back for poor performance. This could lead to an increase in the dropout rate. There have been numerous studies supporting the argument that detaining a student, especially those in between Class I and VIII, can further demotivate them and ultimately act as a deterrent in their education. On the other hand, there is little to no data supporting the theory that detention can have a positive outcome. Moreover, the brunt is also inequitably distributed as those from marginalised communities have more chances of being held back than those with better resources. It becomes even more problematic as a low-income family is already likely to be burdened with spending on education, and may be eager to have their child contribute to the household rather than ‘wasting’ time and resources on education. Therefore, families who do not find merit in education or are compelled by unfortunate circumstances are more likely to encourage dropping out.

Apart from this, there is no clarity on how the states will decide upon their detention policy, leaving the scope for arbitrary and non-uniform policies to be implemented across states.

This brings us to the larger question of whether examination and marks are the right criteria to assess the levels of learning, and whether the stress and anxiety of exams should even exist for children as young and tender as those between Class I and VIII. However, even if we consider that marks are the most appropriate and sole criteria to judge a student for the sake of argument, isn’t it also then an indicator of the performance of the teacher, school, and ultimately even the Government’s incapability, if a child fails to be interested in what is being taught?

The Centre could have perhaps looked at alternate solutions such as remedial classes, improving the infrastructure and quality of teachers, as well as increasing its budget on education, rather than relegating and denying its responsibility. While debating in favour of the amendment to abolish the no-detention policy, Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar reasoned that we have to rebuild our education system, which is (at present) broken. However, starting to revamp things by holding back a student in an already broken education system is not the wisest move, and can end up being more detrimental than beneficial.

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By Monica Chauhan, a student of 2nd batch of PGP in Development Management at ISDM.

Indian School Of Development Management (ISDM) is a family. A big one that too, with individuals so distinct from each other, that for an outsider it might seem impossible to imagine them working together.

So what makes us work together? Or rather, how do we do it?

Let me try and explain.

This course, that is designed for creating self-aware individuals to go out and help build a better world, focuses majorly on Personal Mastery in Development Leadership (PMDL), Radical Transformative Leadership (RTL) and Problem Based Learning (PBL). Both the courses in PMDL and RTL emphasise on the practice of introspection, before starting to deal with people around oneself, and our PBL groups are the space for practising that, through various tasks assigned to us over the course. We are also encouraged to reflect back on our experiences every day in writing, to know where we stand. On a personal note, it is through these reflections that I can easily see the world changing for me, one bit at a time, on an everyday basis.

The idea here is to be able to work with, or even talk with, different minded people to co-create a world we all dream of. Why so much emphasis on working together, you ask? I had the same question in the beginning; why should I really work with people whose ideas don’t align with mine, especially when I have the option to leave, right? The various lectures we have had during term 1, all by well-established practitioners in their particular fields have brought to my notice the root cause of problems in our society today. None of us, and I’m sorry to speak for you on that, but literally, none of us is really open to talking to people from other professions when it comes to working together. We all have this superiority complex ingrained in us though our rat race-favouring education system. If you are still not convinced, please tell me how often have you really seen a social scientist and an economist talk to each other to create some magic out of their actions? Also, when I say ‘talking’, please don’t confuse it with cliche’ formality meetings. What I mean here is, talking to truly understand each other through efficient communication that involves rigorous processes of advocacy with inquiry, negotiation, conflict resolution, even deep listening, in order to understand where a certain person (including yourself) is coming from and why does (s)he have a particular stand.

This concept however, can only work when one realises the greatness that lies in each one of us, and that is what RTL has made me do. It has taught me, again with contradictions over a month, that every single person around me is capable of great things. Major emphasis here is on a person realising his/her humanistic values, which were always a part of the person right from birth. It has taught me how everything I wish to accomplish ultimately boils down to my own sets of experiences (which are so unique for each one of us), to the kind of persons we individually are. For instance, I was struggling with the importance each section has in term 1, be it gender, tribal affairs, environment, health; everything seemed equally important and fascinating. What I have come to realise now is that everything boils down to education for me; for starting right goes a long way for the larger picture I have in mind. Our RTL triad calls form an important part of this journey to keep us reflecting back regularly on our day to day experiences, while helping each other out.

