The Learning Network, an eclectic mix of organisations and individuals interested in holistic learning, held its 5th Annual Conference at Chamarajanagar, Karnataka, from Jul 20-22, 2007. Teacher Plus reports…

Chamarajanagar is a little over an hour’s drive from Mysore – a bustling town with its own charm. Held on the premises of the school run by the Deenabandhu Trust, the Learning Network conference this year included over 30 discussions, presentations and workshops spread over three days. Coordinated by a group of volunteers, these discourses, however, were neither theme-bound nor dictated by any perceived need, but determined by the participants themselves: the Network is a forum for creating awareness on innovative ideas, education methods and resources; for sharing one’s own experiences, opinions and expertise; and for engaging others in discussion on matters that are of interest to oneself. An exceptional attribute of the Network is informality, which enables one to function with minimal reserve, facilitating easy exchange and assimilation of new ideas.

Among the issues that were highlighted were teaching methods and resources, teachers’ issues and school administration issues. While Gananath of Suvidya threw light on the various notions that impede the learning of mathematics and took people through various simple practices and aids that can help children understand the intricacies of this subject, the team from Navnirmiti discussed the universalisation of maths and illustrated the effectiveness of their methods and resource materials. Geetha Arvind, an interested individual, initiated a discussion on the learning of science, and Sishu Milap followed it up in another session with their experiences of teaching science through experiential methods. Rajaram and Vidya spoke about the online resources available at Vidya Online, while artist Ranjan De took others through a session on using art and craft as means of meeting the demands of the curriculum. (This in a unique space demarcated as an open space, for people to engage in further discussion on what had been presented, or to bring up subjects that were not on the agenda: a space that allowed the freedom necessary to growth, a space well utilised by participants severally or in groups!)

US-based Dr. Shelley Thomas gave an introduction to Total Physical Response Story-telling (TPRS ), a new method of teaching/learning proven to help in learning language effectively, at an unprecedented pace, and now being used at the Isha Home School in the teaching of Science and Maths as well. Sunita Rao of Kalpavriksh presented the work done in the B R Hills with children of the Soliga tribe – meeting learning objectives while showing clearly how it is imperative – and possible – to learn from our surroundings and live in harmony with nature. Saraswati and Rajalakshmi shared how activity centres within schools have made some headway in bridging the gaps in educational opportunities that children from underprivileged backgrounds experience, while Ananth Kumar of Divyadeepa Trust explored the relation between the child’s emotional health and her learning capacity.

Lata and Ashok from IDEAL presented their findings as to what children in villages know before they come to school, and how children learn up to the age of 6. The team from Pachasaale brought to the fore the need for education relevant to the situation, particularly for out of school children – the necessity of involving communities, of establishing connections between what is learned and what vocations are possible. The team from the Sanctuary Schools, Kaigal, highlighted the need for teacher enrichment as a necessary step to learning. Noted educationist Jane Sahi, in her keynote address, spoke of creating spaces for “collaboration” between the teacher and the child, and between children themselves. A team from NIAS reflected upon issues that have emerged from their experiences of working with the government primary school system: issues of quality, innovation, capacity building and systemic reforms. The well-known educationist, Prakash Burte, explored the connection between equity, equality and quality of education.

School management issues and the role of school development and management committees also came up for debate, as did a discussion on the limitations of large scale interventions. There were some hands-on workshops too – on understanding adolescents, writing by and for teachers, inclusion and appreciation of diversity, and using stories as a means of teaching/learning. Parallel discussions took place ubiquitously – over breakfast, lunch, dinner, in the shuttles that ferried us to and fro, in the rooms… the enthusiasm was unmistakable.

Exhibits and displays by various groups added flavour to the remarkable fare.

There was learning even in the arrangements that the hosts had made – learning about hospitality, from making arrangements for stay to food and travel, that happened for the staff and children of the Deenabandhu Trust will last a lifetime. Not to mention the entertainment that the hosts organised – if shepherds from the surrounding areas presented a traditional dance propitiating Siva one evening, complete with dress code, shell ornaments and bear-skin head-dresses, a dance troupe was called in another day, to present other folk dances.

Of course, issues related to education, and to the Indian education system, are numerous. At the end of the conference, one came away with some answers, certainly, but also with pertinent (and impertinent!) questions that had been planted there! The Learning Network lived up excellently to its purpose yet again – in its fertile soil, people and organisations shared their experiences and learned from each other.

