Alternate Schooling in India

Introduction

From Vedic times to modern, Indians have given great honor and respect for the arts and learning. Learning begins in the womb with cultural traditions that require music and celebration. Vidyaarambh (the beginning of learning) marks a poignant moment in a child's life. That magical moment when the child traces a letter on wheat or paddy is truly a tender beginning to a lifetime of learning. The early census conducted by the British counted a lakh of indigenous schools in Bengal (1835) and 12,498 in Madras (1882). Sadly, we are now faced with a situation of confusion and turmoil in the education of our children with a lack of schools.

In the modern context, India has come a long way from the times of Macaulay and his visions of an English education owing to the "intrinsic superiority of western literature" (Macaulay, 1835). And yet, much of India's current education parameters and criteria are determined by these very yardsticks. For instance, when I conducted The Education Leadership Workshop in several parts of India, the primary issue with most teachers was their inability to speak fluently in English! It took us about fifteen minutes to get rid of that barrier, recognizing the need for authentic communication when it comes to team building and leadership, by switching to the language that the speakers were most comfortable with.

Before we delve further into these conundrums, I would like to take a step back to distinguish the word education from literacy. Literacy, to me, is the ability to write and read a certain language while education is an abstraction of a highly developed brain where the frontal lobes play a higher function of choice and projections into the future along with mental, moral, cultural, philosophical and aesthetic considerations. These, per se, do not require high levels of literacy, but certainly get enhanced with higher levels of literacy. When I use these two words, they will reflect these particular meanings.

The word 'literacy', derived from fourteenth century Latin has litteratus or letters for its root that implies inscription. Education however is derived from the Latin root educatus that means to rear that, in turn, implies growth (Webster's, 1988). The Sanskrit term, Vidya has for its root, vid that means to learn, to discover or to understand (Sanskrit-English dictionary, 1970). In the above linguistic essay, it is clear that the "image" innate in the linguistics of an Indian brain in the context of education is a curiosity of the world that thirsts for learning. In the western context, it is a deciphering of written inscriptions that could culminate in an "educated mind".

In the pursuit of 100% literacy rates, we have squashed the natural curiosity of a child who is learning even before s/he speaks. Modern brain research clearly points to the amazing ability of the brain to learn from environmental stimuli and to create meaning in contexts. These very researches further reveal the plasticity of the neurons that continue to "connect", creating synapses of "learning" well into "old" age. Therefore to isolate education happening in the context of a physical place called school between the prescribed ages of 5-14 is highly limiting.

Alternate Schools

By the use of the adjective "alternate", we have already determined that the default idea of "school" needs a beta version. The question that comes up immediately is, "What would that look like?" Before we answer that, we need to ask how we define schools and what we believe are worth knowing and learning. The operative word in the last question being we! Does this imply a literati that is exclusive or is it a democratic one that includes the illiterate?

After the Industrial Revolution, Europe woke up and realized that all those children of farmers toiling in the fields could be put to better use in the then modern factories. Work there, demanded a new set of skills and knowledge that could not be acquired in a farm. Today, we have an electronically networked world that demands new skills of us. A new economy driven by a global workforce is rewriting the rules of survival of the human species, in terms of access to biotic and abiotic resources and their utilization. The need for a new version of a school that will equip us with suitable tools to survive this new economy is sorely felt.

The New Economy and My Place in It

According to Jeff Sachs, author of The End of Poverty, the more specialized and varied the jobs, the richer the economy. If we were to take that as a guideline to see how we can connect people with what they need to learn so that we can provide a wide spectrum of jobs, we hit a new wall - the relative value of a job based on the demand/supply rule and the "niche" that determines the monetary value of work compensation.

The US Department of Labor's statistics show a direct correlation between the lowering of unemployment rates as the level of education goes up. In India, the industrial sector certainly shows the correlation between low paying plantation jobs that pay as little as Rs. 26 per day to high paying, high skilled petroleum refinery jobs at Rs. 256 per day. A sector like aircraft manufacturing that demands higher skill levels pays on an average Rs. 191 per diem (all numbers based on 1993-2002 period). Recent developments in the IT sector have increased salaries to new highs of Rs. 1000 or more per day.

All these numbers make us wonder what kind of a work force we envision. What percentage of the population do we want to continue picking cashews and what part to design airplanes or computer chips? And what is our value in the marketplace? What skills should we possess to make us viable to become a player in the economy? Can technology and the access to it morph the way we determine our destinies?

