On Monday 04 Oct 2010 9:34:33 am Deepa Mohan wrote:
> Recently, I have become involved in "volunteer birding"...volunteers go on
> birdwatching trip with schoolchildren, to introduce them to the natural
> world all around them (I don't concentrate only on the birds!)...and I have
> found that several schools for the alleged "underprivileged" children,
> provide so many facilities for them that I don't want to tag the children
> with the "underprivileged" appellation at all! I was so impressed with the
> children, and the teachers, of Parikrama Foundation, and Ananya in
> Bellandur.
>
By the time a child reaches std 8 in India about 60 to 90% of parents of
children in that class are usually demanding that the school ensures "good
performance" in maths and science so that the child can become a doctor or
engineer.(in IIT of course) The humanities get forgotten, and sports
gradually takes a back seat.
By 9th standard about half a typical school class is alrady attending "extra
classes" between 6 and 8 AM and later 6 and 9 PM so that the child can perform
well in the IIT, AIEEE or medical entrance exams. The remaining children -
whose parents imagine that that their child should have a "normal" life do not
do this. Most children muddle through till the 10th std. After 10 of course
are 11th and 12. That is when all pretence of education for anything other
than engineering or medicine are given up. Since half the class are already
attending extra coaching the teacher can skim through complex trigonometry and
calculus and the parents who do not send their child for extra classes might
find that their child is unable to cope. It is another matter that the children
who are attendng classes from 6 AM to 8 PM every day are also going insane
separately. Everyone is trying to reach for the insane goal of knowing what
frist eyar engineering and medicine students know - becasue that is what
"entrance exams" demand. if the school can't offer this - the school loses out
and does not attract kids.
I will try and draw a grahical representation of my thoughts on this, (I hope
it works)
There are two lines of dashes below and a line of asterisks below that. Both
lines are limited by < and >. The line of dashes on the left represents school
knowlegde up to std 12 and the one to its right is college knowledge imparted
in he first year. One is supposed to take over where the other left off (in
theory). In practice te school is forced to attempt to teach the child the
knowldge encompassd by the line of asterisks because college entrance exams in
India go far beyond school knowledge. Stupid but true.
<--------12th std--------><------1st year med/engg------------->
<********entrance exam requirement********>
What happens is that schools do not stop at coaching for the 12th std
curriculum. They force children to "move ahead" and learn the 1st year college
requrements because entrance exams demand that. Unless school children do well
in the entrance exams the schools cannot advertise themselves as "successful"
So it is a complex mesh of parental aspiration, reputation of profession and
college, reputation of school, actual content of school curriculum as
determined by the exam board (like ICSC, CBSE or SSLC) and the entrance exam
requirements that all interact together to drive our children to suicide.
Anyone who thinks his child might get away may be in for a rude shock. I say
this as a warning.
shiv