Detailed information about the conference is available at http://www.learning.net-india.org/ini/data/activities/conferences/july2007/july2007-agend.php

For more information about the learning network, contact info@learningnet-india.org

Tucked in a quiet lane adjacent to one of the busiest streets in Hyderabad is Greenwood School, the venue for the workshop on Activity Based Learning (ABL) and inclusion organized by Edcraft on the 19th and 20th of February this year. One of the key outcomes of the National Curriculum Framework of 2005 is a shift from rote learning to ABL and the inclusion of special needs children into mainstream schools. Thus the timing of this workshop on ABL and inclusion could not have been better. The key speakers in this workshop were Sheela Ramakrishnan and Rajika Dhiren of Edcraft, an organization that produces teaching-learning materials and Dr Jayanthi Narayanan, former director, National Institute of Mental Health, Hyderabad. About 40 teachers from various schools in Hyderabad attended this two day workshop.

On the first day of the workshop Sheela Ramakrishnan and Rajika Dhiren introduced teachers to the theory of ABL, planning an ABL class, some common difficulties while planning an ABL class and Dr. Narayanan spoke about the importance of inclusion in mainstream schools and the challenges that teachers face with children having learning disabilities. On the second day teachers were given demonstrations of various activities that they can do in a class and how each activity can be tailored to suit children with learning disabilities and slow learners.

Dr. Usha, a psychiatrist with Indus International School, and a participant in the workshop said, “The workshop is timely and extremely useful as I was looking for guidance on ABL and inclusion and there is always the need to learn more activities for students. Tailoring such activities for students with learning disabilities is the biggest challenge for us”. Zenobia another participant said, “With so many changes being made in the curriculum, especially with the RTE of 2009, it is important to keep ourselves up to date through workshops like this”.

“Since inclusion has been mandatory we need more training to understand how slow learners and children with learning disabilities should be taught”, added Leela, another participant.

Edcraft plans to organize more of such workshops as they see a growing demand among teachers to learn new things and keep them up to date with changes.

In the week starting 20th of February 2010, for five days, amidst the hills and lakes of the beautiful white city of Udaipur, a motley group of individuals came together as a study group on the Philosophy of Education organized by three institutions – the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, Philosophy of Education Society, Great Britain, and Centre for Philosophy and the Humanities, Manipal University. The Vidyabhavan Society of Udaipur which was established in the early 1900s very kindly hosted the event and also provided accommodation for the student population attending the event. The theme of the study group this year, (which was also the first time this study group came together) was ‘Reason and Reasoning’. The key resource persons were philosophers and educationists such as Sundar Sarukkai from Manipal University, Arindam Chakravarthi who presently teaches philosophy at the University of Hawaii, USA, and renowned educationists from UK such as Christopher Winch, David Carr and Jan Derry. The convener of the session was Padma Sarangpani.

As students of education, most of us felt that day-long sessions on philosophy would have a debilitating effect on us and that by the evening, we would be tired and ready to hit the sack. But surprisingly, all the five days ended with high energy levels among the participants, with discussions and questions being carried on into dinner. Well before the meet, relevant readings on the theme, selected by the key speakers had been shared with the participants so that the necessary backdrop and framework were available to all. Readings ranged from Aristotle and Western philosophy to Vygotsky and Piaget to Indian logic and the concepts of knowledge in the Indian philosophical tradition.

It was this juxtaposition of the Western and Indian philosophical traditions that was in fact one of the main purposes and themes of the meet as well. It is well known that the Western traditions of reason, rationality and science that evolved during the Enlightenment have been dominant all through the world via forces of colonization and cultural dominance of the West. India has its own knowledge systems and traditions which have been largely neglected and ignored by Indians themselves owing to a mistrust and/or lack of understanding. Indians have thus been accused of lacking a ‘sense of history’ by the Westerners and also lacking ‘rationality’ albeit in the western sense of the term. This is because of differences in the conception of ‘history’ or ‘rationality’ and consequently the different worldviews in the two cultures. It was this aspect that was focused on heavily in the discussions.

This importance of such an engagement with our own knowledge systems and traditions of logic and reasoning needs to be understood by Indian teachers and educationists, because culturally and socially we are embedded in the world-view that is different from the Western, while our present education system is rooted in Western rationality. There is then this very dangerous disconnect which needs to be remedied, along with a wealth of indigenous knowledge systems to be reclaimed.

