Childhood is precious
It was heartening to read the cover story in the January issue of Teacher Plus, ‘Do singing stars sometimes sink audiences?’ by Chandita Mukherjee. Heartening because here is a sensible stand on the insensitive attitude towards children. Heartening, more so because it is written by a film maker and someone associated with media and communications.

Childhood with its innocence is a necessary predecessor to a strong, mature adulthood. Often adults are thrilled when children imitate adult behaviour. Childhood needs to be cherished and revered; it has its own laws and not the laws of grown-ups. Once the blossoming time is over, it will never come again. The ground that early childhood experiences prepare needs to be solid and this would later be important for the individual to develop creative power and strength of character. The more we have ‘ripened in the bud’ kids today, the more we will see immature adults tomorrow.

The dangers of robbing children of childhood cannot be undermined. Misplaced priorities, superficial and artificial lifestyles are sure to ruin a society.

The writer’s concluding remarks need to be understood by every parent. Schools should circulate such articles among parents and initiate discussions among parents regarding such issues. Sometimes mere ignorance or lack of awareness leads one to ape the majority.

Seetha Anand, Hyderabad.

Happy decided to go diving in the ocean. The seagulls in the blue sky cried out to say “bye” as he plunged into the blue waters. Down, down he went… why it was like another world! Happy was excited to see a “school” – a group of fish swimming together. He looked around the ocean bed in amazement. There were oysters, corals, seashells of all shapes and sizes and sea plants of all kinds and… there was a shipwreck too! How exciting! Happy decided to explore. As he swam closer, he heard voices, “I can’t do it. I am not strong enough. I am so sorry, Starry.” Happy went closer and saw Kid-pouch the sea-horse, talking to his friend Starry. Starry the starfish was entangled in the seaweeds, and one of his arms was caught tightly under the shipwreck. He just couldn’t free himself. Kid-pouch was looking on helplessly, unable to help his friend. Wriggly, the octopus and Glides the fish were also there. “Here, let me try, “said Wriggly. He pulled and pushed Starry’s arm, but it was too tightly jammed. “Here, let me try,” said Glides. She too tried to push hard with her fins, but it was of no use. Starry was well and truly caught.

“Oh! What shall we do?” cried all of them in despair. “We can’t leave Starry like this. Sharko will be on his rounds and he is sure to gobble all of us up. We have tried our best, but we just cannot save Starry!” Happy swam up to them and said, “Friends , each one of you has done his best. But, how about all of us doing our best together? I am sure if we do that, we can save Starry. Let’s work together.” They all looked at him doubtfully. “Come on, hurry up! Sharko will be on his rounds soon!”

The authors are partners in Edcraft, Hyderabad, a firm engaged in making teaching-learning materials, conducting workshops and providing consultancy services. They can be reached at edcraft94@gmail.com.

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We hear often enough about the high expectations we have of teachers and the difficulties they face in terms of working conditions, compensation and resources available to do their job. We also hear about teachers’ strikes and the associated demands made by unionised teacher groups. While government teachers do have some form of recourse to speak up for their rights, teachers in the private sector are usually not adequately informed nor have access to means of demanding redressal of grievances. This article outlines some of the rights and legal provisions available to teachers. While the wide variation across teaching contexts and situations makes it difficult for any uniform application of legal or professional policies, teachers can take the first step to change by staying informed.

In October 2008, a teacher with work experience of nine years was offered a salary of Rs. 3,000/- per month by a city school, an amount that is probably less than what she would have spent on conveyance had she accepted the job.

This salary for the job of teaching a class of 40 students, correcting their notebooks regularly, conducting tests and correcting test papers, maintaining discipline, being a role model, inculcating in them good values, performing administrative and other duties that a teacher is called upon to fulfill. This salary of Rs. 3,000/- for imparting knowledge and building the nation.

In another instance, a school teacher was subjected to disciplinary action by the school management, for raising her voice at a student who was misbehaving in the class.Interestingly, there are about 38 Supreme Court judgments reported in Judis (Judgment Information Centre) on issues relating to teachers from January to August 2008. In All India Reporter, another database for court judgments, in 2007, about 21 Supreme Court judgments on teachers’ issues have been reported. Similarly, in the year 2006 it was 16, in 2005, 21, in 2004, 20 and so on. A miniscule number, one may say, compared to the total number of cases decided and reported every year. However, these cases only reinforce the growing discontent among the declining number of professionals taking to teaching.