Although it is very important to note here that we are nowhere close to 100% efficient at this, but we are trying. We have breakdowns and arguments, just like any other space with strong opinionated individuals, but what we do differently is come back together to rise above them. As one of our founders mentioned in a recent conversation, it is the ability to have a heated argument at 4 pm and still be able to go out for drinks later that same night that makes all the difference.

Our knowledge pieces are covered by highly consuming lectures which are more of a peer learning and activity based environment, making us realise how the answer many a times, lies within ourselves. In these, as a classroom we were exposed to various lenses, tools to be practised in the sector. So far we have had people talking about the importance of emotions in this field, role of government and limits to decentralisation, along with citizens’ role in the same, role of education, environment, law and development, participatory methods to be practised with the community, role of business in development, economist point of view, civil society organisations, forms of organisations, six thinking hats and these are just a few at the top of my head.

If you thought this was it, you will be glad to know we have no exams here! ISDM as an institute believes in the greatness of each and every individual in this world and the fact that they are capable of being responsible and accountable for themselves, which is exactly how it treats its students. Every term end we have group portfolios followed by individual portfolios and the process in both is given equal importance alongside the result.

This however, is much more difficult than doing away with traditional exams, as it needs you to not be vulnerable and be honest, to be responsible enough to assess yourself to a great extent. The assessor in front is just a guide to help you think through. Not to forget, everyone from the founders to the faculty to the bricoleurs here are extremely humble and approachable people, always ready to help. All one has to do is reach out. We even have a counsellor on board to assess us constantly through our ups and downs in this journey. H.O.T. (Honest-open-two way) conversations are where the cohort is given the power to voice its concerns and expectations from this programme; at times we even get to the point of negotiating rules for ourselves. To be very honest, I have never had an atmosphere this conducive to my growth as an individual and I so wish I did. ISDM for me, in a way, stands for correcting everything wrong with the education system today.

Considering how much all of the above processes is a part of us each day, I feel it is crucial to mention what it has done to our bonding as a cohort. I did always feel connected to the cohort for the fact that we all wanted to do something meaningful to bring about change in this world, that way we were striving for a common goal. This connection however, was very superficial, the kind that can be broken by a thing as simple as distance. It is safe to say now that ISDM has been successful in creating a space wherein people are happy enough to make goodbyes difficult. We have only been here for three months, but the depth with which we know each other makes us feel like we have been this way forever. The fact that we are living together in a co-ed hostel adds to this sense of family we share. As for myself, I leave pieces of my heart in every place I can call home on this planet, and ISDM surely has a major chunk of it for now!!

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The path to destruction, they say, is paved with good intentions. Time and again, governments prove this age-old adage true. The latest is the no-detention policy that has seen some change.

For the sake of clarity, I come from a family of tutors. My mom and dad used to teach at home. My brother started teaching the neighbor’s children, that made him, and us, popular. We were one of the few organically evolving mom and pop shops in urban India in the early 1990s. We took a break from teaching for a few years and by the time we restarted with commercial tutorials, the no-detention policy came out of nowhere and hit us hard.

Modern audiences might not be familiar with the tutor-parent-student triumvirate, so allow me to explain. Back then, coaching classes were considered an unnecessary expense, until the student reached 9th standard – I guess the hip crowd calls it a grade now. Until then, tutors and parents were the people who actually academically reared the child.

These two houses were the only houses a child grew up in, apart from, maybe say friends’ and relatives’ and neighbors’. Anyone bringing up a child will tell you that there will always be a need to instill discipline in a child, and that the child should fear something. That something can be anything, as cruel as not allowing the child to have their ice-cream after dinner. I will not spend time telling you how common physical assault was in the life and times of a guy – and even girls – yes, that was a great time of gender equality – because Sorabh Pant did it better in a recent video of his. But suffice it to say, some ‘forward’ families didn’t believe in beating up their children. Even the rich, well-heeled parents agreed that there should be the instillation of some fear in a child.