Several other relevant questions were also thrown up – questions which have no easy or definite answers, but need to be engaged with not just at the policy level, but at the level of the teacher. Some of these were:

• What kind of occupation is teaching?
• Is a ‘professional’ teacher a good teacher?
• How do we define ‘professionalism’ when it comes to the teacher?
• How do you equip teachers with expertise? What kind of expertise/capacity would that be?
• What are the duties of a teacher?
• What are the rights of a teacher?
• Is the connotation of the ‘teacher’ the same as the ‘connotation of the ‘guru’?
• The privilege of the sciences over the humanities.
• How do we decide of students’ ‘abilities’?
• What place do morals and virtues have in education?
• Should the teacher be ‘neutral’?

The general feeling is also that including philosophy of education in teacher training courses is usually a very theoretical and almost futile enterprise. Honestly the way it is conducted in most teacher training courses, it is exactly this. It was also joked at one point that in any discussion with teachers, if the ‘child’ is not mentioned every 15 minutes, what is being discussed will be considered useless. What teachers need to realize is that the child is part of a larger context and discourse which also needs to be understood thoroughly. Education is about human learning and philosophy delves into the question of what ‘ought’ to be. Not all questions of education can be answered by psychology and sociology – there is always the question of how do we aspire towards the ideal? The questions of moral and ethical importance form the critical space that is occupied by philosophy and this is the relevance it has for teacher development. True, not all that transpires in such discussions find immediate implementation by teachers, but what a teacher may gain by philosophical enquiry is the ability to form judgments; to know how to arrive at a judgment – to know the principles of how to judge a given situation or how to deal with the syllabus. It is those higher ethical and moral choices that more than anyone else an educator or teacher has to make, that philosophy of education assists in. And this was amply demonstrated in the discussions at the study group.

The study group will reconvene again sometime this year at another venue with a new theme. All in all, it was a luxury to be able to partake in such an event, but then again, it seems almost necessary that all those interested in the human condition and the processes of learning and ‘being’ human participate in such forms of enquiry.

The author is currently pursuing her Masters in Education from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. She can be reached at simranluthra@gmail.com.

The network of alternative schools sounds like a very official body and the meetings to be very formal affairs. While the original idea was to form a body to lobby for education reforms, it became a group of individuals interested in meeting and sharing the work they do. These are people associated with institutions, who meet once a year. There is no sponsorship and all take time off and spend their own resources to come and be a part of an intense discussion for two or three days. There is usually a broad theme which informs the meeting, but there is also personal sharing of the past year and of questions that arise as a part of the work. The meeting is usually hosted at one of the institutions and everybody stays together in dorm-like settings.

This year the meeting was at Anand Niketan, a school run by the Nai Talim Samiti, at Sevagram, Wardha. The theme was Work and Education- a topic very dear to Mahatma Gandhi’s heart. He founded the Nai Talim Samiti to consider how education could be funded, as he believed that the then policy of using duties on liquor sales to fund school was morally wrong. The discussions for the present day schools also come in a context where education has become just a training institute for entrance tests and degrees. For all alternative schools, education includes work related to the school space, the care of the classrooms, materials and gardens. But what does it mean to include meaningful and productive work as a part of the curriculum? What kind of work? Will it take away from the necessary academic learning? What will parents say? These were the questions discussed. The starting point was a note circulated by Anu and Krishna of Thulir, an educational resource centre for children and young adults, in Tamil Nadu. The discussions rambled, partly because like all good teachers, each of us immediately thought of our students and came up with opinions. This meant that the ideas were being considered simultaneously for 8 and 15 year olds. We also could not agree on what could be added, what could be dropped. But the important part of the meeting, for me personally, was the ideas it generated and which I could carry to my school for sharing with my colleagues.

Apart from the discussions around the theme of work and education, there was sharing of techniques, readings, philosophy and personal reminiscences. The high points for me were meeting the new young members, listening to Shri Vasant Palshikar talk about the article he wrote on Nai Talim, chatting with friends till late in the night, watching the teachers of Anand Niketan meeting at 10 PM to learn techniques of teaching languages, and the beautiful singing, and other activities of the children of Anand Niketan.

For the people from Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, the meeting started in the train on the way to Wardha, and continued on the way back.

The author works with Centre for Learning, Bangalore. She can be reached at yasmin.cfl@gmail.com.

The Third National Learning Conference hosted by the Azim Premji Foundation in Bangalore was a meeting ground for academics, education activists, teachers and policy makers to debate issues relating to school education. The theme – Equitable Education for an Equitable Society. Presenting an overview.

