Bridging the divide; the gap between education policies and ground reality is widening - teachers, who are the foot soldiers in the system
At a time when the gap between education policies and ground reality is widening, teachers, who are the foot soldiers in the system, can provide valuable insights.
If there is one system that elicits opinions
from all quarters, it is the education system. Strong reactions from those who
are concerned include lack of a clear guiding vision, increase in the
administrative duties of teachers, a teaching methodology that is solely geared
towards exam preparation, and an increasing pressure on students to comply with
the mould of uniformity, devaluing their own individual potential.
To teachers, these observations are even more
relevant as they are part of this system that continuously propagates these
weak areas. One concern is that policymakers formulate changes without being
aware of the ground realities of the systems they are trying to modify. One can
find that the changes that look positive in theory do not trickle to the domain
of the classroom as they are far removed from the most important aspect of the
system — the student.
The question then arises: What would it feel
like to be in the shoes of the students we teach?
An experiment
As the school and the role I played offered
flexibility, I decided to don the “uniform” of a Class V student for a day. It
was one of the most interesting experiences in my years of teaching. After the
initial curiosity of the class about their new classmate, everyone settled into
the timetable.
The day seemed to unfold into an endless
stream of classes, copying notes, listening to teachers and sharing lunch with
friends. The hectic pace at which each period moved from one to another offered
no space for any reflection. We zoomed from solving addition problems to
memorising the planets; hardly any teacher provided a transition break. Almost
all the behaviour problems stemmed from sheer boredom and fatigue. I confess,
there were times when I found students' conversations about their favourite superheroes
a pleasant distraction from the monotonous methodology!
However, within this structure, I did find
teachers who brought a renewed sense of joy into their classrooms. The civics
teacher brought an infectious sense of passion; a testimony to her own interest
in the subject. This reflected in the way she conducted her class. She was
well-organised and began the class with a ten-minute discussion on laws that
students would formulate if they ran the government. The next twenty minutes
were spent on copying the existing laws and the last fifteen minutes on
dividing the students into groups and asking them to present their own laws
(from the verbal discussion), on chart papers, for a presentation in the next
class.
In this class, students hardly exhibited any
behavioural issues and mirrored the teacher’s enthusiasm.
Listening to the teacher
It was delightful to have a conversation with
the civics teacher after the class. She felt that there was ample opportunity
for a teacher to bring her own creativity into the classroom. She had really
interesting ideas on how to implement changes and felt that the lack of
attention to teaching methodology and content (the infamous “portions”) gave
rise to a herd mentality, where one functioned without much thought. What was
inspiring was that she did not resist or fight against the system she was part
of, but, at the same time, did not allow herself to be swamped by it and give
in to helplessness or anger. She took ownership of the one area she was in
control of — the classroom.
The growing alienation between classroom and
policy can perhaps be addressed by listening to the most valuable foot soldiers
in the system — the teachers. Their insights into ground realities, gained
within the microcosm of their classrooms, can bring about positive changes at
the macro level of policy formulation and implementation. Beyond all this, this
small experiment revealed the hidden gift of being a teacher. A bright-eyed
young girl in the classroom, when asked who her role model was, responded
without a moment’s hesitation, “Civics ma’am.”
As a teacher, one can never predict the power
of influence and the invisible gifts that go beyond bureaucracy and cumbersome
policies.
Regards
Pralhad
Jadhav
Senior Manager @
Knowledge Repository
Khaitan
& Co
Upcoming Lecture | ACTREC - BOSLA Annual lecture series (125th birth anniversary of father of library
science, Padmashree Dr. S. R. Ranganathan) on Saturday, 12th August 2017 at Advanced Centre for Treatment,
Research and Education in Cancer (ACTREC), Kharghar, Navi Mumbai. (Theme | 'MakerSpace')
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