No wonder, then, as noted by Mohammad Akhtar Siddiqui, Chairperson, National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE), in a recent media report, “There’s a shortage of three lakh teachers at the elementary level in India”. The situation at the higher education level is no better. The reasons, he believes are that “we give our teachers authority and responsibility but not autonomy to experiment and innovate”.

Under these circumstances, with the ever increasing demands/expectations from students/parents/management and the society on the one hand and an unequal rather mismatched reward mechanism in terms of status and economic compensation on the other, is it not apt for teachers to, at the least, be cognizant of their rights that go hand in hand with their responsibilities, if not fight for them?

In fact, the government at various levels, some NGOs and many organisations such as the Jan Shiksha Adhiniyam are working jointly and/or independently towards ensuring the enjoyment of rights by teachers. Yet, unless the efforts at individual institution level are strengthened, a perceivable change cannot be brought about.

It is imperative that teachers are made aware of their basic rights even as a host of responsibilities are thrust on them. Some of these rights are listed below:

• Teachers cannot be deputed for non-teaching tasks except with explicit orders of Government so as to provide them with more time to focus on improving the quality of education.
• Teachers have the right for their professional development.
• Teachers, though governed by the rules of the organisation they work for, have full freedom to enjoy their fundamental rights of freedom of speech and expression bestowed on them by the Constitution of India.
• Dress codes such as sari cannot be forced upon women teachers. As long as they are decently dressed, it should suffice.
• Minimum salary, as prescribed by the board to which the educational institute is affiliated to, has to be paid to the teacher.
• Teachers cannot be subjected to racial/gender discrimination at the work place.
• Teachers cannot be forced to practice, advocate a certain religion.
• Teachers have a right to form unions/associations and put forth their requirements before the authorities concerned.
• Teachers have a right to security of tenure (subject to contractual conditions).
• Teachers have a right against sexual harassment at their work place.
• Teachers have a right to human rights education.
• Teachers have right to privacy, or to keep one’s image and likeness from being exploited without permission or contractual compensation.
• Teachers have a right to publicity/use of one’s identity.
• Teachers have a right to attribution, the right to have a work published anonymously or pseudonymously and the right to the integrity of the work (i.e. it cannot be distorted or otherwise mutilated).

It is pertinent to note that the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and International Labour Organisation (ILO) framed recommendations, back in 1966, on improving the status of teachers in India by equipping them with adequate knowledge of their rights and responsibilities.

While it may be not be justified to say that the spirit and letter of the ILO recommendations have not been incorporated by the National Policy of Education, 1986, yet there is indisputably a lot more left to be done in terms of actual practice and implementation. This is evident from the fact that even today, according to a recent study, at least 50 per cent of the Indian teachers do not have access to information pertaining to their rights, leave alone demanding/putting forth their ideas.

Amidst this, at another, very theoretical level, some purists profess that responsibilities of a teacher alone need constant scrutiny and more stress, citing Abraham Lincoln’s (the sixteenth President of the United States) famous letter to the headmaster of his son’s school extracted below, which is certainly as relevant today as it was then:

“…teach him if you can, that a dollar earned is of far more value than five found… In school, teach him it is far more honourable to fall than to cheat… Teach him to listen to all men; but teach him also to filter all he hears on a screen of truth, and take only the good that comes through… Teach him to sell his brawn and brain to the highest bidders; but never to put a price tag on his heart and soul. This is a big order, but see what you can do…”

However, are these responsibilities, by being a tall order in themselves, not an adequate reason for a teacher to be provided with proportionate rights? In the contemporary context, it is perhaps superfluous to emphasise that the responsibilities of a teacher without parallel and proportionate rights are akin to a coin with just one side, an unthinkable proposition, to say the least, in common parlance and definitely a perceptible wrong liable to penal action in legal parlance.

The author works with Deloitte Haskins and Sells. She can be reached at .

The views expressed are the author’s personal opinions and not that of the organisation she works for.

It is a common belief among students that the subject of Mathematics has exhausted all possibilities of growth; that it is complete and has been fully explored. Therefore, the subject does not enthuse students as it should. To build students’ interest in Mathematics, schools have started introducing Mathematics laboratories. Through this article I wish to share with the readers what my students and I discovered during a Maths lab class.

While doing the following activity a new discovery was made. Two paper straws of length 4 cm and 5 cm are pinned at one end to a soft board as shown in Fig.(1). While OA remains fixed, OB hinged at O can be rotated to any position. At any instant when O, A and B are non collinear, a circle of radius R1 will pass through them. The intersection points of the circle with OA and OB will form the triangle OAB when A and B are joined.

The author is Director, Angel Valley School, Bhilai. He can be reached at angelvalleybhilai@gmail.com.