Education in India, just like everything else, presents a mixture of contradictions. On the one hand, high-performing, resource rich schools with the best of equipment and well-paid teachers, ideal teacher-student ratios… and on the other hand, one-room schools into which are crowded first-generation learners with no furniture, few books and perhaps one teacher to handle multiple classes. Children with access to the best-in-class education resources and children who have no means of reaching a school due to a variety of circumstances ranging from class to caste to gender, to simple unavailability. To talk of equity, therefore, is to enter into a discussion that is like the proverbial pillar of fire – it has no beginning and no end, or it would seem so.

The Third National Learning Conference hosted by the Azim Premji Foundation (APF) at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS) campus in Bangalore between June 24 and 26, 2007 brought together academics, education activists, teachers, policy makers, teacher trainersand just plain folk interested in doing their bit to make education in India a meaningful and inclusive experience. The theme of the conference, “Equitable Education for an Equitable Society” seemed to hold within it a sense of idealism – can we, indeed, create an equitable society by making education equitable? Or is it even possible to make education equitable when society at large is defined by an entrenched system of inequity? How do we understand equity? Is it about access to schooling, about access to equal treatment within classrooms? Is it about an evenness of resources or teaching talent? Do we look at it in economic, social or intellectual terms? Or all of the above? Or perhaps, to begin with, it is, as Mr Azim Premji noted in his introductory speech, about transforming the idea of universal access to education “into a reality, in every school, in every village.”

The conference sessions reflected the wide-ranging nature of the theme, and tackled it from a variety of vantage points. Mr. Champak Chatterjee, Secretary, Elementary Education and Literacy, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, began by looking back at the 2000 Dakar Conference, which articulated the desire to achieve Universal Education by 2015, and wondering how far we have come toward realising this goal. The direction of development in India has thrown up several additional challenges and has redefined marginalisation, rendering the issue of access to education, let alone quality education, extremely complex. Though the Central Government’s commitment to education in terms of budgetary and human resource allocation has steadily increased, it has not led to the resolution of “chronic diseases” in the system, with symptoms such as teacher absenteeism and dropouts. Mr Chatterjee emphasised the need to pay attention to micro issues such as hunger in the classroom, protein and other nutritional deficiencies among children and how these factors influence and inhibit learning.

Andre Beteille, Chairman, Indian Council for Social Science Research (ICSSR), New Delhi, noted that the depth of social stratification in India made it unrealistic to expect that we could develop an education system that is satisfactory and unlike the general society in which it lives. “Universal elementary education is not a sufficient condition but it is an essential condition for an equitable society,” he said, while reminding us that “school too is a social institution” and we need to understand the micro-level interactions that sustain inequity within this institution. He, like many others at the conference, exhorted those involved in setting and implementing policy to rethink the notion of community and the desirability of reproducing the values of community in education.

The idea of equity was interrogated further from socio-economic and legal viewpoints, with a consideration of how different actors (government, private sector, non-governmental organisations) contributed to increasing or decreasing access to education. As educationist Dr Sharada Jain from Jaipur-based Sandhan pointed out, ultimately, “education is an ethical engagement, where we intervene in children’s lives and the contexts within which they live.”

Discussions continued across the spectrum of thought related to school education, with Vimala Ramachandran of the Education Resource Unit, New Delhi, speaking about the “fluidity of deprivation” and the new types of marginalisation that need to be considered while planning to make education accessible to all. She spoke of the need to create strategies that are sensitive to context and to different types of vulnerability. She noted that equity would be difficult to achieve as long as the administrative structures remained the locus of privilege, and that capacities on the ground–be it teachers or school administrators–had not kept pace with growth.

Breakout sessions on the third day allowed more focused discussion on specific themes related to equity, ranging from art education and equity to the pedagogy of diversity to inclusive education and the controversial area of privatisation of education. Anchored by experts in these areas, these concurrent sessions attempted to bridge the distance between ideas and their expression on the ground, in classrooms, by teachers. Perhaps more questions were raised than answered at these sessions; perhaps more people left bemused than assured, but most were reassured, that they were all part of a process that could not be denied, that of reform in Indian primary education.

Outside the conference rooms, tightly packed groups continued debating the issues raised by speakers and panelists. Networks of action were reinforced, new alliances built, new ideas generated. From the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan functionary in Kutch to the District Primary Education Project worker in Tamil Nadu, thoughts had been set in motion that would perhaps take their long and winding road to ultimately reach a point that would begin or take forward the process of change in education. And, as Vijay Gupta of APF put it, “that’s the biggest take away from this conference.”

