When 1 + 1 = 11

Want to gauge the power of a book? Gift it to someone for whom it is a luxury and marvel at the wondrous excitement that bubbles forth. Especially a child. We recently conducted a book drive at Billabong High International School, Santacruz on the lines of the theme of our concert - ‘Power of One’. Our students thought it would be a wonderful idea to donate books - across genres - to children who don’t have access to such a basic necessity. Inspired and celebrating the spirit of the child hero Brandon Keefe, who in 1991 had initiated a book donation drive and made it into a nationwide movement in the U.S.

The book drive in our school with the interact club brought a million smiles on the faces of 600 students and 40 teachers of Chinchale Ashramshala (3,000 books donated) a municipal village school in Dahanu, Vile Parle West Municipal School (200 books donated)and Eklavya Balwadi run by Sona Sarovar Trust.  Through our PTA members, and active student campaigning, we were able to collect  3,200 books in English/Hindi fiction, textbooks, dictionaries, color books for 5-14 years and stationery which was given to Eklavya Balwadi. Perhaps, one of the most striking moments is when the principal of the Vile Parle school, Roasrio Sir  thanked our students efforts and mentioned that the school will now have a library. It was so moving that tears welled up the eyes of our children too.  The Ashramalaya library was inaugurated last week and we are told that the children can’t seem to stop beaming about it. (any other feedback shared by principal).

As most know, municipal schools in our country are riddled with day-to-day challenges in terms of lack of teachers,  teacher absenteeism, lack of special educators, poor infrastructure etc. Can one imagine though how it would be to go to a school without books? Sadly, this is one of the starkest realities in municipal and public schools in India. In February, a media report highlighted how until the end of the last academic session, students in a Delhi Municipal school had not got any books. It was only after a petition was moved by a student of an East Delhi Municipal Corporation school in the high court that the civic authorities woke up to the grim reality.

If such apathy continues where students need to sprawl around school corridors to be accommodated and not even be provided with stationery and books, how then do we plan to improve child literacy across the country? Can the importance of books in imparting knowledge be emphasized any more in a country that they say is on threshold of becoming an economic superpower? How can anyone really buy that growth story when there are children who crave to lay their hands on a book, and worse still, not even know how to read one.

What if each private school adopted a municipal or public school nearby and donated certain essentials/resources to it? Why blame the government alone? I am proud to share that the idea of conducting a book-donation drive was recommended by our students! Surely we as educators can come together and commit to do our best to promote and establish 100%child literacy in the country. The Power of One is a marvelous thing. A single germane idea or inspired thought can influence hundreds and thousands. Towards the end of an academic year, we were humbled by the thoughtfulness of our students and the little sparks of brilliance waiting to be tapped and set free upon discovery. There is great power in One and in its Collaboration!

‘Board’ to the Point of Tears..

Ask any parent to recount the most nerve-wrecking experience of their lives.  Apart from undergoing the agony of  securing an admission for their child into a good school, arriving at a decision to choose the school board, should top the charts. Not until long ago, choices were fairly straight forward; most of the parents would just enroll their children in a nearby school, which would most often be a state-board and a fraction of people opting for CBSE (mostly in north India) and fewer still would opt for CISCE. 

Slowly, as disposable incomes rose, private schooling started gaining popularity, and with it rose the popularity of CISCE, CBSE and also international school boards - IGCSE, IB. As schools began segregating methodologies as early on as Grade 1, the pressure to opt for the ‘best’ board for the child became perhaps the most important decision a parent had to take. Mind you - trying to gauge the potential of a five-year old or predicting his/her aptitude for what he would be ten years hence should definitely come with superhuman powers. 

While the paranoia is understandable given the competitiveness that exists now and the plethora of options has ironically only compounded to the confusion, it is imperative parents realize that ultimately, choice of a board doesn’t matter much, not at Grade 1 at least, when a child is still to be encouraged to actively explore and discover his surroundings at his pace. Much has been written about the various pros and cons of every board, so I will not delve into it in this post. However, here are my thoughts that I share with parents who seek my opinion on the matter - 

1. Focus on holistic development of child. It would be best to not harbor hopes of making your preschooler a doctor or a surgeon or an engineer. The world is opening up in far more ways we can imagine. Do not try to cloud your child’s potential with your limited perspective and understanding of a field. Needless to say that learning should be holistic to be complete. Apart from academics, sports, performing arts should be given good if not equal weightage and hence there should be a variety of options until grade 4 where a child starts getting inclined to specific interests. That doesn’t mean however that one enrolls their children in hundred different classes to tap their potential. But a child must be empowered to make a choice after a certain age.   

