The
differentiating factor between capitalism and crony capitalism is always the
presence of a robust public education system. In India, unfortunately,
successive Governments have failed to improve the quality of education in
Government schools – perpetuating the inequality of opportunity that pervades
this country.
To
be fair to our politicians, however, we must also concede that education at the
school level is unimaginably difficult to transform – what happens in each
classroom on a daily basis must change and it is impossible to stem a rot so
deep without roping an army of ground-level officials to facilitate the
process.
What
the Delhi Government has done through the Mentor Teacher Program is precisely
this – set aside, after careful screening, an army of 400 experienced Mentor
Teachers to help transform Delhi’s schooling.
As
a volunteer with the Government, I was able to document a 15-day workshop where
groups of Mentor Teachers were sent to different schools across Delhi and made
to teach there. I will begin by acknowledging that the Education Department has
done commendably in selecting the Mentor Teachers. I can confidently state that
the Mentor Teachers were putting a far greater effort to facilitate learning –
conducting activities, facilitating class participation, encouraging academically
weak students to involve themselves in class, making effective use of the
blackboard and so on.
One
teacher encouraged the students to put up skits based on the chapters in their
textbook, one taught them how to build a miniature windvane, some held quizzes
and some role-plays. They actually took learning beyond the dreary world of
textbooks and the impact it has had on the student’s willingness to learn is
the real take away from this exercise.
The
feedback on the impact the Program has had on regular schoolteachers however,
is mixed. The Mentor Teachers had urged schoolteachers to begin teaching basic
Mathematics and Hindi to students in the substitution periods – this has been
done in certain schools (I personally witnessed an art teacher teach students
addition in her free period). Some teachers observed the classes of the Mentor
Teachers and began to emulate their teaching strategies. One teacher also
remarked that since the Mentor Teachers were observing their classes, he had
been forced to begin attending class on time (for the first time in his career)!
I
will, however, concede that there were difficulties faced – a majority of the
schoolteachers, seem to have misunderstood the Pragati curriculum introduced to
complement the program. Instead of imparting the students the skill to solve
the exercises in the textbook, they solved them on the board and made the
students copy it down. We also faced resistance from the Principals who were
unwilling to allow ‘outsiders’ to take such an active part in school affairs.
Training sessions are being conducted with both to rectify these problems.
What
this Program has also achieved is to recognize the teachers who have delivered
over the years. One teacher I met, who went to Columbia University for a
teaching program, had never been recognized by her Principal, until the Government
did the same.
One
final anecdote that I feel compelled to share before concluding - it is a tale
of a teacher who tasked the students with imagining themselves to be Health
Ministers and drafting an action plan to solve the public health situation in
India. The result was frightening - the overwhelming majority agreed that the
best solution was to nationalize private hospitals and end the disparity between
healthcare facilities accessible to the rich and to the poor. It set off the
warning bells in my mind – if eighth graders are so beginning to think along
these lines, it is indicative of some deep-rooted angst in society.
I
leave you now with a compilation of the results of the baseline and endline
test conducted before and after the 15-day workshop. I think we have some
reason to celebrate.
Hindi
|
Mathematics
|
|||||||||
Beginner
|
Letter
|
Words
|
Paragraphs
|
Story
|
Beginner
|
Number
Recognition (1-9)
|
Number
Recognition (10-99)
|
Subtraction
|
Division
|
|
Baseline
Test
|
94
|
141
|
172
|
386
|
585
|
29
|
115
|
447
|
419
|
374
|
Endline
Test
|
38
|
116
|
122
|
290
|
949
|
11
|
57
|
277
|
485
|
678
|
Swing
|
-56
|
-25
|
-50
|
-96
|
+364
|
-18
|
-58
|
-170
|
+66
|
+304
|