Aside at the NLC

Sharada Jain, Director, ‘Sandhan’, a Rajasthan-based NGO that works with marginalised communities, spoke to Teacher Plus on the kind of changes that have taken place over the years and how these have been reflected in various forums and conferences. Quoting Socrates, Dr. Jain defined justice as “an enquiry into three basic issues: What is a good human being? What kind of society do we value? And what core shared values do we value?” The Indian experience of education and its concomitant inequity is best understood in its diversity. She described diversity as India’s biggest strength and emphasised the promotion of education in a manner that makes diversity and equality converge.

Commenting on the take-home from the conference, she felt that a significant percentage of participants would definitely get excited about the issues raised while others may choose to remain cynical. The debated issues spanned minority education, socioeconomic barriers, diversity, gender and caste and universal education in the context of the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations.

In her closing remarks, Dr. Jain defined equity as justice. “Justice”, she said, “is not a tangible thing that can be measured or seen easily. And equality is a state where we feel there is a sense of justice. All the processes that counter this sense of unfairness are an attempt at equity.”

The Learning Network, which had its beginnings in Bangalore in 2003, explores various approaches towards holistic learning, offers opportunities to learn about new perspectives and strengthens existing efforts. The Network is a resource for interested groups, educators and parents seeking meaningful approaches to education. The main activities of the Network include an annual conference, workshops on special topics, topic-driven mini conferences, newsletters and an annual conference magazine.

This year, the 7th Annual Conference was held between the 4th and 7th February 2010 at Timbaktu Collective. Timbaktu is located near Chennekothapalli Village in the Anantapur district in Andhra Pradesh. Timbaktu started in 1990 when a small group of development activists purchased a 32 acre, dry barren land to heal and regenerate it. They also formed a voluntary organization, Timbaktu Collective in 1991 with 3 team members who started working with 10 local villages. Timbaktu is now a 700 acre, agro forest habitat, partners with 140 villages and has grown to 110 full-time workers. Timbaktu runs a residential school for children from these communities who otherwise have little or no access to education and who are at higher risk of dropping out. There is also a day school where children feel safe and protected and develop their own abilities, pursue interests and have the space to play, sing, dance, laugh and learn different skills.

This proved to be an ideal setting for the group of committed individuals who gathered to attend the conference. There were about 120 participants from 11 states. The participants were teachers, trainers, parents, therapists, volunteers working in NGOs, NGO personnel involved in educational projects, teaching aid manufacturers, persons running learning centers for children, etc. At the conference, every day began with some physical exercise and meditation. All meals provided were nutritious, authentic and delicious, needless to mention that it consisted of organic ingredients! The more energetic among the participants had a daily trek to look forward to as well.

A quick recap:

