New Academic Year

Date: Mar 30, 2006

New Academic Year

Date: Mar 30, 2006

Dear Friends,

Continuing further to a more serious matter is the books and recess. There has to be some way of reducing the burden of carrying the books everyday. Either provide a place to keep books at school or change the methodology wherein only certain books are required each day. Some thinking I am sure can come up with a solution.

On small recess, I have heard some parents say that their kids have started to drink less water since the teacher never allows them for small recess. This is atrocious. How can we curb the very basis necessity of life? By this there are a lot of other health related complications that will arise. We should remove the stigma attached to certain biological process more so in a school where there are girl students. Some thinking and standardization should be thought of.

Lastly the most ideal situation would be to have learning a student centric activity rather than teacher centric. Teaching methodology should be evolved which can be scaled and duplicated in many schools so that learning becomes a enjoyable experience rather than a ordeal the kids can't get away with.

shanks

Date: Mar 30, 2006

Shankar Prasad wrote: Lastly the most ideal situation would be to have learning a student centric activity rather than teacher centric. Teaching methodology should be evolved which can be scaled and duplicated in many schools so that learning becomes a enjoyable experience rather than a ordeal the kids can't get away with. shanks

Would like to flog here my pet idea on Internet intervention and Teacher-student interactivity through blogging. Maybe,a volunteer corps of IT-knowledgeable persons could try and persuade school managements, and, through them, teaching community, to adopt the blogging idea. Click on 'Teacher-blogs for students'.

Date: Mar 31, 2006

Regarding school uniforms. Having lived in the United States for over 30 years and my daughter born and educated here in public schools, uniforms were never an issue. Public schools she went to did not insist on uniforms. I believe the reason for the uniforms was to get the cost of clothing our children down because if they have a choice they will go for designer clothing (I am talking about children with rich parents) costing an arm and a leg. A decent dress code that is affordable to everyone I believe will help.

B.R.Ramaprasad
Millington, USA

Date: Mar 31, 2006

I feel School uniform should continue.The basic idea of uniform was that all the students should feel that they are all at par.It shows oneness.Students who comes from the Low income group gets inferior complex seeing his friends coming from a HIG wearing designer dress. All HIG students will form one group and LIG students are left out.Even the school managment while choosing a student for a sports or for some school function choose a HIG students for the reasons know to all of us. As you know Indians are know to be brainy and workholic.It is due to the hard work done in their school & collage.I do agree that our kids are burden with heavy books and endless home work to do.So we all need to work out how to make our kids learning a pleasure.We all know that an avarage US students takes long time to complete his studies then our kids.This is due to our kids sit and work hard.Today Indian students get settled in his life much early then his western friends.So for the reasons above it is a must for our kids to wear uniform and do home work but we should find a way to make there studies pleasurable.

Date: Mar 31, 2006

I agree that maintaing a while uniform is a troublesome business. Probably, it can become an advertisemet for those soap manufacturers to indulge in competion to sell. Ideally, school uniforms shoud be of good colour and texure so that it sits elegantly and also lasts long. As regards two sets of different colours it is meant to cater basically to two seasons, summer and winter. Of course, it applies when there is considerable difference in temperature. I go beyond the question of uniform to enquire how effectively the parents take Teaher-Parent meeting which can be used to bring in a host of changes including homework, play and even questioning the method of teaching. How many parents after their ward comes back from the school enquire about how the day went and go critically about the days events? If you carefully evaluate the replies to the question quite often you will realise that the teachers have only have set answers and any original answer even if true is scored off and hence originality and initiative of the children are curbed. If you find this anomaly, the parent shoudl immediately question the teacher and take up with the school manaagement. I know of several instances when teachers become sadistic targetting few and ragging them and humiliating them while they shower special favours on their favourites. Even in the matter of setting papers and correctiing them they seem to be not accountable. The parent-teacher meeting can bring out forcefully these issues. More often the parents shy away because they feel their wards would be targetted. The other cardianl mistake the parents do is to din home the sole point of scoring marks and not learning. The emphasis should be on learnig. No doubt scoring good marks is also important but to be insistent on this is to distort their value system and finally it may end in tragedy. This is basically the counselling and wise parent shoudl be always conscious of it and should be constantly at it. Give your children lots of love but don't play carrot game to reward or deny in case of failure.In fact before the meeting the in a a group parents should share their experiences and come to a consensus to express their views fearlessly and forcefully. Of course there may be few parents who are reluctant to join as they curry favour secretly with the teahers and the management but if majority join it will yield rich dividends in the interest of children and in their future development as good citizens. Sorry for this elaboration.

