Are we really educating India?

"After my 13 years of education I still don't know how mortgage or taxes work but at least I know about the cells inside a leaf" - this is the story of every 18 year old in the country.  The Indian education system focuses more on theoretical knowledge than any kind of practical education that will actually help most of our population to get jobs in the future. Providing hard skills or understanding of practical know how will empower a very large section of students coming from a lesser-privileged background.  The point is not to do away with what is already being taught in our classrooms, the point is how to incorporate life skills and lessons within the already set and existing structure.  It is important to nurture the young minds of India with both education and the ability to be employed.

Government and Education

If we take our private and government sectors expenditures, we are spending a 4.8% of our GDP on education (even though the target set by the government was 6% , which is still a long way to go) where can we see the effects of all this investment. The tragedy is not that there is no money. The tragedy is that we do not know what to do with the money that is available; that we do not have structures through which we can channelize it.  There is no doubt that in many areas the schools have been given better infrastructure and new technology. But the lack of maintenance and basic knowledge as to how to operate such systems is absent. This causes a lot of wastage of precious resources and capital.

In order to tackle the loopholes in the education system, the following things can be undertaken. The first points of contact for any education society are the teachers. The government has a tremendous challenge of expanding the school system and at the same time putting resources in training teachers.  Across India around 25 per cent of teachers remain absent everyday. Improving the method by which the teachers teach can be a solution to education reform in India.  It is important to motivate and support the teachers so that they become quality-conscious and feel responsible for the improving the system.  One way of doing so is by identifying and implementing no or low cost teacher led practices that have the potential to make a significant positive impact on student learning. The best part about is that there is almost no cost involved in this method as it is something that is already existing within the system.

Children learning while playing 

Another thing that can be done in order to reconstruct the education system, is adding innovative life skills sessions within framework of the classroom. It is important to provide students with a set of skills that are going to help them deal with situations that may arise in the future. This will help them battle such times aptly. Students from underprivileged backgrounds, who may drop out of schools at later stage can use this very knowledge to their advantage in some way or the other. This set of skills can range from how to tackle your debts to even carpentry. The list can be vast.

One of the most important and grass root method that can be adopted to improve this system is letting the citizens of the locality taking charge of the schooling system near them. This is what we do at CACR.

Citizens Association for Child Rights-CACR , is a network of like minded citizens concerned about ensuring child rights with specific focus on ensuring good quality of education and health for all children. The network comprises of citizens who visit neighbourhood municipal schools and clinics, and participate in various programmes like School Management Committees, Computer Literacy Programme and Virtual Classroom projects, etc. and oversee the overall functioning and quality of education in municipal schools. We at CACR believe that regular interaction and discussions with the hierarchy of the Education Department and sharing of observations and suggestions with them periodically will ensure improved accountability and proper distribution of facilities and amenities for children enrolled in these schools. Citizens Association for Child Rights very strongly believes in supplementing the system and does not believe in creating parallel systems. We believe that the urban privileged public has immense power to influence and impact the lives of affected children for the better through government interface and participation.

CACR volunteers helping students get creative 

All the above will help us change the face of the education system in India.
Irrespective of all the cons in the system I believe that education is something that takes time to build-up but we should be hopeful on that count. 

-by +Meesha Gandhi is a intern with CACR , a nonprofit startup working to improve the education and health in public schools of Mumabi,India . Edited by +Richa Singh 

Is Change really worth the Pain? ...find out

“To deal with all government departments especially BMC (Bombay Municipal Corporation) is a pain in the **s. You put in all efforts and nothing gets done”, said one of the non-profit founders I recently spoke to and truth be told it won’t be entirely wrong to say so.
     There is endless red tape and white paper you need to go through before things even start moving. Many a times I find myself irritated and depressed by the slow pace and the amount to effort needed to get even ‘little’ changes done. But then I am reminded of the fact that Transformation is a SLOW and PAINFUL process.

    We humans by nature love inertia. So why bother to change at all? And WHY change when you can keep going without anyone questioning you.…But it is this tough job that CACR has taken on…We are NOT here to CIRCUMVENT the existing system and create parallel structures but we are here to strengthen the existing one and make it more robust by initiating key changes.

              It obviously is a long, persistent, and yes at times painstaking process that involves-- countless follow ups, cajoling and at times coaxing the authority to listen to our point of view to become efficient and accountable (when they don’t have to).
   As Emily Griffin said ‘Change can be good but it’s always tough to let go of the past’ and here we are talking about transforming an age-old department that is famous for being corrupt and slow. In my personal experience over the past 3 years of dealing with the people in this very department I’ve seen that CHANGE IS Possible and perhaps the only constant thing.

       The department does listen to you if you make enough collective noise about an issue or knock on their doors so many times that they are forced to open their gates and ears for you.

 It only requires Patience and Persistence, both of which seem to be in short supply in people these days. That’s why you have over 100 NGO’s working in BMC schools mostly imparting English education by supplying their own teachers or taking over the entire school management by employing their own staff or starting their own ‘centers’ in public places and communities to teach children.

        I have nothing against these people who want to do their bit to improve the lives of underprivileged kids.

• But why do you want to employ your own teachers when the department has very well paid 12,000 teachers with Distinction and First class post-graduate diplomas? 
• Why donate to the CASH RICH system which already has an EXCESSIVE budget of Rs.2660 Crore rupees? 
• Why parade kids on footpaths and parks when you can put them in school?

As an analogy: Imagine one of your friends had a fall or an accident and broke a leg.

 Now would you get his leg plastered and put him on crutches for a while till he can walk himself
OR
Would you chop off his leg and get him a new artificial one?

    Similarly, if this government department is slow and inefficient would you try to hand-hold and help improve it for a while till it can get better OR
 Do you completely ignore it and setup your own parallel system or institution? In reality we simply DONOT choose the Bionic or artificial leg BUT we nurse the broken leg till it is recovered so the person can walk back on HIS OWN legs again without support.

         So come join hands with Citizens association for Child rights to help make the system robust till it can run efficiently on its own. Sure the process can be long and tough at times ..but the change at the end will be as lasting and rewarding, that I can  promise.

You don’t believe me? Read some of our STORIES OF CHANGE and few on Work in progress. You will catch my drift…
Hope to see you soon as a volunteer/donor/supporter. Feel free to connect & comment.

Cheers!

Richa_CACR

Facebook LinkedIn