2. Boards aren’t set in stone! Guess what? You could always change from one board to another comfortably up to say Grade 7. Post that, with a little bit of extra coaching and guidance a child should do well to adapt to the curriculum. What needs to be encouraged is the process of learning that s/he is used to. For e.g., if a child has mostly relied on rote learning, then yes, shifting to an international curriculum could definitely bring a fair share of hiccups, since it delves more on discovery, questioning and assessment. However, if the process of learning has focused on the learner then it shouldn’t be a problem. Also, one must focus on choices that are going to be sustainable and consistent and that have a proven track record in being so - and by that it doesn't mean which board produces maximum number of toppers. It means opting for a fair, balanced and consistent framework. Far too many changes at a policy level only stresses the child and leads to the confusion. It is unfortunate that our education system is still grappling with rigid frameworks and sloppy processes leading to ad-hoc changes and complete mismanagement. 

3. In the long run, the board doesn’t matter as much as tapping the child’s aptitude and also the way the curriculum is disseminated in the school for deriving success. Every board comes with its pros and cons and in a way is crafted as per various learning styles. It may get impossible to predict which board will suit your child’s aptitude. But it is a no-brainer that in this 21st century world, one must opt for a board that emphasizes on critical thinking, continuous learning, innovative assignments and self learning and discovery. This is important since in the future, the present skills and knowledge are going to be extremely redundant. The world over, holistic development and teaching of life skills is gaining predominance. Having said that, a board alone can’t manufacture geniuses or achievers. 

Choosing a board doesn’t guarantee your child will turn into a rocket scientist or an artist. History is replete of plenty of achievers attending modest public schools in obscure villages of the country, some even not having had access to good formal education and some even dropping out of prestigious institutions going on to be acknowledged as top achievers. So, relax. Breathe. And opt for what you think is the best option you can give you child. You could always change the board later on, as and when the child starts developing clear interests and aptitude. If there is a magic keyword, it is this - Love - Love for learning; if a child has developed a lifelong love for learning, that is more than half the battle won.

Cyberbullying - Curbing its tentacles

Late January this year, the Telstra Foundation announced it had provided a $400,000 social innovation grant to a youth-led movement against bullying known as Project Rockit. The project engages Australian school students between 7-9 years in learning and understanding the issues of bullying, cyber safety and leadership. Personally, I see this as an extremely encouraging development given the regular number of cyberbullying cases sprouting in schools/institutes globally. A McAfee survey in 2014 concluded that the number of school children in London being bullied on the internet has doubled in the past year, with more than one in three victims.

India is no exception. Some weeks back when I was rushed into a closed door meeting to tackle one such instance. A couple of students had made a fake Instagram account of a classmate and sent across messages to other classmates and a student from another school. The students involved and their parents were spoken to. The police officer of the area police station, investigated the matter and addressed the students and the parents in the presence of the principal, making them aware of the detrimental impact of such an involvement.

The advent of technology has not only shifted children out of playgrounds to their living rooms with their gadgets but with it, bullying too has shifted from playgrounds to the virtual world!  In fact, the ‘viral’ nature of cyberbullying makes it so much more convenient and simple to send humiliating texts, pictures, videos while still remaining anonymous. Cyberbullying occurs when children lose sight of the consequences. They fail to think that sending messages which they see as “just messing” or “joking” is actually a form of bullying, and don’t understand how it can hurt and emotionally uproot a person.

Internet anonymity empowers the perpetrators to believe they will not be known and traced as they see the internet as not a real world. As with traditional bullying, pressure from friends can be a trigger for cyberbullying too or a mere act to appear cool or have some fun at the expense of another. In more serious cases, it entails receiving threats that can seriously dent the self-esteem and emotional health of a child.

