Teachers can trigger reforms in education

There is a constant concern in the country about declining standards of school education. Time and again, comparisons are drawn and it is made obvious that Indian students perform far below standards set around the world. And yet, I feel that this problem is not to do with children but partly teachers and parents.

We have not learnt to accept that children are not funnels through which our unmet aspirations should be poured into the glass of their future. Today, children have lost their childhood, at different levels for different reasons.

Despite all constraints, there are teachers who are making a silent but significant difference. These teachers deserve attention. Other teachers can learn from them. Recently, Centre and some of the state governments have begun to take note of the role teachers can play in triggering imagination of children and put them on self-learning path.

We need several initiatives to underline role of teachers as triggers. A major multimedia, multi-language platform, as proposed by Society for Research and Initiatives for Sustainable Technologies and Institutions (SRISTI) needs to be created to pool outstanding examples of pedagogies, content, styles and inspirational contribution by the teachers and local communities.

Too much of criticism can sap spirit of any system. Very often, we forget that in many states, more than 90% of the education department budget is spent on salaries. There is very little that is invested in strengthening learning environment in schools. There is a need for creating open source content in different languages and media for children. This content, through 1.5 lakh post offices, can reach to 6.5 lakh villages in no time. Once the content becomes available, many children will find ways of using it even if teachers take time to get inspired.

Certain things are best done in the campaign mode. If government wants, then summer of 2012 can be a summer of content creation. Every bright technology and arts student should be encouraged to create at least one lesson in any one subject for any one class. Once these lessons are catalogued and made available through different channels, teachers might start using them and so also the children. Even if we can only focus on those children and teachers who take this initiative, we would have achieved something significant.

To build capacity, the outstanding teachers should be empowered and enabled to visit other schools and organise workshops for teachers in their school. Peer-learning is least threatening and can be most facilitative. We should also persuade senior leaders of the society, chief minister and downwards to spend sometime every month to listen to experiences of high achievers. The experiments done in some schools in Rajkot, government schools in Walia and Vallabhipur should be replicated in other educational establishment. The community involvement is very important and every outstanding role model should be requested to visit at least 5-10 primary and secondary schools every year.
The role of music, art and culture in shaping sensibilities is well recognised; and yet, we have far fewer teachers in these subjects than perhaps any other country. Every school should not only have a microscope, video display and computers but also a library. A government, which can spend Rs90,000 crore on various leaking rural development programmes, can easily generate resources for education by plugging a few leaks or withdrawing resources from the developed districts. We also need active involvement of college students in invigorating school education. Every institution of higher learning should take responsibility of at least five primary and secondary schools.

The challenge is not to find new solutions but to make the existing ones replicate, redesign and appraise under different conditions.

The author is a professor at IIMA