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I will soon start teaching Kindergarten children. I have a B.Ed from a very good college. But as my first day draws closer, I am even more nervous than my students are likely to be. I know how hyperactive these tiny tots can be! How can I control them without seeming to police them and at the same time get them to like me? I do not want to be the scarecrow teacher!

This is the most petrifying aspect of teaching for anyone, so you are not alone! Letting children know that you are in charge from day one helps tremendously. You can do this by being assertive rather than by being aggressive. You will face problems in getting them to

• sit still
• listen
• do their work

Whether the children are sitting on the floor or on chairs, let them understand that they have to keep their hands and feet to themselves. Talk about the invisible line that separates each one of them. Children are fascinated by such talk because some of them can actually visualise that line! Also make it clear that they cannot tip back their chairs because they may hurt themselves or hurt the child seated behind. They have to learn to remain seated until they hear the teacher say, “Stand up.”

Make the laying down of rules fun because that is what children enjoy and understand. Tell them: We are going to play a game! You must do what I say. The person who doesn’t do it immediately is out of the game. Now say: Sit down. Stand up. Sit on the floor. Fold your hands. Raise your hand. Raise both hands. Start the game slowly and then quicken the pace.

By doing this, you are getting the children acquainted with language and also the rules of the class. Call forth a bolder child to the front and have him/her issue the orders. Children are filled with a sense of self-importance and will worship you for giving them this recognition.

The listening behaviour is something that will have to be enforced right from day one. You can do this by maintaining eye contact with all your children, particularly those who tend to ‘disobey’. When you follow them with your eyes, they know they are being watched and will not dare disobey because they do not know what you are capable of! Get children to fold their arms across their chest so that they are not distracted by their hands or the hands of other children!

When children know the answer, they can be as excited as chattering monkeys and you really can’t blame them because for them knowledge sharing and knowledge acquiring are equally exciting! Smile at children who are excited about the fact that they know, but guide them by saying things like, “It’s great to see so many excited children with the right answers. But let’s take it one by one. Raise your hands without answering. I will choose and you answer.” Don’t get too irritated by the hyperactive ones that blurt out the answer. These are the bright kids that you need to depend on when the class finds work a little too challenging. Chug along with these little stars with clear cut rules and you will find that they adore you because children like rules and are baffled when there are none! Enjoy your teaching and you will find that your nervousness vanishes!

The author is a teacher educator and language trainer based in Chennai. She can be reached at manaswinisridhar@gmail.com.

Many years ago, I was a participant in an EVS (Environmental Studies) workshop at Mumbai conducted by Mr. Evans of the British Council. He asked all of us to close our eyes and raise one finger when we felt that one minute had passed. Wisely he didn’t tell us how many of us were far off the mark but this shows us that a sense of time and duration is difficult to understand and acquire. However the importance of ‘time’ cannot be denied as the smooth running of our lives, and our transactions with others depends on an accepted measure of time. Time, therefore, is harder to do than topics like air, water, homes or clothes. It is because of this that some points have been put down for teachers to think about before planning the topic.

This project first appeared in the September-October, 1992 issue of Teacher Plus and was written by Janaki Iyer.

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“There are no boundaries to a teacher’s commitment,” remarked Mr. Maruti Ramprasad, Principal, Ramadevi Public School, referring to the ten-day Twinning Programme conducted in the school from November 19-26, 2008, possibly the first of its kind among the school community.

This ‘learning journey,’ as he put it, came about in the most unusual way, in encounters and meetings in Singapore that saw educationists from two different countries passionately moving towards a common cause and doing all it required to get a programme of this magnitude up and running.

While student exchange programmes are the norm in universities across India, the concept is yet to take-off in Indian schools. The silver lining is that most schools are open and enthusiastic to the idea and some, like the Ramadevi Public School (RPS), Hyderabad, have not only put their best foot forward but are also experimenting with it.

The Twinning Programme
The idea for an exchange programme between schools took seed when Mr. Ramprasad took off on a dream holiday to Singapore. As the then principal of Hyderabad Public School, Mr Ramprasad was naturally curious and interested in visiting schools in this region and eager to see how they functioned. On a visit to the Greenridge Secondary School, he met Ms. Hang, the Principal. A couple more visits to other schools and meetings with the people concerned, three schools from Singapore – Greenridge Secondary School, Unity Secondary School and Geylang Methodist School – and Ramadevi Public School embarked on their ‘learning journey together.’

