yet again ... getting lost ... then enjoying self-discovery ...

Some thoughts on reading a newspaper article a couple of weeks ago -  Newspaper: The Indian Express Date: 4th October  Title: The Teacher is Walking Away Author: Krishna Kumar  At the onset I clarify that I have, over the years, read Krishna Kumar’s articles,  learnt from them, and also shared them with friends.  This particular article talks about problems in the school system today - a system that relies excessively on data and where ‘teaching and children don’t matter’. There is no denying these problems - many of which are driven by societal changes. The focus on ‘permanent teaching job’ - the first line onwards - though, left me perplexed!  Now, the questions - Let us begin with numbers -  How many people have quit ‘permanent teaching jobs’ to return to ‘state of unemployment and uncertainty’? Is the number high enough that we need to be concerned in the manner that the article suggests?  Where does this number of quitting teachers stan...

  Taking stock of books (and ourselves) When kids help in taking stock of books Text and images: Anshumalika Rai and Nimesh Ved Published at the Deccan Herald .   What happens when we go with our guts and trust children? A quick look at our school before we jump on to the details. We focus on languages , Hindi and English . The book room is a favoured place; many of the 250 children and 15 teachers can be seen reading here. Children of classes 7 and 8, the senior most children, also join us in taking care of the book room. The idea is to deepen their engagement with books . This year we got a tad ambitious. The annual stock-taking turned into a project: 1 room, 5 days, 1,500 books and 30 children of class 7. As we look back, we realize, that throughout the project it was not the children assisting us, as we had once envisaged, but the other way around - we were assisting the children. This brings smiles to our faces and reminds us of P L Travers’ , “ you should t...

Learning languages together This piece finds place in the Deccan Herald . Thanks to the team there. Thanks are due to colleagues for being together during the journey, the questions, and sharing not only confusions but also memories.  Thanks Richa for the comment on the draft.  Some time back we initiated capacity building sessions for teachers at our school. These sessions focus on English and Hindi; languages.   10 out of the 15 teachers at the school teach languages; they are the participants. Our school is located in peri-urban eastern Uttar Pradesh; these teachers converse in Bhojpuri. Today, while it is not easy to pinpoint what has worked and what has not gone right, it is not difficult either to discern the positive energy these sessions have or the learning they enable. Looking back and gleaning through the journey is fun; we have experienced more learning, more surprises than we had bargained for.   Sessions. Together the 11 of us walked the langua...

Language conundrum This piece appears in The Hindu . Thanks to the team there. Can two languages walk the road together – hold each other’s hands and grow? Can we begin with our schools? Two colleagues recently went for some workshops. The organisations they applied to sent not only the application forms but also the follow-up emails in multiple languages. The entire communication was in two languages — English and Hindi. This set me thinking. Is this the way out of the Hindi-English conundrum? We are part of a Hindi-medium school in eastern Uttar Pradesh, and like many other schools in the landscape, we are grappling with the conundrum. Over the years we have either pitched one language against the other or as an alternative to the other, and, as a corollary, have been left struggling at both. I talk about Hindi, but I would hazard a guess that the scenario is not very different with other regional languages and dialects as well. In other words, ‘Hindi’ can well be replaced with ‘regi...

  Reassembling the Assembly   This piece appears in the Teacher Plus, August 2021 here .  Thanks are due to colleagues at the school and the team at Teacher Plus.   The past few months have seen only the teachers grace our school premises. This uninterrupted time, structured or otherwise, that teachers have had as a team, has presented a basket of opportunities and raised a host of questions.   One of these questions pertains to the morning assembly. Teachers,   not unlike students, were keen to move on from the ‘regular’ assembly -   singing from a prescribed set of songs.   The morning assembly had – during recent past - raised multiple questions with students as well. After deliberations, the school put in place a fresh schedule for the day’s initial interactions. It tried to make the mornings more fun and inclusive by bringing in activities like story-telling, book-reading, sharing experiences and exercises. Students welcomed t...

Breaking the Gender Barrier: Not as tough as we assume A slightly edited version of this piece finds place in the Deccan Herald  here . Thanks are due to the team at Deccan Herald. Thanks are also due to Richa for inputs on the first draft.  Indebted to the colleagues for their support.     This discussion is based on recent experiences at a peri-urban school (up to 8 th standard and approximately 300 students) in eastern Uttar Pradesh.   Few months ago we had members from a sister unit come and enquire why the school had asked female students to practice sports at weird times. This, they added, would not go down well with the students’ families and could also lead to unpleasant situations. Teachers discussed the issue and then did what many a time works well in such situations – abstain from reacting. These members were not the only ones to offer such advice!   One of the teachers had encouraged students to practice kabaddi. These students beg...

From a teacher’s lens This piece finds place in the Hindu EDGE.  Thanks are due to the team at Hindu EDGE . Few days ago, over tea, a friend mentioned the challenges she, a teacher, faces at her school. These include provocative parents, all-knowing students, changing technology and pressure from management. ‘Provocative parents’ had me recall a discussion, at a workshop, on how parent’s interference, especially in high paying schools, is on the rise. In some cases it is they who set the school agenda. The conversation took me to the challenges at our school. While the friend works with a fee paying English medium school in a Metro I am associated with a free Hindi medium school located at the fringes of a much smaller town. Majority of our students belong to under privileged families. In the lines that follow, I share some of these challenges. Students. On the one hand in our quest for a ‘happy’ school and ‘overall development’ we devote a significant chun...

Back to the Books Thanks are due to the team at The Hindu - EDGE on 3rd December 2018. The piece on their website here . Images are from the Delhi Book fair - few years ago.  A teacher, happily away from books, is not good news either for the school management or student. “So, what do you read?” asked I. “Sorry, I do not read; I do not have the time for it,” came the answer. The tone of the teacher was alarming. One which conveyed that the person was possibly aware but surely not concerned. Having known the person for a few months I did not exactly fall off my chair but surely slumped deeper into it. Over a period of time I realised that, as teachers go today, she was more of a norm than an exception. Not having time is an euphemism for ‘ it is not one of my priorities’ for, incidentally, all of us have equal time – 24 hours each day. If teachers do not read, how will they be able to bring in freshness to their teaching? Will they be able to s...