H.R.Bapu Satyanarayana

Date: Mar 31, 2006

Dear readers,

I agree on the points raised with regards to the twin uniforms, inssisted upon by the Schools. It is sure very difficult to maintain the purity of whiteness in the cloth. It is really a waste of time and saps out energy of the mothers, who normally take the responsibility of the upkeep of the uniforms. Same is the case with the white shoes and the socks. The school uniform is meant to bring in a sence of oneness among the students and not to enhance the prestige of a school. It is not a bad idea to have a common coloured uniform to all, both Government and the Private schools and have a lable to identify each school the student belongs. The shoes should be dark coloured canvas shoes with appropriate cotton socks, as nylon socks are prone to allergy in most of the students in Indian conditions.

Regarding burdoning the students with books, I would like to share some of my learning in other olaces. I have seen in Metropolitan cities, some of the private schools take pride in advertising that their schools are "HOME WORK LESS SCHOOL'. The number of books that are to be purchased are no less. But the school will take care of getting the supposed home work given to the student done during the school time itself, with the aid of the teachers. This has many advantages. # 1. The students will be releived of lugging loads of books every day to school and back home, as all the books are kept in the designated place alloted to the student in the school. # 2. Takes out the burdon from the parents in getting the home work done by the students. # 3. It removes the malpractice of the parents, especially the mothers, doing the home work and asking the student to copy it. Some times the home works are done directly on the books by the parents themselves. # 4. Though it appears as small reason, it plays a very big roll in the improving the quality of life of the students. By doing away with the home work, there will be lot of spare time available to the student for the overall development, instead of becoming a book worm. The student can devout more time for other extra cirricular activities like sports, music, arts etc.

Date: Mar 31, 2006

I agree that it is cumbersome maintaining a white uniform. It is also necessary to have uniforms in schools for two reasons.

The first, as Mr. Nagakumar mentions, is to mainitain parity among the students so that there is a feeling of oneness among them. It is ofcourse a different matter that the quality of the clothes now varies with the income of the family from which the student comes from.

The second one is a matter of identification. I remember Mr. Sanath Kumar of Hardwicke School doing a round of the roads around the school and pulling in any student who was trying to bunk classes. The uniform could be spotted even at a distance.

I strongly feel that the dress material should be of Cotton and not of synthetic material. That will be very comfortable throughout the year in all seasons. But consider the lobby of the dress material manufacturers. They have a big say in what type of material is to be used. Remember the schools announcing that the uniform of their school can be got at "so - and - so".

Same with the school shoes. Canvas shoes certainly are comfortable - but require more maintainence compared to leather - are they really leather is another question- shoes.

There was a big discussion a quite a few years back about converting the school academic year being changed from the present June- March period to January-October period. Nothing came of it.

Quality of education is certainly down at the lowest we have seen. More is taught in private tutions rather than in the schools - by the same teachers. I now live in Bangalore and my owners 10 year old daughter studying in 5th Std. reads so many things in a different way from what was taught to us in our schooling days that I fear trying to correct her. Her knowledge might get cluttered. The students now seldom question the teachers on any doubts arising.

Like Mr. Bapu says, parents should take more active interest and participate in the Teacher Parents meetings. That is the only way they can understand their child's limitations and plus points. They can also understand the reason why homework is given and the other activites conducted at the school. Again - in the present day situation of working couples - do they really have the time to go to school for their child's progress??

Lot of thought still has to go in.