RPS entered into a three-year agreement with the three schools from Singapore in 2007. “The Twinning Programme aims to build a better understanding of the other’s culture, way of life and more importantly teaching-learning methods. The students visiting us are involved in our classroom and extra-curricular activities. They become a part of us for the period of their stay here. This way our students and their students get to know and learn from each other which is the purpose of this programme,” said Mr. Ramprasad.

“As per our agreement, the Singapore schools were to visit us in the first two years and in the third year we are to visit them. Keeping their side of the agreement, the schools from Singapore were here for the first time in November 2007 and then again recently in November 2008. It is now our turn to visit them during summer holidays in April 2009,” said Mr. Ramprasad.

Buddy system
Each year when RPS played host to a team of 30 students and 4 teachers from Singapore it ensured that it lived up to the spirit of the programme. To make the visitors comfortable and settle down sooner, RPS assigned one of its own students to one student from Singapore. So each student from Singapore had his or her own ‘buddy’. The buddies did everything together. In a sense, this gave them the chance to understand each other, appreciate the differences in their cultures and also the teaching – learning cycle. The teachers from Singapore too sat in classes to observe teaching methods and displayed their own skills by teaching a few lessons to students.

The last day of the 10-day programme featured a cultural show that children from both RPS and the visiting school put up for each other and their teachers. Exchanging of mementoes and gifts marked the end of the Twinning Programme. “Such exchange programmes build the confidence of students,” says Mr. Ramprasad. He adds, “As Indians we harbour this feeling that we are not as good as them. But such programmes help you to realise that we are not any less. If Singapore or America is good at something our competency lies elsewhere.”

The Twinning Programme has also helped the participants realise a teacher’s role in education. While Indian school education primarily revolves around the teacher, he or she plays a minimal role in Singapore. The teachers there only act as a guide to get students to understand what they are learning and arrive at their own conclusions. While this system may be good in that it encourages independence, Mr. Ramprasad felt that the Indian system was better.

The challenges
Having successfully launched this programme, Mr. Ramprasad is keen to take it further. He has ambitious plans of bringing in more schools into this programme. The challenges, he said, were many. “What I was thinking is that this would benefit all the students. Instead of one school coming here and our school’s children alone participating, if there is a pool from where children from various schools, such as a few children from St. Ann’s, a few from HPS, a few from Nasr, and some from Ramadevi school or Johnson Grammar school, are handpicked, we then get five or ten students from each school who are interested. This student group will be the result of an inter-school understanding and then all these children could go to Singapore and interact with two or three schools there. Probably this may be a better idea and give better understanding about both processes. I have discussed this idea with a few principals at a conference and am hopeful it will materialise in some time”.

In meeting people and cultures halfway, Mr. Ramprasad, with his vision, may have created a small ripple. This small step he has taken has undoubtedly left an impression on all the participating students on either side – an exchange of cultural understanding that will remain with them for a long time to come.

Does an adopted child need special attention? was a question posed to Mrs. Sheela Ramakrishnan, educator, entrepreneur, teacher-trainer and an adoptive parent herself. She was addressing educators at a workshop “Adoption and Education” recently organised by SuDatta Adoptive Families’ Support Group in Bangalore.

Sheela explained that many students in Indian schools come from differently composed families such as single-parent, grand-parent-only, step-parent and adoptive families. There is an emerging openness around these “differences”. Educators must be aware of a child’s family composition because having a ‘non-traditional’ family may cause emotional turmoil for a child.

Sheela Ramakrishnan making her presentation

The core issue
What’s different about a child who was adopted?
It’s what happened before adoption that is at the root of a child’s emotional issues. A child takes time to understand and process her life story.

Children who were adopted may have a heightened sensitivity to rejection. They are constantly searching for acceptance, approval and identity, because they feel that the first adults in their lives “gave them away”. This may impact their self-esteem, and consequently academic performance and behaviour. They need support to build their self-esteem.

Adoptive parents may be vulnerable as well; constantly challenged by questions from society and the child himself. They must cope with tricky situations when the issue of their child’s adoption is dealt with in an insensitive manner by others.

Adoption in school
What is the role of an educator in the life of a child who was adopted?
A child interacts with an extended community of relatives, friends, teachers and neighbours. Our schooling system focuses on the use of the child’s hand and mind, and ignores the role his heart and emotions play in the learning process.

A child who was adopted is usually intelligent, along with extra sensitivity and deeper thinking. He may over-perform or under-perform because he periodically grapples with emotional issues.

She tends to have good relationships with most people, but friendships with only a few. He may hide creative talents to avoid the spotlight.