• Prof. Balambal made an interesting presentation on traditional board games and their role in value inculcation, motor skill development, subject learning, etc. This was interesting especially at a time when children are over exposed to the electronic media.
• The Hippocampus Reading Foundation had a very fascinating presentation of their efforts in popularizing reading among children in rural and semi urban schools. Their journey towards this was not without difficulties. However, their sincerity has proved fruitful and their ‘Grow by reading’ program is showing the effectiveness of their efforts.
• The team from Kaigal, an effort by the Valley School, KFI in association with the local farmers and community made an inspiring presentation on environment education. The Kaigal Education and Environment Program (KEEP) runs a centre in the picturesque Kaigal valley nestled amidst the hills of Palamner ghats in the Chittor forests of Andhra Pradesh.
• Sumitra Goutama of The School, Chennai made a presentation on student experiences of social and environmental interactions that were the outcome of their senior school trips. She spoke about the school projects and non-certificate courses at their school. It showed how students can be made sensitive to the various dimensions of the society they live in, through observation, participation and contribution. These also provide a bridge between teacher reflective learning and implementation of social studies/general studies curriculum through active learning.
• The presentation by the Haritha Association for Learning from Environment was definitely inspiring to say the least. Located in Palavencha near Khamman in Andhra Pradesh, this school has scaled great heights and delved into holistic and meaningful education. This effort by Haritha is a silent revolution in the field of education.
• The Isai Ambalam school team from Auroville gave a demonstration of how difficulties in learning subjects can be overcome with proper teaching techniques.
• Anjali Noronha from Ekalavya gave a talk on how to develop democratic concepts and practices while presenting lessons in class.
• The Kanya Kumari Kalai Koodam led by Muthu Chandran presented a hilarious leather puppet show. He also explained a few details about making leather puppets and palm leaf puppets. His immense talent and effort won the hearts of all those present.
• Aditi from Genie kids did a workshop on sex education. Children need proper guidance and awareness regarding this issue which poses an uncomfortable problem for parents due to its very nature. This initiative was an attempt to help parents and other adults dealing with children to empower them to deal with situations of abuse or awkwardness.
• The Naandi foundation made a presentation of their efforts in Chattisgarh in involving the local community in providing quality education in the rural schools there. It was an elaborate exposition of how sincere efforts in helping children outside of school hours, went a long way in improving their performance. It also showed how the participation and active involvement of the local community is essential for the success of such a program.
• The Ekalavya team had an interactive session of how classroom interactions need to be made democratic.
• Geetha Arvind of Anubhava Science Foundation shared insights on how science education can be fun, thought-provoking and creative. She also shared the difficulties in approaching schools and teachers with their rigid mind sets. However, perseverance and patience can bring about changes for the better. Simple, cost-effective ways that enable children to understand and enjoy science is what is being explored by the Anubhava Science Foundation. This presentation was an inspiration to all the lone strugglers who are trying to make a change in the existing system.
• The presentation by Valley School teachers emphasized the need to nurture sensitivity towards teaching children. Such an approach does have challenges, but a combined consistent conscious effort by the entire school and the staff ensures the nurturing of such sensitivity.
• Yardstick which specializes in making teaching aids held a hands-on workshop on enhancing learning through activities. The activities presented showed that such learning would not only be effective, but would also be a source of joy and would develop individual thinking skills.
• Anita and Reshma of the Learning Network had a session on exploring learning and knowing.
• Rennis Joseph made a presentation on the cultural alienation and learning trauma of learners of English in rural India.
• Swati Sircar did a presentation on algebra with 2-d materials.
• “A Teacher’s Journey”, a film by Deepak Verma, depicting the incredible story of an unassuming government school teacher, Mukesh, was inspiring. This film is available with Ekalavya. Schools and teachers would truly benefit from watching this film. This film proves ‘where there is a will there is a way’; however, it does not diminish the plight of government schools and students.
• Seetha Ananthasivan of Bhoomi Network gave an excellent talk on holistic learning about food and health. It was an eye opener to many and truly well received by the entire audience.

Overall the conference was one of intense sharing and learning, meeting and building contacts between the participants. The mood was friendly and informal. One could sense the genuine passion of the participants in their efforts to make education more meaningful, more holistic. The efforts, warmth, co-operation and attitude of the entire team of the Learning Network are commendable.

The author is a teacher trainer and remedial therapist. As a participant at the Learning Network Conference, she conducted a session on the importance of movement-based lessons in schools. There were both theoretical inputs on the need for movement, as well as practical interactive demonstrations of how this can be achieved with children in different grades for teaching various subjects. She can be reached at seethaanand@yahoo.com.

Organized by Child Rights and You (CRY), the Campaign for Children’s Right to Education demanded that

• Children below 6 and those between 15 and 18 also be included in the Act.
• There be a school with qualified teachers and proper facilities within one Kilometre of any habitation.
• The government spend at least 10% of India’s GDP on education.

The 1.5 km symbolic walk had prominent activists like Jean Dreze from the Right to Food Campaign, Nikhil Dey from the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan and Advocate Ashok Aggarwal from Social Jurist all who spoke out about the urgent need to amend the Act in letter and in spirit, in order for this fundamental right to be attained by all Indian children.

Later a delegation from CRY met the President Ms. Pratibha Patil in the Capital to hand over a Charter of Demands on education that was signed by 7.7 lakh people from across the country. They drew the President’s attention to the gaps that need to be filled to make sure that the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2009 reaches every child in India.

This article outlines the theme, summary and outcome of “Schools That Care”, A National Conference on the Social and Emotional Environment of our Schools, held between November 3-5, 2008 at the National Institute of Advanced Studies, IISc Campus, Bangalore.

The conference was born out of a deep concern over the practices predominant in our schools as well as a strong belief that schools need to actively nurture the “human” side of student growth and development.

In this context, The Teacher Foundation (TTF) organised the conference “Schools That Care” to create a forum for academics, researchers, government officials, school administrators and classroom practitioners to come together, share their ideas, experiences and concerns in making schools happier places of learning. By setting the platform for a movement, the conference played an important role in highlighting the need to have a national forum to discuss the social and emotional climate of our schools.