The nearest available one was the instillation of failure in school. This was basically the amalgamation of an interesting if-you-do-this-then-this-will-happen chain. Here’s a taste:

If you don’t study, you will fail. 

If you fail, you will be beaten up privately.

Even if we don’t beat you you privately, you will become a social outcast.

If you become a social outcast, we will put you in boarding school. 

(For the record, I know two children who were put in boarding school because they didn’t study and failed. One of them became an Army Officer. The other returned home in the middle of the night.)

This was the crux. The chain goes farther actually. For example:

If you play a lot, you will not get time to study. If you don’t study…

If you go out with your friends to watch the movie, you will come home tired.

If you come home tired, you will not get time to study. 

You get the drift.

Look, parents love their children. Humans love humans. They don’t want their younglings to go through untoward trouble. They know that if their children don’t study now, they will have to make a living making stand up comedy videos later in life. So, they create obstacles for them. Its like the level 1 to level 10 of an action game.

So, parents didn’t really have anything else other than the concept of failure to ensure their children remained disciplined and successful in life. Yes, I do know some kids who weren’t given dinner for a couple of days because they did something naughty in school, but apart from that, all of us came out of our 1980s and 1990s childhood with all our appendages intact.

With the 2010 rule, the government whammed the kindred-spirit, kind-hearted-disciplinarian-parents-and-teachers. I have been party to several discussions where the exasperated mother and the at-the-end-of-his-wits tutor are begging the student to study, to behave, to lead a disciplined present. But even as the dialogues went ahead, they didn’t have anything concrete to complete the ‘nahin toh’ and thus nothing to scare the student with.

You see, prior to 2010, the sentence would end with…

“Padh, nahin toh fail ho jayega,” (Study, or you will fail.)

If you were an attentive student, you will not have to scroll up and re-read my chain. If not, well, padh, nahin toh…

The principal of a very prominent school in the Mumbai suburbs once told me, “They brought in this rule because students were committing suicide. Wait for a few years, teachers will commit suicide.” 

See, India has changed. When I was growing up, a student achieving 50 percent would go to tuition so they can get 70 percent. Those getting 70 would enroll to get 90. If one of them got 90, my area would get sweets, my alma-mater would burst crackers. But that changed somewhere after 2010. The last year that my family was teaching, one of the parents pulled out their kid from our tutorials because the father thought that his son was ranking first even before he was enrolled in our classes and was retaining that same rank. And you don’t begin to explain consistency and keeping up when you are already three minutes late for your next lecture.

I have yet to read what actually has happened with the no-detention policy, but I don’t think it has been ‘scrapped.’ That’s hyper-enthusiastic media making headlines. Or maybe the editors and the journalists were the product of a no-detention policy education. Because scrapped means completely torn down. But the fine print says that the central government will decide whether the student will be failed or not. At this point, I remember something that my dad told me, “Let them fail, because failure is the sureshot path to success, provided you are consistent.” 

Featured image for representative purpose only.
Featured image source: Sanjiv Verma for Hindustan Times via Getty.

The post The No-Detention Policy Appears To Be Just About ‘Failing’ But Its Actual Impact Is Wider appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz and is a copyright of the same. Please do not republish.

In a country which is ready to have the youngest workforce in the world, the noise needed for nurturing childhood education is still unheard. While scraping through the internet, blogs, and newspapers we might find some articles talking about the importance of education in early childhood and transforming preschools in India. While they do mention and quantify the problems as well as solutions, the hypothesis on which most are based—the very definition of education—seems too unstructured and flawed.

According to the Times of India, early exposure to learning cuts out the drop-out ratios, increases productivity, and income during adulthood. We can boast of the fact that the Anganwadi system is a big initiative. Yet we know how far we are from achieving total literacy, and how inefficient these Anganwadis are when it comes to what is expected out of them.