A booklet “Talking about Adoption with Educators: Experiences from Families and Classrooms in India” was released by Mrs. Vanditha Sharma, Principal Secretary, Education, Government of Karnataka. The booklet showcases incidents where educators had to handle this sensitive topic in the classroom.

Questions and statements made in class have caught teachers off guard and inspired “tough” questions and comments:

• “I have two mummies and daddies, can I put them all on my family tree?”
• “I was adopted at the age of 4; I can’t bring my baby photo.”
• “How can I trace my genetic inheritance? I don’t know my birth parents’ genetics.”

The workshop stressed on the need for a proactive partnership between parents and educators.

Openness and comfort levels
How an educator handles the topic of adoption depends partly on the parents’ openness and comfort. Many parents tell their child early in life about her adoption; they are open to a dialogue with her and with other people also, including the school. The family is fully empowered.

Some parents are open with their child but not with the community. Consequently the school does not know. This is a one-sided empowerment. The child, is often the one to “spill the beans” in school, while telling her friends what’s special about her.

Awkward situations arise when the child herself is not informed, but everyone else knows and is extra careful.

The last category is the toughest to deal with; only the parents know. The burden of secrecy sabotages an honest relationship with their child. Ironically, counsellors called in to handle difficult situations concerning these children are often told, I know I’m adopted, I’m just waiting for my parents to tell me.

Why tell the child early in life and then keep talking about it?
A successful relationship is built on an honest and open communication. Children’s curiosity about their own life must not be suppressed. Sheela took educators through adoption issues at different ages.

Mrs. Vanditha Sharma releasing

The pre-school and primary years
Educators and parents can handle questions with relative ease during these years. Children may be asked why they look different, or relate their adoption story with as much pride as any child tells his birth story.

Gradually, he grasps that he was first born to another woman and then brought up by his present family. He becomes conscious of the losses involved; of his lineage, birth family history and some early records of his life. Indian adoption laws seal all records about the birth parents’ identity.

The middle years
The child begins to understand her life story better. It also becomes a more private matter for her. She prioritises her acceptance by peers. She may also express a desire to search for her birth parents.

Parents and educators are challenged to give detailed, age-appropriate and sensitive answers. What is said is not as important as saying it with love, genuine empathy and understanding. The child’s feelings must be honoured and validated.

Secondary years
These are tricky years. The adolescent has anextensive understanding of his life story, and the possibility that his birth may have happened under socially unacceptable circumstances.

Adolescents are building their social, familial and sexual identity. Young women struggle with society’s morality in relation to their birth mother’s situation. Young men feel let down since the first male in their lives (the birth father) is not anywhere near a role model. Raging hormones, peer pressure and parental expectations peak in high school, coinciding with tremendous academic pressure. The child has to use her hand and head while her heart and emotions are in turmoil.

The adults in their lives need to reassure them that they are loved and accepted regardless of their birth.

Some helpful strategies
Sheela concluded with strategies for educators to handle emotional issues about a differently composed family. The acronym TOAD is useful to remember:
Think on your feet in an unexpected situation
Offer individual attention
Ask for information from the parents, school and your student
Do not be judgmental

When planning classroom assignments or lessons, an educator must look out for:

1. Stereotypes
2. Black and White areas
3. Judgements of any kind
4. Insensitive language. Positive Adoption Language is introduced in the booklet released at the workshop.

With increased awareness and experience, educators will get a feel for handling situations with sensitivity.

Participants said the workshop was an eye-opener for them and suggested that more schools and educators can increase their awareness about adoption through similar workshops.

For more details on SuDatta and the work they are doing visit www.sudatta.org

The author is the General Secretary for SuDatta Adoptive Parents’ Support Group, Bangalore. She can be reached at nayantaramallya@yahoo.com.

A conference on ‘India’s Textbook Culture’ organised by Learn Today, the learning division of the India Today Group, held in December 2008, focused on how learning resources and textbooks are conceptualised, produced and used. People from the government, the non-formal sector, private publishers, students, Principals and educational theorists attended the conference.

Key issues included new learning resources, the economics of publishing, local knowledge and the implications for assessment, and policy implications for the future that Learn Today intends to present to the government through a seminal paper.

Prof Krishna Kumar, Director, NCERT delivering the keynote address

In his welcome address, Mr. Arun Kapur, Executive Director, Learn Today, set the stage for a challenging agenda. He referred to the educational philosophies of Tagore and Gandhi and felt that the textbook could be an important tool for achieving these ideals. “The textbook can act as a powerful tool. As a trampoline, with a little creativity and imagination, it is a jumping-off point that propels all learners to new heights. The danger, however, is when it remains a hammock – a comfortable, lazy lounge chair that one takes a nap on. It is how the teacher uses it that makes the difference.”

