Alternative Curriculum Schools
The first half of the day is devoted
to studies and the rest to skill
training in carpentry, pottery, masonry, permaculture, herbal
medicines,
book binding and tailoring. It must also be one of the few places
training
children in Bhagotam, a local folk art form. Only children above nine
years
are admitted, many dropouts from government schools. There are no fees
to be paid in this school, run by the Deccan Development Society (DDS),
a non-government organisation working in this area (to conserve
traditional
crops and agro-bio-diversity), for the last 15 years. Before 1998, most
children had never been to any school, according to the school
administrator,
Bhimsen Murthy. Even now, only 10 per cent may have attended school
earlier.
Many worked as labourers or helped their parents with housework,
grazing
or farming. So far, 63 students have appeared for their SSC
examinations
and over 40 have passed either in the first or the second attempt. A
children's
committee is involved in decision-making and every day, the general
assembly
is devoted to various subjects. The student's skills and knowledge are
analysed during the admission test and, till the fourth level, no
government
textbooks are used. The teachers prepare the curriculum themselves and
the children are taught formal subjects like the languages,
mathematics,
science and the social sciences from the fourth level only.- Education for a lifetime, MEENA MENON., Hindu,
13/01/2002,
/eldoc/n30_/education_for_lifetime.html
Centre for Learning
Everybody knows that the system of education in India is archaic,
unimaginative, inadequate and corrupt. Not so well-known are the many
exciting experiments in non-formal education that are springing up in
little pockets away from the mainstream. In the first of a collection
of articles on the subject, the author discusses the fundamentals of
JKrishnamurt's concept of education and their application at the Centre
For Learning R eligious teachers through the ages have questioned
commonly held assumptions about the nature of the relationship between
knowledge and the mind. They have suggested, in vari-ous ways, that
mistaken notions about this relationship are at the very heart of Kabir
Jaithirtha human conflict at a personal or societal level. Amongst
others, J Krishnamurti ex-plored and talked about this relationship for
over 60 years till his death in 1986. He also pointed out the relevance
of such questions to education, and indeed was directly responsible for
starting several schools in India and abroad. He sug-gested, and I
summarise, The undoing of knowledge is the fundamental revo-lution.
Most of us approach life with knowledge — what we have learned, been
taught or gathered in the incidents There's a method in this anarchy
Geetha Rao visits Poorna, a Bangalore-based non-formal school which
refuses to have a set syllabus and uses textbooks as little as possible
Five years ago, Indira Jaisimha finally decided to take her three
children out of regular schools and teach them herself at home.
At that time, her older daughter Sumathi, now 15, had said, "You've
always talked about your own school. If you want to do something about
it, do it now." Indira and her children were fed up not so much with
the school they were at, as with the whole system of edu-cation.
"Learning has become synonymous with passing examinations. Every
strategy is geared to the marking sys-tem. The formal education system
does not necessarily increase children's knowledge, at least not real
knowledge. It emphasises a narrow set of skills. There is very little
room for creativity, or for developing moral, spiritual, ethi-cal or
aesthetic values. Generally, there are only token classes for art. And
exams form the focal point of the ex-ercise/ ' Thus was born Poorna, or
completeness. "We do not say that our school is ideal. But we try to
make learning holistic. We depend as little as possible on textbooks/'
says Indira."We base out lessons on topic webs. We select a topic and
work on it for a month. It could be water, or soil...
We look at it from different an-gles: they swim in a pool, we discuss
condensation, mo-lecular structure, pollution of water bodies; children
write stories and poems, they enact plays on the subject. We try to
connect the topic through as many dimensions as pos-sible, and through
various avenues of expression." Just one topic web involves subjects
such as language, chem-istry, environment and dramatics. "Moreover, if
the class is interested in a particular as-pect of the topic, we go
along. Learning is easier then." There are four teachers at Poorna.
While there is no par-ticular syllabus, Indira clarifies, "we are not
anarchists. We do not follow the prescribed state or ICSE or CBSE
syllabus. Poorna draws its own syllabus for each year while being aware
of the syllabus that other streams follow. At the end of the year, we
discuss the syllabus with the chil-dren for their feedback. "At this
time there is also a self-assessment based on observation, but no
grading and mark-ing and slotting. Children answer quizzes, and do
dictation.
"We don't mark them, but they can see where they stand. They do possess
an inherent competitive spirit. But we don't make a big issue of it."
"Moral issues are dealt with, but not in the usual fash-ion. Conflicts
are discussed at the assembly in a group setting. We do not punish — we
would rather the discus-sion came from within them. It we punish, they
will react with aggression — which will not solve the problem,
Con-troversy is not suppressed, but talked about. If a child
mis-behaves, the other children ask him to go out of class. work off
his energy, cool off and then be free to walk into and accidents of
life. This knowl-edge becomes our conditioning, shapes our thoughts and
makes us conform to the pattern of what has been. Only the mind that is
un-doing what it has gathered is ca-pable of understanding. But for
most of us, knowledge becomes the centre from which we judge, evaluate,
accept or reject.