Most articles suggest that the two main issues our country faces—in terms of Early Childhood Education (ECE)—is quantity and the quality. When we talk about quantity, we need to increase the numbers—of teachers, of centers, of students. When we talk about the quality, we need stronger curricula, training for teachers, infrastructure, and more. The Anganwadis also serve as a nutrition or daycare centres, making it all the more important for the economy and future human capital. Yet it is run by employees with no training in child development. Hardly half of them have tools of learning, and they have other duties to take care of as well including surveys, cooking meals, and providing material to pregnant women, to name a few. Needless to say, the task providing a learning environment for the kids remains mostly incomplete.

Alternatives Usually Discussed

There have been talks about the usage of cash vouchers and its impact in increasing the numbers of enrollment. Such an initiative has worked in rural China. Cash vouchers always encourage in low-income groups to send their wards to schools, no doubt about that. But they cannot guarantee a decrease in drop-outs later. Then comes another question. What happens when a kid enrolls and the quality of education is sub-par? How do we improve the quality of preschool education in India? \

Some researchers believe this can be done by partnering with local organisations working on early childhood education in the development sector. “An amount of Rs 7,000 per child per year will be enough to hire a teacher, improve curriculum, train existing Anganwadi staff, and provide uniform and books for students,” Times of India reported. This sounds an important part as it quantifies the budget required to reach the quality; it has been derived from the effectiveness of private preschool programs which essentially means it is based on the hypothesis that , as they go on to say,“While private preschools are not perfect, they are generally regarded as providing a more appropriate environment and curriculum for children than Anganwadis.”

Firstly, the idea of comparing public preschools with private ones does not consider the great rural-urban divide, as well as the diversity of our nation.

Secondly, when we try and structure education according to the norms or standards set by private preschools, we essentially miss out on defining what education is and for whom. In an agrarian economy like ours, migration is at an all-time high, followed by unemployment. We have been facing a food crisis with the rising numbers of farmers suicides. In such circumstances, even if public preschools reach the level of standardised education provided by private preschools, it will not help the families of farmers or artisans or anyone involved in rural industry. Though a lot of research mentions that these changes and investments will increase quality and quantity, and increase the average wages of these children when they grow up, they fail to mention whether the increase in wages will come from rural work or not.

Thirdly, how right it is to always talk about investing in early childhood education, in terms of the quantifiable money returns provided by or to them in future? When we talk about the human capital, regardless of the increase in the wages, we need to nurture a population with good citizens.

Quantifying Investment in Education

The Times of India has also reported that “Each rupee spent on higher quality education generates a very generous return of Rs 18.” In economic terms, for a political body, this makes a lot of sense as a sales pitch. However they fail to mention that even after passing early childhood education, a kid’s upbringing is impacted by a variety of factors including the society around them, parenting, socio-economic factors, and peer groups. The mentioned increase in wages is usually compares a kid who get a year of preschool education with one who remain illiterate. They fail to mention how these two children excel as citizens or human beings. They fail show if an illiterate kid, who went on to graze cattle and earned less, was happy or not as compared to one who got educated, and increased wages by working in company as an adult. Perhaps we can not quantify morals and happiness, the values which have been missing a lot from the learning environment.

Most authors writing about ECE point out the importance and significant benefits early childhood investment, an agreeable stance. But there are some important tangents which are always missed. The fact that current set of teachers at Anganwadis are paid meagerly (for being social workers who take this on as volunteer work) also impacts the system. The fact that the bureaucrats or political leaders handling this department are themselves not trained or educated in this field, is another important point which is missed out. Maybe everyone thinks about this as a business problem, focusing on how it can yield returns like a stock market, if invested in. Scott Ozanus of KPMG, drawing on James Heckman‘s ideas, says “the return on investment in early childhood is even higher than the stock market from World War II through 2008.”

Maybe this issue grabs some eyeballs when we show it as a profitable venture—but is that enough?

A normal google search about preschools or newspaper reports from January to March will overload you with advertisements from preschools, now a multi-million dollar industry in India. Private preschools have mushroomed all over rural and urban areas and are considered better options than Anganwadis, even amongst those who can barely afford to send their children there. Reasons? Their ads tag them as English-medium, promising individual care and security, and that they start teaching kids writing, speaking, and arithmetic right in preschool itself. This growth of preschool is considered as a positive by most, without realising the issues with the same. Firstly, these can never reach the masses. Secondly, the focus at that age needs to be on learning and not teaching; learning through interactions, playing with friends, and building a core value system. Preschools take it a step ahead and burden the kid with much more.