Prof. Krishna Kumar, Director NCERT, in his keynote address brought up several issues that traced the evolution of textbooks. Before the National Curriculum Framework 2005 was set out, textbooks held centre stage and were a source of tension and even conflict. It was a challenge to create textbooks that reflected a sense of peace and decency.

Education meant creating a space for the student and teacher, even to the extent of questioning the textbook. The latest NCERT textbooks made teachers think about their subject, and ‘attempt to create an experiential India for our children’. Professor Krishna Kumar felt however, that the purpose of the NCERT had been misunderstood even by child-centred schools. The NCERT was therefore working on making exam questions more imaginative, but to evaluate such questions, there is a need for teachers who can assess a student’s argument.

Prof. Krishna Kumar felt that we are mired in the textbook culture of the nineteenth century that required the textbook to be a bible, because we haven’t accepted the agency of the teacher, who the world now sees as a knowledge worker. In this connection, teacher associations can be important as agents of change. Prof. Krishna Kumar’s viewthat Early Childhood Educators deserve the highest salaries, should be welcomed by underpaid and sometimes unappreciated Kindergarten teachers nationwide.

Prof. MM Pant of Planet-EDU, in his inaugural address focused on how the textbook will transform itself into a dialogue with the reader. He talked about the challenges faced by education in a knowledge rich society, where ‘thinking’ skills are more important that just learning, and where students can become ‘producers of knowledge, not consumers’.

The second session dealt exclusively with the economics and use of textbooks and was chaired by Ms. Abha Sahgal, Principal Sanskriti School.

The first speaker, Prof. Janaki Rajan, Jamia Millia University put the economics of publishing textbooks into perspective by pointing out that roughly 90 per cent are in the hands of state governments and only ten per cent with NCERT and private publishers. Her experience as Director, SCERT and the bureaucratic hurdles showed that the dialogue was all about money and size, and not academic content. A very important lesson learnt was that texts which were carefully crafted got the best student response, and that ‘children who are poor can appreciate the best of research’.

Ms. Sajili Shirodkar of Madhubun Books, discussed the factors in play when a textbook is under consideration by a school. At times the criteria for selection may be the amount of teacher support that is available in a book. Ultimately, if we wish to move away from the mechanical use of a textbook or rote-learning, teacher-training is the key, she said.

Dr. Sarada Balagopalan of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies opened the third session by introducing the eminent speakers.

Ms. Rashmi Paliwal, representing the Eklavya Foundation, emphasised on the teaching/learning being transacted in the classroom. Eklavya’s success could be attributed in part to its motivational writing style; text was based on real-life experiences, and the narrative provided ‘guided space for the learner to reflect’. The student is part of the text, and the teacher was involved as a facilitator of discussion.

She advocated open-book exams after teaching students the skills of referencing, as one aspect of the assessment process. The most successful chapters were the ones where the text was ‘vivid, gripping and substantial’ validating the notion that big ideas can be retained, even if chapters are longer, if the transaction is good.

Mr. Dilip Ranjekar, CEO, and Ms. Aanchal Chanal of the Azim Premji Foundation, gave some details of their activities, specifically in partnering the Government of Rajasthan by developing materials for Grades 1-8 in all subjects. On investigation, the APF had realised that school textbooks were inadequate, facts were incorrect, concepts did not link, and vocabulary was anything but age-appropriate. They had hence decided that developing workbooks was the most effective way to proceed. To this end they sent 55 people to Rajasthan and developed these workbooks in six months. The APF has recently begun action research for the Governments of Uttarakhand and Haryana.

Ms. Suchismita Srinivas of Educational Initiatives dwelt on the focal activities of EI on assessment. EI has been conducting ASSET, a diagnostic test, which is currently being taken by 4 lakh students in India and the Gulf. She also spoke about the difficulties encountered in standardising assessment in India. With regard to textbooks, her opinion was that a textbook cannot be effective if the teacher isn’t, hence teacher support materials are essential.

Policy implications were summed up in the final session. Prof. Shiva Kumar, Adviser UNICEF, cited Howard Gardner’s ‘Five Minds for the Future’ as a reference point for the mindset we wish to create in our students. He referred to the ‘kunji marts’, coaching classes and private tuition as some of the ills affecting Indian education, but most of all he recommended a change in the exam system, which according to him, had destroyed the reading habit.

Prof. Shiva Kumar mentioned the government schools which had many contract teachers who were insecure about tenure, and this, in turn, created a feeble classroom environment, poor student-teacher ratios and a very low level of teaching activity. He advocated teacher training, regular appraisal of teacher performance, and higher salaries.

