An in-depth look at India’s experiments with education
A new book on alternative schooling in India can serve as a helpful guide for parents who are open to the idea of going beyond the conventional models of educating their kids, writes Akshay Sharma.
Author: Kalpana Pathak Publisher: Westland Price: Rs 295
The education sector in India has become as competitive as any other. Schools are promoting their brands in the same aggressive manner as private companies in any other sector. Parents badly want their children to succeed in academics and expect schools to drill scholastic excellence into them. But while the education system is producing qualified engineers and professionals in large quantities, questions are being asked about whether the pressure of studies is preventing the all-round development of the children. On top of that, there seems to be a great deficiency of ingenuity in the youth of India which may be due to the creative spirit being snuffed out of children at an early age thanks to the mechanical method of study promoted by the education system here.
As a consequence of these concerns, many parents and educationists are looking at alternative methods of edu- cation for kids. Many educational institutions have come up in the country offering a different learning experience. Kalpana Pathak, who is a Mumbai based journalist working with the Mint newspaper, has, in her concise and cogent book, Breaking the Mould, documented many of these successful experiments around the country.
The book has three different parts. The first looks at the history of education in India and how it has evolved over the centuries. The author keeps the account of history brief and only focuses on important points. This sets the stage for a look at the philosophies of alternative methods of education, both in India and abroad. The third and final part of the book contains a directory of many of the alternative schools in various states of the country.
Interestingly, both the father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi, and the author of the national anthem, Rabindranath Tagore, were dissatisfied with conventional style of teaching in schools and sought to create a new way of imparting education. There is a detailed discussion of Tagore’s Santiniketan and Gandhi’s concept of nai taleem. The running theme in the philosophies of both these men and many others who sought to develop a new educational model was the idea that education should not be restricted to teaching standard subjects and their theorems but should look to facilitate the holistic growth of the child’s personality. People like Tagore, Gandhi and Jiddu Krishnamurti saw the spiritual and moral growth of children as being equally important to the academic growth. The book quotes Gandhi, “We assess the value of education in the same manner as we assess the value of land or of shares in the stock market exchange... We hardly give any thought to the improvement of the character of the educated.”
The book takes an in-depth look at famous alternative schools in India. There is a vivid depiction of institutions like Patha Bhawan in Santiniketan, Anand Niketan in Wardha and others. One common feature of many of these schools is their proxmity to nature. This too seems to be one of the key ideas among those who have conceptualised these institutions. In many of these schools, the classes take place under the trees rather than classrooms. Another feature brought to light by the author is the relaxed and informal atmosphere in these schools. The kids are made to love their teachers and not fear them. This is seen as essential to allow children to learn in an enjoyable manner. Almost all of these schools don’t have examinations in the same way as conventional schools — it’s well known how board exams create unnecessary tension and stress among students.
However, the question of whether these schools can make children capable of succeeding in the modern world of cut-throat competition does arise. The author addresses this concern in detail and the book contains valuable interviews with two students who have studied in such schools and some parents also who chose new methods of education for their children. These examples illustrate that children of these schools are as likely to succeed as those from mainstream schools. This is heartening for any parent who worries about the effects of conventional schooling on their children and is looking at alternatives. The book has a directory at the end containing the addresses and details of many alternative schools in various states of India.
The alternative schools are of various types. There are the ones which have been set up to help underprivileged children, those which belong to religious and social organisations, and those which have been established to provide alternative education to children from more affluent backgrounds. The fee of these schools varies from Rs 25 per month to Rs 75,000 per annum.
Throughout the book, Pathak mentions the Right to Education (RTE) act and its effects on these alternative schools. Going by the book, the RTE would make things difficult for these schools, many of whom are anyway struggling for resources. Pathak says, “While the alternative schools share a common ground with the RTE Act in terms of providing education to all children, especially from underprivileged backgrounds, toeing the line for other provisions would place severe constraints on some of them.”
Another problem faced by these schools is that there is no separate recognition for them and hence, they have to affiliate to one of the education boards and make their students appear in their exams for proper certification. A demand has been made by a group of these institutions to create a separate board for alternative schools so that the process of getting recognition, both for the schools and for the students studying in them, streamlined.
The book mainly serves as a guide to parents looking for alternative methods of education for their children rather than an exhaustive study of the philosophy of education. In spite of some printing errors, the book successfully documents the various attempts in India to combine ancient principles of education with modern philosophy and and to provide a holistic learning experience.
The book contains valuable interviews with two students who have studied in such schools and some parents also who chose new methods of education for their children.