Policy Situation

What about things at the policy level? India had a remarkable milestone in the Right To Education 2009 (RTE), especially with the sec 12 (1) (c) which tried to fill the gap of quantity and quality by reserving 25% seats in each private school for kids from underprivileged backgrounds. Except it didn’t stop the high drop-out ratios, plus there was a low policy usage. What deters families and kids from using it? It’s simple. You can not go to Step 2 by skipping Step 1. The section reserves seats only from Class I onwards, and hence completely ignores ECE as a fundamental right for a child. How do we expect all kids to directly reach Class I and sit in private schools with other kids who have got a formidable base ready? Unless we provide all kids with a similar learning through Anganwadis, we can not expect RTE to bear fruit.

So, we have people talking about the importance of ECE; we have research going on; we have some policies in place; we also have numbers and targets quantified to talk about returns on investment in this field of human capital of our country. The last census said we have 158 million children in the age group of 0-6 years. By 2014, only 35 million benefited from ICDS. Also, if the idea of a nation investing in its young population is to create human capital and good citizens, have private preschools or literacy helped? The crime ratios in our country and the poverty say otherwise.

What’s the objective of Anganwadis then? Do they prepare kids for schools? What we need is to reevaluate what kids learn and how we want them to learn. Maybe then we can talk about how much investment is needed to reach our goal, and what qualitative or quantitative returns we can expect out of the same.

Co-authored with Charul Dhingra, M.A. Education student from APU.

The post Why Early Childhood Education Should Be Made A Priority appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz and is a copyright of the same. Please do not republish.

The amendment of the Right to Education Act and the scrapping of the no-detention policy has brought the Right to Education Act back into news.

A Times of India editorial starts with: “With Parliament passing the Right to Education (RTE) Amendment Bill that scraps the controversial non-detention policy, the mistakes of the RTE Act must not be repeated. Its heavy emphasis on inputs like physical infrastructure in schools rather than on qualitative outcomes like learning levels and teaching standards was misplaced.”  

The narrative that is promoted focuses on three points:

1. The RTE Act focuses heavily on input norms instead of learning.
2. The no-detention policy is to blame for lowering learning levels.
3. Getting rid of input norms will foster learning.

Each of these claims is logically flawed, absurd, and empirically refuted.

1. The RTE Act focuses heavily on input norms instead of learning.

The RTE Act mandates minimum infrastructure norms. These include very basic things like toilets for girls, ramps for children with disabilities, and drinking water. None of these are “heavy demands”. Having these things should be common sense in the 21st century.

Yet, in institutions like NITI Aayog, such common sense does not prevail. Similarly, prominent economists joined NITI Aayog’s line of argument: Get rid of any input norms to allow schools to focus on learning.

This is nonsense.

Nobody prevents anyone from focusing on learning. Having toilets for girls does not impede learning. The opposite is true.

It is not true that all governments focused on input norms and that is why learning was neglected. First, these are two distinct things handled by different parts of the administration. Second, there was no focus on inputs. Less than 10% of schools fulfil the minimum norm. Governments were not neglecting learning because they focused on input norms.

They neglected both.

This is the reality after a decade of “heavy emphasis on inputs like physical infrastructure in schools rather than on qualitative outcomes like learning levels and teaching standards”, to quote the TOI editorial again:

2. The No-Detention Policy Is To Blame For Lowering Learning Levels

A study by IIM Ahmedabad debunks this myth. The narrative suggests that as there were no exams, children did not care and stopped learning as they were automatically promoted. We talk about primary school children here. This is absurd. The reason for low learning levels are a neglect and under-investment in public education. Without textbooks, learning becomes difficult. With 2,80,000 teachers missing in Bihar alone, learning becomes difficult. With high vacancies in the administration and DIETs, learning becomes difficult. With unqualified and untrained teachers, learning becomes difficult. With distance courses instead of practical and pedagogy oriented training for teachers, learning becomes difficult.