Madhukar - VU2MUD

Date: Apr 1, 2006

Dear Friends,

There is no doubt that uniform is a must in schools. The point is should we have 2 sets that too white. As regard to seasons that can't be the reason, since it won't change on a particular day of the week (Saturdays or Wednesday).

By and large the agreement is that we DO NEED uniform and that too a dark colored ones common for all days of the week. We DO NEED a pair of Canvas shoes WITH cotton socks.

On Parents - Teachers meetings most of the time it is about how much marks our child/children has scored. Never do they discuss about overall teaching or other co-related activities. The unfortunate thing is that the parents themselves snub us should we start talking more general issues concerning the teaching and school at large.

Most of the time as rightly said the teachers do not take criticism as a positive feedback most of the time and with most of the teachers take it as a ego issue. It is a larger question that we need to tackle at the B.Ed level to tune their thinking about criticism. Some work needs to be done in this area.

You are right Mr. Satyanarayana that many parents do not even try to get a feedback form the kids of the day’s proceedings. The reason I presume is that they themselves are not sure what to expect from the schooling.

Yes, Yes and Yes there has to be a method of evaluation and accountability of both teachers and school as a whole. Some thinking is worthwhile on this issue.

Yes some schools get their ‘Homework’ done at the school itself but does it qualify as ‘Homework’ is the question, but a worthy point to discuss and come to conclusion on teaching methodology.

I don’t think we can have the academic year from Jan to Oct. We are a tropical country and summer is severe. It is ok to have whatever we have now.

I am happy some meaningful discussion is going on here. I will try and pick points after a couple of mails and expand the so called ‘Policy Document’. Perhaps after a couple of weeks just before the school start we can have the document in place and call a meeting of the managements of schools to discuss this document in person.

Date: Apr 1, 2006

It was interesting to read the parent's point of view and the comments regarding school and education system. Many points have been raised by various people regarding uniform, home work, carrying bagful of books and so on. As a teacher, I would like to share my experience in this regard.

As pointed out by a few, uniform is a great leveler in the school. In the kind of society we live, it would be better to have uniform than not to have it. White uniform is meant for days when children participate in physical training exercises like march past, yoga etc. To the best of my knowledge, white is supposed to radiate more heat than other colors and hence preferred for all outdoor related activities performed twice a week. Some parents find it convenient to get only two sets of dresses stitched, one colored, and the other white while in reality they should have at least two sets of each. Uniform, in addition to being a great leveler, is convenient for both the child and the parents. Canvas shoes, though comfortable are not durable and often not maintained well by the students.

As regards the home work, teachers feel that once a lesson is taught or a concept is introduced, children need to follow it up with some kind of exercises. It may be a couple of sums in maths, framing an answer in English or drawing an experiment that they have observed in the class. Through home work, parents can keep in touch about the topics that their wards have learnt in the school. Besides children get an opportunity to know how well they have understood what was taught in the class on that day. As a teacher, I have found that at least 50% of the students do not do the home work. Some of them copy them from others in the class. At least 10% brazenly admit not having done the home work at all! A good chunk of the teaching time is taken up in finding out the excuses, taking children to task and noting the same in the diary to inform the parents. It is interesting to note that these very children did not take more than 10-15 minutes to answer all the questions in the class. If the teacher gets disheartened by this and stops assigning home work for a while, it is the parents who attack the teacher for not having given any home work.

Regarding the carrige of books, the government has made a very convenient syllabus by having one text book for each trimester. However, students are not alert enough to carry only the books relevant for the day as per the time table. Surprise checks made by class teachers at various points of time have revealed that the child carries an average of four extra books to the school. If the parents do not supervise the children each day, the children continue to carry this extra burden to the school every day.

Finally, if the parents are not educated enough, they can not supervise the child's activity at home and the child is promptly sent for tuition irrespective of the requirement. If they are educated but employed (both), then they do not supervise the child's activity at home since they have no time during the day and are too tired at night for performing such trivial activities!