The Earth's Perspective

Industry, by it very nature demands that directly or indirectly biotic and abiotic (natural, mineral) resources are utilized to optimize the quality of life of the human being. Or rather, that has been the way for centuries. Recent climatic changes factored with ecological destruction has brought to the fore the need for humans to recognize that we share this planet with many other living species dependent on ecosystems that are closely intertwined which has an impact on our survival as well. Availability of abiotic resources such as water is also affected greatly by this delicate balance.

Working our way backwards from our viability in the workforce to use of resources, we add yet another parameter to define our "school" - the planet we live on and our interaction with it. When we read news about farmer suicides, we need to ask whether education could have made a difference to them. Further, the infrastructural needs that include teacher demand, physical or virtual places of learning and "designer" curricula also need to be addressed.

A Possible Solution

In the years that I have taught both in India and the US, I have recognized that content is not as important as content delivery! In other words, for effective learning to happen, a bond that facilitates open communication between teacher and student makes for an atmosphere conducive for learning. An effective teacher is one who is able to engage the student in a "dialogue" that makes experiential sense to the student. Otherwise, the entire effort of teaching is wasted.

The role of teacher can be played and needs to be played by everyone in the immediate environment of the student. Parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, neighbors and other local residents become a huge pool of teachers who contribute to the development of the frontal lobes.

Let me illustrate: Spending summer vacations at our grandparents' homes were steeped in learning. Nana would give us a page of the telephone directory to add and a paragraph from the newspaper for copywriting while Nani would make us pick flowers for daily puja. She would also make us take the kitchen sink water and water the plants in the garden (vegetable rinse, rice wash). Dadi taught us to clean and chop vegetables by the baskets while Dada taught us the intricacies of whist and matters of probabilities. One aunt introduced the fine art of drawing floral patterns in the front yard while yet another taught baking without an oven! The maid taught us how to efficiently wash our socks and undergarments in one mug of water!! Later on, Nana's driver taught us to drive while the vegetable vendor taught us economics hands-on and the art of bargaining!

A curriculum that is based in economic reality makes it very pertinent to the learner. Further, the role each one plays in the respective economy makes for greater self-empowerment that directly relates to the competence shown in the workplace. There is greater professionalism manifested and qualitative work achieved.

Teaching is about learning - learning to learn with a spirit of enquiry caused by curiosity.

Alternate School Design

I believe that an alternate school is possible when we move away from the concepts of emphasizing only literacy and transition into education. Literacy is certainly a meaningful component of education but literacy sans education is a sad state of affairs. For all the increased material wealth of this century, there is greater discontentment manifest today than before. Employee retention and sky-rocketing hiring costs are impacting workplace performance. This in turn affects quality of life.

When a child is taught the value of her/his position in a family and immediate community and sees how every one impacts the other, there is true education happening.

Problem solving is yet another component to education. In rote learning models that do not morph later into rhetorical learning there is very little room for problem solving skills. An emphasis on quality and high expectations from the student makes for a paradigm shift in the way we perceive and implement education programs.

India has been the home for many educational models. From the oldest Gurukula system to monasteries, from state-funded madarsas under Islamic rule to missionary colleges, from village schools to universities, there have been several streams and philosophies that have intertwined and created a unique amalgam of school designs. Bold experiments by great thinkers such as Swami Dayanada Saraswati, Sri Aurobindo and J. Krishnamurthy have essayed new ideas in education. The apprenticeship in many trades has also been kept alive for centuries to ensure proper transfer of knowledge from one generation to another.

The people of India have survived for centuries despite hostile economic and political conditions owing to this faithful transference of knowledge. That is one great asset that we have - hopefully it is not too late. Now, it is a matter of legitimizing that knowledge source in a formal manner.

Another unique feature in the Indian context is the eco-friendly industry model that has been sidelined in recent times in the name of progress. Be it organic farming or vegetable dyes in textiles, India has a know-how that can lead the world in the right direction away from pollution and over-exploitation of natural resources. The largest concern today is the increased worry about oil dependence and increasing demand owing to China and India's thirst for oil. India can again be a leader in solar technologies.

It is estimated that India owned a quarter of the world trade before the advent of capitalistic colonizers. It is time to regain that level of economic leadership. This time, we need not do it with goods, but with intelligence. A British naval commander (I met in a flight) who is currently training US troops had worked a few decades ago in India and believed that the average intelligence of the Indian people was far superior to anything he had seen in other populations he had worked with. We can do it with a highly trained professional group of well educated people who are problem solvers, dedicated to making life on this planet holistic and happy. Let us get on with it!