Blaming the no-detention policy is an easy excuse that does not hold when one looks into empirical findings and logic. Learning levels are much too low. But the reason was not the no-detention policy. Doing away with it can therefore also not solve the learning crisis. It will only worsen another crisis: rising dropouts. And it will be abused by private school operators who want to get rid of children admitted under the quota.

3. Getting Rid Of Input Norms Will Foster Learning

No, it won’t. Why should it? A question to ask the Times of India Editorial and NITI Aayog.

For An Honest Debate

So why is this narrative repeated again and again even though it can be easily debunked by empirical findings and logic? There are special interest groups who want to open privately operated schools which do not fulfil any infrastructure requirements. They dream of a wild-west of ‘educational entrepreneurs’, that is people who want to make money by providing inferior education to poor people’s children. Of course, their own children go to private schools that over-fulfil the RTE norms multiple times. They would start protesting if their daughters lacked working toilets at schools. But it seems that the same people from the Times of India and NITI Aayog measure differently when it comes to the children of the poor.

This will not solve India’s learning crisis. It will only deepen it. Newspapers and journalists would do well to think for themselves instead of repeating illogical and wrong narratives by special interest groups.

The post In Defence Of The Right To Education Act appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz and is a copyright of the same. Please do not republish.

Ideally, education is provided at different stages to the children; these categorisation are based on the age of the child, and the stages are – pre-primary, primary, middle, secondary, senior-secondary and University Level. But, the government of Delhi has entirely revamped this structure. Composite schools, known as Sarvodaya Vidyalayas, started by AAP conduct classes from standards I to XII. The government of Delhi, in this initiative has converted 325 schools into Sarvodaya Vidyalayas. Apart from this, at the university level, the Govt. of Delhi is running 28 Degree Colleges which are funded by the UGC and Delhi Government.

The recent Delhi government school makeover is to the credit of Atishi Marlena. She studied at St. Stephen’s College, Delhi and Oxford Univeristy in the UK, and was also a Rhodes scholar and later on went to join the Aam Aadmi Party in the capacity of an advisor.

When we think of government schools, the images that pop in our mind are those of dingy classrooms, no benches, brick walls, dirty toilets, shabby kids and the like. The Delhi government has persevered to change this image, one plan at a time, by the introduction of over 26 programmes aimed at changing the entire structure of government school education in India.

In a short span of three years, the Delhi Government plans have changed the entire picture of education. Let us take a look, one plan at a time.

1) Chunauti 2018: Supporting The Last Child In Class To Learn

Chunauti is based on improving the foundation of students. Despite studying for many years, many students cannot even read a simple passage or solve a math problem. Many students even find it difficult to clear the 9th and 10th grade. Hence, Chunauti was launched in June 2016, to bridge the learning gaps from grades 6th to 8th, thereby also ensuring zero dropouts in Grade 9.

This programme has led to a better result for classes 6, 7 and 8 which is improved in numerical terms from 60%, 61%, and 65% to 66%, 69% and 73% respectively.

2) Reading Campaign & Pragati: Enabling All Children To Read

This campaign focuses on children from classes 6th to 8th. A basic learning material/reading assessment tool for the campaign was developed by the NGO Pratham consisting of short stories, paragraphs and word cards, and administered on one on one basis by the teachers. It has 6 levels – beginner, letter, word, paragraph (Std 1 level competency), Story (Std 2 level competency) and Advance Story (having an excerpt of about 100 words from the textbook of Std 6). The highest level attained by the child is recorded as her/his reading level. Hence a child who is at paragraph level means that he can read letters, words and paragraphs but not story or advance story.

At the baseline it was found that, only 25% of students could read in Std.6. After the programme it was found that 46% could read advance stories. And, while earlier only 14% could read a simple text of Std 1 level, whereas now, that has increased to 32.