Date: Apr 4, 2006

If you are propably interested in suggesting reforms in the system of education

and about their prescribing uniforms etc you are welcome to voice your views

in 1)parents meeting
2) publicly protesting in a like minded group etc'

the schgool working period is fixed by Govt.and not by any individual Institutions.Ofcourse fee structure from ins to instn.but i didnot pay a single paisa up to 11th std.no uniform,no shoes,But I could take B.Sc.B.E. without any of these hurdles.There were not many Schools or colleges.Now there are no of Colleges,various courses,and lot of scope for those who want to study
coming to the weather conditions,it is a good suggestion that
Govt should think of it and close down before summer starts,.Infact,In Raichur dist,even Govt.offices work in t morning onlyand they declare holidays for all Schools if Mercury goes up beyond certain tolerable limits.
Reg.Uniform the existing system is acceptable as i feel.

Bye
T.V.R.

Date: Apr 5, 2006

t v r rao wrote:

If you are propably interested in suggesting reforms in the system of education and about their prescribing uniforms etc you are welcome to voice your views in 1)parents meeting 2) publicly protesting in a like minded group etc'

Dear Sir,

That's exactly what I am doing here sir. Getting the opinion of you people and to have a peer group to influence the schools to change whatever we feel is in the interest of the children.

It is not that every schools did not had any uniform, it was there even in 30's according to my mother. It was the apathy of the power that be who never looked at it as a serious issue.

I am aware that the calender of events and class are broadly guided by the rules of the govt. but I do not feel they have a say in the starting time and closing time as long as the schools sticks to the prescribed number of hours per week. My information here is limited so I may be wrong.

shanks

Date: Apr 5, 2006

Dear Friends,

My next point of stop is what is being taught in smaller classes. Is it relevant in the present context and situation.

I feel that in LKG and UKG they should be taught local and English language to speak with correct pronunciation and pause. Meaning of simple words should also be taught. Number system from 1 to 100. Identification of simple things and objects.

Standard 1. English alphabets associating with the objects they have learned in UKG. Same with local language. Units of currency, colours and shapes, simple rhymes not just reading as a prose but with notes and octaves.

Standard 2. English and local language words and sentence formation and meanings associating with the objects they have seen in UKG. Simple greeting etiquettes. More on money. General information of the world around us including our country. Music and any one musical instruments. Concept of good and bad (what we had as Moral Science in our schools), not about religion. Personal hygiene, good eating and drinking habits with teachings about vegetables and fruits.

Standard 3. Simple addition and subtraction, multiplication from 2 to 10. Introducing a 3 language preferably Hindi. Continue music. All about human life in general, about transportation, services of life like hospital, postal, roads, police. General concept about Radio, TV, Phone. Polishing the etiquette. Reading news papers only headlines and explaining what it is. Continue with English language with next level words and sentences.

Standard 4. Continue with English, local and Hindi language. Further on music and musical instruments. Slightly complex situations in life like Bank, Housing and working. Playing games like Scrabble, Trade/Monopoly, Chess and some outdoor games. Information on health and good health and life concepts. Dress codes for various occasions and significance. About festivals and its significance. More on monies like purchasing and simple transactions. Introduction of division and higher levels in addison and subtraction, multiplication upto 20

Standard 5. Continue with English, local and Hindi language like letter writing. Further on music and musical instruments. More on world around us. Countries its capital, our country and states capitals and system of governance. Introduction to computers. General information on trade. Learning to ride bicycle with learning about tires, balancing etc. General matters and its properties and value and why (Metals, Petroleum etc.,)

Standard 6. Structured language lessons in English, Local and Hindi. Maths, Science and Environmental Science, Story writing and telling, Projects in simple science (concepts like in 'Physics for Entertainment' a Russian book). More on morels like right and wrong, rights of a citizen, introduction to taxing, Public morality, Etiquette, concept of ques and reasons, Traffic rules and traffic courtesies. Make music as optional depending on interests of the children. Psychometric test to access the liking and inclination of the child in science, language and maths.

Standard 7 onwards whatever we are teaching them.

shanks