Can the mind free itself of knowledge? Can that self which is
essentially knowledge be dissolved so that the mind is really humble,
inno-cent and therefore capable of per-ceiving truth?' This is perhaps
the most urgent chal-lenge facing us — to understand, not the details
of a particular influence and how it comes about, but the very essence
of all influence and what it is to be free of it.
The relationship between mind and knowledge then undergoes a
transforma-tion. Knowledge, then, isn't the frame-work through the
limits of which the mind functions and therefore divides. It is merely
an instrument unable to impose There is no place for competition and
comparison here itself as a screen between the mind and reality. The
transformation of the mind is usu-ally considered the domain of
religion and tradition.
Unfortunately, religious tradition rarely, if ever, approaches this
question in a spirit of enquiry free of dogma. Instead, it seeks to
impose a set of beliefs and patterns peculiar to that tradition and
raises that to the status of unquestionable, absolute truth. Hence,
perhaps, the deep-rooted divi-sions that arise in the name of
re-ligion. As a reaction to the dogmatism of religious tradition,
science sees itself as a movement of free en-quiry. This is, to an
extent, true. Science seeks to construct mod-els through which we can
explain, predict and control the world around us. But science's
capac-ity to explain seems to come at a price — an increasing sense of
alienation and a feeling that the whole movement of life is ex-plained
(away) and is emptied of meaning. I would like to suggest that
religious tradition and science have one thing in common: both seek to
create models with the help of which we hope to relate to reality and
make sense of it. The mod-els of the former are felt to be immuta-ble
and sacred, while the latter is pre-pared to be more humble, though
less so now than in the past. But it may nei-ther be possible nor
necessary to relate class."
There are 23 children now at Poorna, and some of the teachers happen to
be parents of the students. Poorna has three large classrooms and a lot
of unused area, leased out to it on rent. There are no regular classes,
but children are grouped according to age between 5 and 7 years, 7 and
9 years, 9 and 11 years, 11 and 13 years, and 13 and 15 years. Each
group is given a name: Ashwini, Rohini, Kritika, Mrijashira, Vishaka.
This is to avoid the concept of hierarchy. (In-between age groups will
be added on as and when required). There is vertical integration for
art, theatre, puppetry and clay work. The day begins with an assembly,
where a child lights a candle. This is done in rotation every day so
that each child gets a turn. The children say their prayers: it could
be a shloka, a hymn or a rhyme. "The concept of god is neither denied
nor vehemently asserted." Children do yoga every day. Academic subjects
are taught upto 1 o'clock in the af-ternoon. After lunch, it is time
for art, craft, puppetry, clay work, lab classes and gardening.
"Seasonal festivals of various faiths are celebrated to help children
stay in tune with the rhythms of nature.
The mythological or historical significance of the festival is
explained with the help of stories or drama. Children often prepare
special foods or sweets associated with a festival as part of their
celebra-tions." Children are taken on visits to Bandipura, Bisle Ghat
and other places. They have even lived with tribals in Orissa and made
leather puppets at the Khadi Rehabilitation Cen-tre at Dharwad. As
regards joining the mainstream, Indira says, "At around 15, or whenever
they are ready for it, students can take the National Open School (NOS)
secondary level examination, conducted by the Ministry of Human
Re-source Development, New Delhi. Students can sit for the exam after
registration with the NOS at the Bangalore centre at Mathikere. This
exam is recognised as equiva-lent to the tenth standard examination by
various state boards of education, IITs and other institutions. Thus,
af-ter passing this exam, they can join a local college for PUC, or
take the NOS Senior Secondary exam (12th std.) or take the British A
level exam privately in case they wish to study abroad." Thus, students
from this school fit into the mainstream of education eventually. But
do they Fit in socially? They are aware that they go to a different
kind of school They know that no children will play with them in the
month of March, as the others are busy with exams. Other kids tell them
how lucky they are not to have exams or uniforms. These days, students
themselves ask for more quizzes and homework. When asked about the
school's future plans, Indira says she is thinking of working with the
underprivileged, per-haps children of construction workers nearby. Her
daugh-ter Sumathi plans to take a year off after her NOS exam, to start
teaching the labourers' children. Indira is content that the school is
steadily working to-wards developing young children into complete human
beings. She is not "in the game of making failures of chil-dren, which
is what the formal system of education does. Schools generally take in
the top layer based on merit, that's probably just 1 per cent. What
about the rest who do not make it? They are branded failures. Everybody
is valu-able — whether a gardener or an artist." But even as more
schools like Poorna crop up across the country, they will remain more
the exception than the rule for another few decades at least.