3) Kala Utsav

An initiative of the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) under RMSA, to promote arts in education by nurturing and showcasing the artistic talent of school students at the secondary stage in the country through music, theatre, dance, visual arts and crafts at the district, state and National level. It helps the students in identifying and understanding the diverse tangible and intangible cultural expressions. NCT of Delhi was paired with Sikkim for the year 2016-17; it involved participation of 4235 students from across 750 schools and Delhi won prizes in music at national level.

4) Incubation Centres For Startups: Creating A Culture Of Entrepreneurship Among The Youth

The government has established 11 incubation Centres giving them a grant of Rs. 1.5 crore as seed money for each. College/university students with creative minds are given an opportunity to explore their ideas through a platform and financial assistance. It would be accessible to the current students, alumni, faculty/staff and experienced alumni would forward to share their experiences and help the budding incubates. Even after the passing out of college, the students are connected to their teachers/professors. The government intends to have 1000 incubatees by 2020 in its educational institutes.

5) Online Capacity Building Programme For Teachers

Starting in December 2016, this programme was launched in order to connect and equip the teachers by SCERT, Delhi. This Online Capacity Building Programme (OCBP) was incorporated to connect and equip the teachers posted at different locations. The content is provided through an app platform and can be accessed on smartphones through a mobile application called ChalkLit and from the web. It complements the challenges of face to face training which are pulling out teachers for training from their school hours, tracking analytics of training, among others. The trainings on content are mapped as per the annual academic calendar of schools.

6) Financial Assistance

Under the scheme, the Delhi Higher Education Aid Trust through Directorate of Higher Education (DHE), Govt. of NCT of Delhi will fully or partially reimburse the tuition fee paid by the students. The extent of reimbursement will be under three categories:

(a) 100% tuition fee of the meritorious students belonging to economically weaker section i.e. wards of parent/s who possess relevant card issued under the National Food Security Scheme,

(b) 50% of tuition fee to meritorious students having annual family income up to Rs. 2.50 lakh and are not covered under the National Food Security Scheme

(c) 25% reimbursement of tuition fee to meritorious students having annual income above Rs 2.50 lakh but below Rs 6 lakh. The qualifying aggregate percentage of marks for all three categories is 60%. A relaxation of 5% in qualifying aggregate percentage of marks will be allowed to SC/ST category students. The scheme will be administered and managed by the concerned Delhi state universities/institutions for themselves and for other colleges/institutions affiliated to them.

7) Prison Project Of National Law University, Delhi: Contributing To Legal Policy

Under the Centre for Constitutional Law, Policy, and Governance (CLPG) established in 2014, students would assist jail authorities in implementing Section 436 A, CrPC, and also contribute to legal policy. The policy interventions by the Centre provide assistance to Courts, prison authorities, and prisoners. Since the Centre also involves student volunteers for these projects, students also get an opportunity to contribute to legal policy, and to see how the law works in action, especially in its interaction with vulnerable communities. The work of the Centre also feeds into legal policy formulation, such as the 268th Report of the Law Commission of India on bail law, to which the faculty members of the Centre contributed.

8) Principal Development Programme

The principal, in Peter Senge’s language, is a fulcrum point leading learning and its process in the whole school. Principals are caught between a lot of different bodies, adding to their pressure; they are often caught between higher administrators, parents, teachers and their own sense of what students need. This programme helps identify the leadership qualities among the principals, nurture it, and then spread it among others. This programme is currently operating in 1024 government secondary schools through 60 motivated facilitators with exposure and educational trip to IIMs, Cambridge and Finland.

9) Transformative Learning Through Human Values: Helping Children Become Responsible Human Beings

With the rising cases of children in conflict with law or outright crime, their relations with their own parents and teachers are not cordial at times. Keeping this in mind, the government launched the Value Education Programme under the umbrella of Cell for Human Values and Transformative Learning, in March 2015, to understand and address these issues, and focus on the affective and psychomotor aspects, and not just cognitive aspects. Multiple workshops focusing on enhancing humanness, human values and human consciousness are held for school students, DIET trainees, teachers, teacher-educators, CRCs, BRPs SMC members, parents.

Featured image for representative purpose only.
Featured image source: Sanchit Khanna for Hindustan Times via Getty.

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