Education

On January 17th, students of the Purvi Dilli Nagar Nigam Prathmik Vidyalaya in East Delhi, received a voice message on WhatsApp, instead of the usual worksheet or online lessons. “Namaste Bachchon… aap kaise ho?” began Vibha Singh, principal of the school. She went on to tell them that the teachers were not able to send the worksheets because they have not been paid their salaries for many months. “Because the government has not paid us salaries for many months, we are on strike,” added Vibha. “You know, don’t you, that if there is no salary it is difficult to manage…

Two hundred and six 'unrecognised' schools function in Mumbai, according to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation. Their numbers have reduced from previous years. In 2019-20, there were 230 such institutions and the year before that, there were 244. Getting Maharashtra government's Education Ministry to recognise the school means to get a certificate to function on the basis of predetermined requirements such as building safety, teacher-student ratio and curriculum specifications. In short, the government checks to see if the schools meet the basic minimum criteria required for schools to function well. Therefore, 'unrecognised' schools might put the students at risk. But lakhs…

Two significant changes in teaching and learning have marked the opening of schools in Bengaluru after a nine-month shutdown. One is the wholesale move from physical classrooms to digital classrooms. Second is the substantial reduction in syllabus, commensurate with the loss of teaching days this academic year.  Most schools had been preparing for the digital shift “by the end of last April itself,” says Gowri Mirlay-Achanta, a teacher at St. Joseph’s Boys’ High School. And they were told about the reduction in syllabus in July, she recalls. In fact, schools affiliated to the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations…

Kurla (East)'s Qureshi Nagar is defined by its assortment of big and small slaughterhouses. The neighbourhood gains its name - Kasaiwada or a settlement of butchers - from the many abattoirs. In the past few years, the government has passed some cow slaughter legislations which have affected the people of Kasaiwada immensely. Since the slaughter of bovines became political, many in the neighbourhood were forced to pick up other odd-jobs, mostly in the unorganised sector. The vagaries of life have kept the people of Kasaiwada from paying much attention to their children's education. Young boys of Kasaiwads studying English. Photo:Santoshee…

Gayatri is pursuing her Masters in Law at the University Law College in Bengaluru. After finishing her graduation, she thought that doing a masters degree would help her job prospects and career. Coming from a family of daily wage labourers, Gayatri wanted to uplift her three siblings too. Covid-19 arrived, affecting her in more ways than one. To start with, she hasn’t been able to pay her fees of Rs. 46,250. Unsure of whether to ask for funds from public donors, she shared her problem with a few student activists. Gayatri is not alone. Several students in the city --…

Around noon of December 9th, 13-year-old Sangram Singh was playing cricket with other boys at the Central Park in Kaushambi, in the National Capital Region location of Ghaziabad. A student of class 7 of the Delhi government's Ghazipur Boys' Senior Secondary School, not far from the infamous garbage-dump, Sangram does not have to stay home attending a Zoom class. His teacher sends the lessons and home work on Facebook or WhatsApp, and he attends to them at night because he shares a cheap smart phone with his elder brother, who studies in class 9 of the same school and uses…

Renee McPereira is a worried young girl. Her pre-board exams ahead of the 12th standard Central Board of Secondary Examinations (CBSE) exams should normally have been over by now. But now they are slated to begin on January 16th. The school final exams would normally have begun in March 2021. But as the countdown to an unknown date begins, Renee does not know when they will be held and counts herself lucky that she is in the Arts group and does not have to worry about practicals. Vaccine or no vaccine, “it is unlikely to be a happy new year for students, parents, teachers—all…

When one looks at the lessons learnt about learning itself during the lockdown, there is one thing that is abundantly clear – our education system was simply not equipped for it. We were so habituated to telling children 'what to think' that the demand that online teaching placed on teachers – to assist children with 'how to think' – threw the entire system off gear, leading to weeks of flux and confounding chaos. Be it familiarity with technology or the concept of heutagogy, everything was being tested out for the first time, and true to the Indian spirit of surviving…

The festive season of December brings no joy to Jenni Susan this year. A student of Class 10 in a reputed Chennai school affiliated to the state board, Jenni has attended all classes, taken notes and written tests online. But despite her best efforts, she is not prepared enough to write the Board examinations, should they be held in March as usual. Jenni's school, like many others in the city, has not completed the entire syllabus as outlined at the beginning of the year. And as the new year is about to start, panic grips the 16-year-old girl. She has…

With Unlock 5.0, Centre has allowed States to reopen schools, and so far a few States such as UP and Punjab have reopened schools partially. Karnataka government has deferred school opening till October 30, but has published detailed SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) that schools have to follow once they reopen. Globally, the experience with school reopening has been mixed. While some countries have handled the situation efficiently, some others have seen a resurgence of COVID infections afterwards. Evidently, Bengaluru schools will have to maintain strict vigil once they open. But many schools say following the government SOPs is not quite…