Through models. Indeed, mod-els may come in the way of re-lating,
whether to people or to the world around us. They project a framework
which it-self becomes the barrier to a re-lationship. This is not to
deny the functional value of models in technology and in science. It
becomes important, there-fore, not only to communicate models and the
art of model-making, but also to help per-ceive completely and directly
the intrinsic limitation, arbi-trariness, and indeed the enor-mous
danger of models in the field of relationships. The most endur-ing
model which holds the brain in its grip is the sense of self. In
seeking to escape the loneliness and incomplete-ness imposed by this
model, we create the complications that haunt our lives and harm all
that we touch.
Mankind has tried to wrestle with the conflict inherent in the sense of
self with its demands and desires through subjugation, discipline,
control and es-cape. There is a fundamental contradic-tion involved in
this exercise. The self, which seeks to deny, to control, and to
Projects, experiments, lab work and field trips: at Centre for Learning
the attempt is to keep things as concrete as possible subdue, is not
different from the self that is to be subdued. So control is an
end-less exercise in boxing with one's shadow. The very discipline
imposes another pattern on the earlier one. Pat-tern, goal and
achievement is the stuff from which the self is constructed and in
which it finds continuity. What then is the right action? Krishnamurti
has pointed out that choiceless awareness is free of the con-tradiction
involved in conflict. Is it pos-sible for the brain to be choicelessly
aware of the endless movement of patterns, reactions, and
condition-ing, of belief, hope and desire, so that in the very
awareness the brain begins to free itself of the limitations imposed by
knowledge? Choiceless be-cause any control, discrimina-tion or
suppression is the mechanism of the self in action again. Choiceless
also because in being so the division be-tween the controller and that
which is controlled is cut at the very root.
This movement of choiceless awareness is also a movement of learning,
qualitatively differ-ent from what we normally understand by that word.
In this learning there is no accumulation of knowledge and skills to be
then used in action. It is not a tech-nique to be mastered, for that
creates another pattern within the boundaries of which the brain seeks
to function. There is no goal or achievement, only the awareness in
which the reaction of memory is seen and dropped. This is in-deed
learning, because the mind is con-stantly freeing itself of patterns
and prejudices and is therefore never static.
It would seem that to come upon this Admission fee: one sapling
Vikasana is a gurukul of sorts, where students learn not just reading
and writing but carpentry, tailoring, gardening, cooking, weaving and
pottery. Geetha Rao reports If Poorna is oriented to urban, middle
class children, Vikasana, at the otherend of Bangalore city, is a
school for the under-privileged. Situated at Doddakallasandra, it is
off Kanakapura Road, The only way to get there is to follow your nose,
and the sound of chattering children. Malathi started Vikasana 20 years
ago, after she was inspired by David Horsburgh's methods of teaching at
Neelbagh school in Rayalpadu, Karnataka. His emphasis was on a small
school with not more than 20 children. an environment where a child can
observe and learn at his own pace, in a free and flexible atmosphere,
without any pressure, He/she is encouraged to solve problems on his
own, to be himself, and not to cater to a teacher's expecta-tions.
Malathi places all her cards on the table before the child joins.
"I inform the parents that we do not give a certifi-cate at the end of
schooling." However, students who wish to sit for the Std 7 or SSLC
examinations are trained for them. Thus, those who wish to fit into the
mainstream can do so. There is counselling for those who wish to pursue
careers. Another unusual aspect of this school is that children do not
pay any donations or fees in cash. They do it in kind: the admission
fee is a plant — so each admitted child brings a sapling, plants it,
and nurtures it. The monthly fee is attendance. The children must come
to school regu-Which they do. Because they like it so much, Most of
them are children of local rural landless farmers; some movement of
learning is central to any educational endeavour and describes the
function of a school in the most signifi-cant way. It would have an
impact on every aspect of education: the way we look at learning, the
way we teach, our understanding of creativity, order, disci-pline and
morality. The relationship be-tween individual and individual, and
be-tween individual and society would un-dergo a profound
transformation. Unfor-tunately, this is not so in practice. Educators
seem to be wholly preoccupied with the transmission of knowledge. The
increasingly utilitarian view of educa-tion, to gain skills for a
career, is not a surprising result. What then is the environment in
which such learning can be nurtured? I will describe one attempt to
create such an environment. Centre for Learning is a small school
outside Bangalore.
It was started in 1990 by a group of people in-terested in the
educational philosophy of J Krishnamurti. Central to CFL's educa-tional
philosophy is the concern with the awakening of an awareness which lies
beyond knowledge. There has been an attempt to bring this concern into
every aspect of the school. I will outline some of these features: The
school is small. Keeping the num-bers small takes away the need for
stand-ardised approaches in the imparting of skills. The teacher has a
much better opportunity to understand the needs and difficulties of
each student; his talents, capacities and interests, his particular
ways of learning. The teacher also has a much better chance of
responding to them. The small numbers also enable teachers and parents
to engage in an on-going dialogue about education, bring-ing up
children and life in general. There is a sense of moving together. This
par-ticipation by parents is a very important source of strength for a
school which is attempting something new.