Professor R Govinda, Head, School and Non-Formal Education Unit, NUEPA, acknowledged that textbooks are the entry point for mass education, but argued strongly for a professional role for the State. The SCERT produces textbooks, but they should not be the products of bureaucratic minds. The model needs to change and creative minds should be working on texts. He asked why we could not liberalise textbooks or create greater variety, and allow teachers to choose which book they wished to use. Since very often there is only one book to teach from, reference and learning materials should be made available to the student and teacher alike. He recommended starting a cycle of change in assessment methods, improvement in teacher training, the anchoring of teacher learning around the textbook, and policies that look after the needs of our teachers.

Mr. Subhash Khuntia, Joint Secretary, Bureau of School Education, Department of HRD, spoke on the importance of textbooks, as they ensure that certain things get taught. However, because of the exam pattern, textbooks have become compulsory, and most schools go in for one textbook to get better results.

The government, he said, would be very happy to publish well-designed and creative textbooks. Teachers are free to write books and the adoption of a book would be left to its merits.

He pointed out certain ground realities: from project-based activities that cannot be carried out as many schools do not have libraries; subversive and retrograde material in texts that compels the Book Council to vet all material.

He suggested that the NCERT could create exemplar books which the States could adapt or better still, write their own. In 21^st century schools, he concluded, the have-nots need to be considered.

Dr. Shalini Advani, Learn Today, at the conference

Dr. Shalini Advani, Director Education, Learn Today, summed up the four main points of learning from the conference: Learning from textbooks is an active process, but we need to ensure that this happens for all books; there is a real need for a massive expansion of teacher training, not just subject training; in the interests of democracy, we cannot have relevant learning for the middle class and just content for the lower economic classes; assessment is not an end-of-the-line process, assessment should be for learning, not of learning.

The author is Manager, School Systems, Learn Today. She can be reached at kmuttoo@ulearntoday.com.

The convener of this conference, LEARN TODAY, is the learning division of the India Today Group, India’s most diversified media group. The India Today Group owns and manages Vasant Valley School. Learn Today aims to enrich the world of school education through the promotion of professional standards. Its activities include setting up schools that are centres of excellence, professional development of teachers, promotion and dissemination of education research, school audits, workshops and school improvement programmes, the creation of learning and teaching material, and advocacy and policy inputs for progressive educational development, among others.

The Bakul Foundation is a testament to what ordinary people can do if they want to. The foundation was set up to help people realise their power and role in bringing about a change in society. Bakul has and continues to harness the energies of students, retired persons, homemakers, and working people towards the social development of the community. So Bakul is basically a movement for volunteerism. The advantage of focusing on volunteerism is that the work is done with enthusiasm and passion and more meaningful intervention happens.

The Bakul Foundation is trying to demonstrate that if everyone comes together with their little contributions, not only can we bring about a change in the lives of others, but we can enjoy tremendous benefits as well. In the Bakul Model, every participant is both benefactor and the beneficiary.

One of the foundation’s first initiatives was to bring together a thousand people to set up a children’s library in Orissa because there were no good children’s libraries in the state. Moreover, we realised that there were quite a few initiatives on teaching children from disadvantaged groups but what all of them lacked was books and thereby avenues for learning by oneself. We felt that a good children’s library would be a common resource that could be exploited by all these initiatives.

The Bakul Foundation wants to give children from both the disadvantaged and the not so disadvantaged backgrounds access to the same opportunities to build their capabilities. We, therefore, hope that through a common library and the opportunities for self-development it offers, we can work towards breaking the distinctions schools create.

We started with an online campaign that began in April 2006 to mobilise a thousand individuals to donate books to set up the library. The Bakul Children’s Library in Bhubaneswar has been set up and is running entirely with small individual contributions without any funding and any user surcharge. It, nevertheless, can boast of the best collection in the State with over 8000 books, including some very interesting and engaging educational resources for children.

The name for the foundation and the library itself comes from the Bakul tree found in abundance in Eastern India. Many educational initiatives, like the Bakula Vana by Gopabandhu Das and others, started in the shade of Bakul trees, and thereby it is a symbol for what can happen with minimal resources.

The author is Founder-Secretary, Bakul Foundation. He can be reached at sujit15@gmail.com.

Books give wing to the imagination: Sujit Mahapatra

Chintan Girish Modi

How do you envisage the role of libraries in the lives of children?
A library is a must in the life of a child, be it a library at home or school or in the community. Books give wings to the imagination of a child and develop creativity, apart from developing linguistic skills and providing knowledge. It is important, therefore, that children develop a love for books and have unrestricted access to books to satisfy their curiosity.