You realise the importance of social and emotional development in children every time you hear of their difficulties in understanding and managing their feelings, working co-operatively in groups, motivating themselves, demonstrating resilience in the face of setbacks, etc. There are various factors that influence the social and emotional climate of schools and the conference focused mainly on one such factor which is teacher – student/parent interaction.

The conference was made effective through speeches, video presentations, live demonstrations, brain storming sessions, and providing ample scope for participants to express their views and discuss.

A film was screened at the conference that was shot at different schools across the country which specifically focused on the quality of personal interactions in Indian schools. The film touched most participants including the teachers as it helped them look inside themselves. Instead of following the traditional method and having speakers speak about the Way We Are, the screening of the film, by the organisers, helped set the framework for participants to reflect on an important issue.

The conference helped the participants, who included representatives from government, private and alternative schools, to exchange their approach on the Way We Could Be along with certain techniques to address issues of concern. Some of them are briefly explained below.

Nali Kali and Samudaya Datta Shale are a couple of programmes initiated and implemented successfully in most schools across Karnataka by the State government to address this issue.

“Quality Circle Time” (QCT) model was demonstrated live with 30 children quite effectively. This model promotes positive behaviour, respectful relationship skills, self awareness and awareness of others, personal and social growth, etc. The session was very experiential and one felt that the QCT model would indeed be useful in our teacher training programmes.

But, how effective is QTC to address the issues raised in a school environment keeping in mind the challenge that exists to equip teachers to conduct these sessions? Is this a technique and how holistic is it to resolve the issues raised? Is this model obvious in school environments that are practicing a holistic approach to address social and emotional aspects of development?

Practitioners from various institutions like Muktangan, Digantar, Centre For Learning, Shishuvan, Pravah, Valley School, Pallikoodam, etc., who are successfully practicing the holistic approaches to address the social and emotional environment in their schools presented the philosophy and methodology of their school environment giving an opportunity for seekers to know the possible ways of achieving this in the school environment.

Social and emotional aspect of development is definitely a topic for literature, conferences, awareness camps, research, publications, etc., but the questions that emerged in the conference were, “Is this a topic for a policy as the same topic is already mentioned in the National Curriculum framework 2005?”, “Is a teacher really aware of the care he/she needs to give?”, Or “Is the system at fault?” These are questions that need one’s attention urgently.

Unfortunately, the teaching profession is perceived as easy, monotonous, and less challenging and is neglected. On the contrary, this profession is a challenging and dynamic profession that demands maximum creativity. Teachers have the scope to leave an impression on the lives of many achievers during their crucial growing years. A teacher is morally responsible for his/her behaviour, ethics, values, knowledge, information and messages as they are observed by many young absorbent minds. It is very important that we uplift the teaching profession. The training programmes that are designed and conducted for teachers should be made more experiential with a holistic approach.

Throughout the conference, sessions and discussions focused on some of the areas that need immediate attention like importance of improvement in the student – teacher relationship, maintaining the right student – teacher ratio, balancing curriculum, support system for a teacher to be a healer, teacher welfare, quality teacher training, social inclusion/ exclusion, awareness to children’s rights, parent – teacher relationship, school counsellor, need for defining the terms like care, emotional needs, etc., need for a school environment which is democratic, reformation in assessment methodologies, etc.

Let us wait for TTF to distribute the policy document which will be based on the brain storming at the conference.

The author is the founder of Anubhava Science Centre, Bangalore (www.anubhava.net). She can be reached at geetha.arvind@gmail.com.

Education in India, just like everything else, presents a mixture of contradictions. On the one hand, high-performing, resource rich schools with the best of equipment and well-paid teachers, ideal teacher-student ratios… and on the other hand, one-room schools into which are crowded first-generation learners with no furniture, few books and perhaps one teacher to handle multiple classes. Children with access to the best-inclass education resources and children who have no means of reaching a school due to a variety of circumstances ranging from class to caste to gender, to simple unavailability. To talk of equity, therefore, is to enter into a discussion that is like the proverbial pillar of fire – it has no beginning and no end, or it would seem so.

The Third National Learning Conference hosted by the Azim Premji Foundation (APF) at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS) campus in Bangalore between June 24 and 26, 2007 brought together academics, education activists, teachers, policy makers, teacher trainers and just plain folk nterested in doing their bit to make education in India a meaningful and inclusive experience. The theme of the conference, “Equitable Education for an Equitable Society” seemed to hold within it a sense of idealism – can we, indeed, create an equitable society by making education equitable? Or is it even possible to make education equitable when society at large is defined by an entrenched system of inequity? How do we understand equity? Is it about access to schooling, about access to equal treatment within classrooms? Is it about an evenness of resources or teaching talent? Do we look at it in economic, social or intellectual terms? Or all of the above? Or perhaps, to begin with, it is, as Mr Azim Premji noted in his introductory speech, about transforming the idea of universal access to education “into a reality, in every school, in every village.”