This brings us to an important question. How prepared are we as custodians of our children to tackle this? Clearly, any step needs to be tailored in congruence with an empathetic and sensitive approach for both the bully and the victim. Remember, children may not want to let you know that they are victims of bullying due to embarrassment or fearing intrusion on their personal space. Teachers and parents both must keep a vigil over any sudden behavioural change or attitudinal shifts.

At our school we are creating awareness among students about

- Their rights and responsibilities online.

- Making sure they are aware that the internet is not a ‘private’ place.

- Advocating the positive use of technology.

- Promoting good netiquette and personal safety issues.

- Inculcating a “telling” atmosphere – so that their peers will report cyberbullying, publicise different ways of reporting cyberbullying to give confidence to bystanders.

- Anti-bullying policies will be set which will be constantly updated and amended to deal with cyberbullying as it evolves.

Some of the ways parents can help tackling cyberbullying are -

1.    Choosing battles wisely: It’s best to not engage with unpleasantness or vile behaviour; it is what bullies target for. However, limits definitely need to be set for taking stern action against the perpetrator.

2.    Privacy settings – Block the bully or any unknown numbers from contacting on child’s phone. Consider logging off altogether if the app or messenger only seems to distract your child, for a couple of months.

3.    Report fake profiles/information – Report any occurrences of fake profiles and indecent pages to the website as well as the cybersecurity cell.  

4.    Trust your child – It won’t be easy for them to come out and admit something to you, so don’t judge them.

5.    Listen – This is the most undervalued skills but one that can give an idea about the state of the mind of the child either bullying or getting bullied.

 Our students are being encouraged to make friends and promote a positive and supportive atmosphere in the school which will ensure that cyberbullying or any form of bullying does not thrive.  Forbidding technology is definitely not the solution but to guide the students from making choices responsibly. What worked for us undoubtedly is the bringing together of the parent, the management and the law on the same platform to address the children together. This should be a combined body working as a unit to empower the students to make each of their voices heard. 

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A Mixed Bag - Budget 2017 for Education

Budget 2017 seems to have been a mixed bag of sorts with higher education, unsurprisingly, been given maximum impetus. School education once again seems to have been given the raw end of the deal with hardly any developments or thrusts.  The budget while crafted on the premise of good intentions  clearly seems ambiguous in terms of tackling key implementation challenges. A few observations -

1. National Testing Agency to conduct all exams higher education - To begin with positives, The National Testing Agency should definitely help in terms of reducing burden on students preparing for multitude of entrance tests. It should also enable CBSE and AICTE to focus on its core areas of improving academic milieu.
2. More autonomy to quality education institution - Autonomy to be given to ‘quality’ institutions should definitely up the quality of education and has been the need of the hour but the criteria to discern quality education through accreditation/rankings would hold the key. It will also need to be guarded closely since institutions could take advantage and commercialise courses.
3. System to measure learning outcomes in schools - There seems to be much ambiguity in terms of the implementation of it. Conducting learning assessment programs require huge resource when you consider the 2.5 crore students studying across 14 lakh schools. Whereas school assessment program has been allocated a meagre Rs. 67 lacs against Rs. 5 crore the previous year.
4. Leverage ICT with launch of Swayam which has free courses - virtual attendance taught by best faculty - Swayam which got a soft launch last year is a good initiative but will face issues due to lack of infrastructure and technology. Alos, like other massive open online courses (MOOCs), will face challenges like low completion rates. So, emphasis should be given to strengthen public education system and building up strong teacher training.
5. Setting up of AIIMS and steps to increase post graduate seats for medical seats -  The setting up of the two AIIMS as a move to get more qualified doctors is welcome though again the key challenge is to also get trained faculty as well as integrating it with a strong public healthcare infrastructure system.
6. Innovation Fund - Creation of the innovation fund is definitely needed and could help in bringing about enhanced learning outcomes in backward blocks. However, like the national testing agency, the budget doesn’t give any clue in terms of the allocation for this fund as is with the incorporation of National Testing Agency.
7. Increased allocation to IITs/IIMs - While thrust seems to have been given to IIMs and IITs and higher education in general, in terms of increased allocations, this in itself will not take care of dearth of expert faculty and also quality of students getting enrolled in such institutes. This is where the school education system needs to be strengthened from pre-primary to higher secondary! Unfortunately, school education has been left wanting of critical reforms required. No impetus placed on Teacher training programmes which is critical for the implementation of improving learning outcomes.
8. Increase of Rs. 1000 crore and Rs. 300 crore allocation to SSA and mid day meal - The midday meal scheme got a mere Rs. 300 crore increase, not enough for the millions of malnourished children in schools and to improve the quality of food being served in schools. A meagre increase of Rs. 1000 crores in Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan won’t be very helpful in ironing out the multitudes of problems the program has run into. Two deadlines have been missed due to inadequate resources. The universalisation of education from pre-primary to secondary education still seems like a distant dream to come true and in this 21st century for us to not have completed this basic milestone is not only unfortunate but shameful.