How do you feel about the way school libraries function?
Most schools in the country unfortunately do not have libraries. Therefore, wherever they exist and in whatever shape, I would say, it’s just great that they exist and children are able to access books.

However, most school libraries do not attempt to make books accessible to children for fear that they may damage the books. Books are locked up in cupboards. The librarian gives children the books they must read. This is a wrong approach. Books must be kept in open stacks and children should be given the freedom to leaf through them. Even if they cannot read, they should have the freedom to just pick up the books, look at the illustrations, etc. They must fall in love with books. Libraries and librarians should ensure that this happens.

Unfortunately, most school librarians work in a mechanical manner; they catalogue books and maintain records of issue and return of books. Librarians should be in love with books themselves so that children too can respond in the same way. They should not be merely people trained in the science of maintaining libraries.

There are schools where children can access only reference material supplementing the syllabus. Story books are seen as a waste of time. What do you think of this?
In our schools, children are never encouraged to imagine and to think, which is essential if they are to “think out of the box”. Many educators acknowledgethe importance of reading in developing imagination and there is merit in reading fantasies because they enlarge the possibilities of what the mind can believe.

I believe that the best education happens when one does not realise that one is learning. When one is reading a story book, language develops and one gets to know about many cultures; it helps us in being sensitive individuals. There is much geography, history, politics, science that one can learn from story books.

How do you place Bakul within this context?
Bakul is an experiment to ensure that there is everything desirable in a library and that it fulfills all the required roles as I have mentioned in response to the other questions.

At the same time, Bakul is a public library that is free to access. So, we are also trying to break the distinctions that schools create. We can proudly say that we have the best collection in any library for children in the State. As it is free, not only children from private and public schools but those from slums and orphanages also exploit the resources of the library. We want to offer the same opportunities to children from disadvantaged sections so that they have the resources at their disposal if they have their interest to build their capabilities and exploit the opportunities available to them.

Bakul also believes that a library, particularly a public library should work on socially and environmentally sensitive education, which can happen through film screenings, discussions and tours.

Do you think it is difficult to get children to read, with the television and the computer battling for attention?
In a way, yes. TV and cinema have taken the place of popular fiction. That is precisely why libraries need to reinvent themselves. Libraries have to be “cool” places where children want to go, even hang out. In fact, it is because of these challenges that libraries cannot see their roles as merely providing access to books. They have to create an interest in reading among the children.

They must be attractive and not boring places. The books stocked too must be attractive with beautiful illustrations that can entice a child. Most importantly, there must be numerous activities that will stimulate the creativity and imagination of children. The children must find something new in the library at short intervals, and there should be many events in which they can participate and contribute to the development of the library. At Bakul, for instance, we once had a community storybook activity. A huge book with blank pages was mounted on a stand. One child began a story and left after a paragraph. Later on, other children came and developed that story further. Children loved this activity. A few weeks later, for younger kids, we got them to add words to make a story giving a little twist to the same idea.

I also think TV and computers can be used as aids in our cause for furthering reading habits. We have slideshows of some of our stories, which we scanned along with the illustrations for children to read from the computer. Similarly, we have audio-visual versions of many stories, which motivate children to read the actual book later. We also screen films based on popular stories and novels to get children interested in the stories with the same effect.

Do you think librarians are sometimes quite rigid about which-books-for-what-age, and end up blocking a child’s curiosity?
Yes. First of all, in many schools, librarians do not allow children to leaf through books and choose for themselves what they want to read. This is not the kind of access that children should have. At Bakul we are exploring a system called Reading Buddy, a concept that has been tried out in UK. What happens here is that an older kid gets to act as the Reading Buddy to a younger kid. So, if the younger kid cannot read some books but likes the feel of it from the illustrations or look of it, the Reading Buddy reads out the book to the younger kid.

Children of a particular age also have different reading capabilities based on their individual histories of reading. So, a child of a particular age may be in a position to read and may want to read books that are being read by older children and that child should not be refused that opportunity.

Moreover, the best thing about a library can be the experience of serendipity, which can only happen if the children have unrestricted access to books. If the library can foster the child’s curiosity, and thereby imagination and the spirit of research, which follows, the library has succeeded in its mission. Therefore, I hold the position that it is mandatory for libraries to be accessible to children and librarians should not be rigid.

Chintan is an M.Phil student at the English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad. He can be reached at chintangirishmodi@gmail.com.