The conference sessions reflected the wide-ranging nature of the theme, and tackled it from a variety of vantage points. Mr. Champak Chatterjee, Secretary, Elementary Education and Literacy, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, began by looking back at the 2000 Dakar Conference, which articulated the desire to achieve Universal Education by 2015, and wondering how far we have come toward realising this goal. The direction of development in India has thrown up several additional challenges and has redefined marginalisation, rendering the issue of access to education, let alone quality education, extremely complex. Though the Central Government’s commitment to education in terms of budgetary and human resource allocation has steadily increased, it has not led to the resolution of “chronic diseases” in the system, with symptoms such as teacher absenteeism and dropouts. Mr Chatterjee emphasised the need to pay attention to micro issues such as hunger in the classroom, protein and other nutritional deficiencies among children and how these factors influence and inhibit learning.

Andre Beteille, Chairman, Indian Council for Social Science Research (ICSSR), New Delhi, noted that the depth of social stratification in India made it unrealistic to expect that we could develop an education system that is satisfactory and unlike the general society in which it lives. “Universal elementary education is not a sufficient condition but it is an essential condition for an equitable society,” he said, while reminding us that “school too is a social institution” and we need to understand the micro-level interactions that sustain inequity within this institution. He, like many others at the conference, exhorted those involved in setting and implementing policy to rethink the notion of community and the desirability of reproducing the values of community in education.

Aside at the NLC

Sharada Jain, Director, ‘Sandhan’, a Rajasthan-based NGO that works with marginalised communities, spoke to Teacher Plus on the kind of changes that have taken place over the years and how these have been reflected in various forums and conferences. Quoting Socrates, Dr. Jain defined justice as “an enquiry into three basic issues: What is a good human being? What kind of society do we value? And what core shared values do we value?” The Indian experience of education and its concomitant inequity is best understood in its diversity. She described diversity as India’s biggest strength and emphasised the promotion of education in a manner that makes diversity and equality converge.

Commenting on the take-home from the conference, she felt that a significant percentage of participants would definitely get excited about the issues raised while others may choose to remain cynical. The debated issues spanned minority education, socioeconomic barriers, diversity, gender and caste and universal education in the context of the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations.

In her closing remarks, Dr. Jain defined equity as justice. “Justice”, she said, “is not a tangible thing that can be measured or seen easily. And equality is a state where we feel there is a sense of justice. All the processes that counter this sense of unfairness are an attempt at equity.”

The idea of equity was interrogated further from socio-economic and legal viewpoints, with a consideration of how different actors (government, private sector, non-governmental organisations) contributed to increasing or decreasing access to education. As educationist Dr Sharada Jain from Jaipur-based Sandhan pointed out, ultimately, “education is an ethical engagement, where we intervene in children’s lives and the contexts within which they live.”

Discussions continued across the spectrum of thought related to school education, with Vimala Ramachandran of the Education Resource Unit, New Delhi, speaking about the “fluidity of deprivation” and the new types of marginalisation that need to be considered while planning to make education accessible to all. She spoke of the need to create strategies that are sensitive to context and to different types of vulnerability. She noted that equity would be difficult to achieve as long as the administrative structures remained the locus of privilege, and that capacities on the ground–be it teachers or school administrators–had not kept pace with growth.

Breakout sessions on the third day allowed more focused discussion on specific themes related to equity, ranging from art education and equity to the pedagogy of diversity to inclusive education and the controversial area of privatisation of education. Anchored by experts in these areas, these concurrent sessions attempted to bridge the distance between ideas and their expression on the ground, in classrooms, by teachers. Perhaps more questions were raised than answered at these sessions; perhaps more people left bemused than assured, but most were reassured, that they were all part of a process that could not be denied, that of reform in Indian primary education.

Outside the conference rooms, tightly packed groups continued debating the issues raised by speakers and panelists. Networks of action were reinforced, new alliances built, new ideas generated. From the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan functionary in Kutch to the District Primary Education Project worker in Tamil Nadu, thoughts had been set in motion that would perhaps take their long and winding road to ultimately reach a point that would begin or take forward the process of change in education. And, as Vijay Gupta of APF put it, “that’s the biggest take away from this conference.”