Overall, we have a long way to go in terms of improving our education system which is the backbone of any nation. We require bold moves and structural approach to really work on crucial issues troubling both school and higher education to bridge a phenomenally huge gap in the dissemination of education, inclusion, infrastructure and technology, curriculum. Remember, we will have a working population of over 860 million by 2020!  A mere 3.8% allocation of GDP to education against a 6% allocation proposed by the education commission back in 1964-66 shows the abyss we will be staring at, if we don’t make education our top priority.

Accomplishing Resolutions - Retrace, Rinse, Recycle but don’t Retreat!

Ah! the palpability of brand new beginnings. Being handed a fresh new slate and with it an array of infinite possibilities is tantalizing. Perhaps that’s the reason why the new year is considered the perfect time to make resolutions, commit ourselves to the goals that have been eluding us. Getting more disciplined spending ourselves while also letting ourselves loose to pursue our joys more uninhibitedly. And yet, how many of us actually manage to pull through the year and stick to those resolutions? Resolutions are meant to be broken for most of us!

That’s the reason I don’t believe in making resolutions for the new year. I had stopped doing so when observing my greatest teachers - my students, as young as five years! Ever observed a five-year old engrossed in play? Or a ten year old lost in thought while trying to absorb the details of the lecture that just concluded?  Or a fourteen year old come up to you and argue about what she didn’t think was right about an issue?

Children don’t need resolutions; they don’t even understand them. Each day is a fresh slate to be their unbridled self. Yes, what is important is channelising their energy in a disciplined manner. Parents often ask me how to discipline their kids - make them read more, exercise more, eat healthy, study more focusedly, value and respect relationships. I tell them what I tell my teachers, and that which gets a little difficult to digest: Children learn best by example.

A case in point is the Aamir-starrer Dangal, a real-life story of how a wrestler grooms and trains his daughters to combat their perceived weaknesses and turn it into strengths. His children initially resist the changes forced upon them as expected but themselves embrace the rigid schedule and training once the intent and commitment of the parent shines through. So, let that light shine through. It isn’t easy to contain it. It is bound to radiate and infiltrate across you. Children are the first to pick up and emulate behaviour of the ones they look upto. From toddlers to teens it is always parents and teachers before it becomes peers. So, the initial years are crucial in entrenching their character, which is formed by habits.

And we wouldn’t need resolutions if every day we would just resolve to be true to ourselves and commit to treat ourselves with highest regard and love. The habits will just then flow through and so will the will power. So, in effect that is all that needs to be demonstrated to children as well. In fact it is us who need to learn from them - to get in touch with  the inner child. Just doing that needs to be done. Still wondering how to make that resolution and stick to them on a daily basis? Here’s what I have borrowed from a 5-year old -

1. Embrace the moment - Be present in the moment. Accomplishments will be a source of joy not a task.
2. Be selfish - Fill yourself with so much love it flows through. Will and intent will follow.
3. Honesty - To thine ownself be true. Understand why something is working or not. Take baby steps.
4. Fall and Rise - You are likely to fall. Dust yourself, stand up again sporting an impish smile
5. Repeat - Something didn’t work? Retrace/Rinse/Recycle but don’t Retreat!

Finally, the ultimate responsibility is toward oneself!  The best teachers, best school or supportive family will not amount to much if the will to learn and challenge oneself constantly is absent!