There are two other important reasons for keeping the school small. The
teacher body is small enough to allow for a fully participatory style
of func-tioning in the administration of the school. There is no
hierarchy. All major decisions are taken by the entire body of
teachers. There is a sense of shared responsibility which is necessary
to cre-ate the right atmosphere for exploring something new. Finally,
and perhaps most importantly, in the classroom it-self, when the
teacher is interacting with a group as small as eight or ten children,
there is the possibility of an atmosphere of shared attention, a
contact which lies beyond the task at hand. This attention is the very
essence of learning and dis-cipline: it has nothing whatsoever to do
with acquiring a skill. Key to creating the right environment is the
relationship between the teacher and the student. It cannot be based on
authority and fear because these are the very instruments of conformity
and pat-tern. There has to be affection and trust in which the student
feels cared for.
Once again the size of the school becomes important. Not only do the
teachers and students know each other well, but their relationship
extends beyond the school. There is a spirit of shared enquiry and
dialogue. Children are encouraged to raise questions and examine issues
with-out bias. In such an environment, major problems of order and
discipline rarely crop up. Competition and comparison do not play a
role in this educational pro-gramme. There are no examinations. Because
of the close contact, the teacher has an understanding of the student's
difficulties and abilities. Difficulties are resolved either in the
course of teaching the subject itself or through specially Vikasana,
where tending the vegetable patch is as important as learning languages
have opted out of looking after cattle to learn to read and write.
Talking about a day at Vikasana, Malathi says, "The centre starts its
activities at 8.30 a m. All the children are entrusted with duties like
caring for trees, cleaning the rooms and surroundings, providing
drinking water. Then, the children assemble to sing songs in Kannada,
English, Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Bengali, French, German and Ital-ian.
This is followed by yogasanas specially designed for children." Lessons
in academic subjects follow.
Everyone accepts cooking responsibilities for lunch. Lunch is free.
After-noon classes include pottery, carpentry, weaving, paper-folding,
painting and gardening. Making handicrafts is integrated into the daily
process. Two children at a time look after the vegetable patch. They
adopt trees and look after them. Alongside, they make their own desks
and chairs; build their own rooms; make their own clothes. Malathi
continues, "Children learn to read, write and speak three languages.
The highest priority is given to the student-teacher relationship."
Some students have now returned to the school as teachers, Malathi
seems to have achieved the school's aims and objectives: free, quality
education to the rural poor, with an emphasis on self-learning, helping
students to choose careers after their education, being a resource
centre for non-formal education, imparting awareness on tree plant-ing
and the need to maintain ecological balance, educa-tion for peace and
not for competition. Some children have had training at the Aurobindo
Ashram, Delhi, Akruti, and Mritchakatika (a centre for pottery) in
Bangalore, "thus underscoring the fact that one does not need to depend
on certificates to choose careers." Funds are a major problem at
Vikasana.
Catering to about 20-odd children, and providing them free lunch, books
and other material, can be a juggler's act. Though the school receives
some money from the Neelbagh Trust and other bodies, the funds are not
sufficient. Vikasana needs funds and donations from philanthropists and
institutions. That would go a long way in ensuring that the school
continues to grow. Geetha Rao is a Bangalore - based journalist.
Movement of learning is central to any educational endeavour and
describes the function of a school in the most signifi-cant way. It
would have an impact on every aspect of education: the way we look at
learning, the way we teach, our understanding of creativity, order,
disci-pline and morality. The relationship be-tween individual and
individual, and be-tween individual and society would un-dergo a
profound transformation. Unfor-tunately, this is not so in practice.
Edu-cators seem to be wholly preoccupied with the transmission of
knowledge. The increasingly utilitarian view of educa-tion, to gain
skills for a career, is not a surprising result.
What then is the environment in which such learning can be nurtured? I
will describe one attempt to create such an environment. Centre for
Learning is a small school outside Bangalore. It was started in 1990 by
a group of people in-terested in the educational philosophy of J
Krishnamurti. Central to CFL's educa-tional philosophy is the concern
with the awakening of an awareness which lies beyond knowledge. There
has been an attempt to bring this concern into every aspect of the
school. I will outline some of these features: The school is small.
Keeping the num-bers small takes away the need for stand-ardised
approaches in the imparting of skills. The teacher has a much better
opportunity to understand the needs and difficulties of each student;
his talents, capacities and interests, his particular ways of learning.
The teacher also has a much better chance of responding to them. The
small numbers also enable teachers and parents to engage in an on-going
dialogue about education, bring-ing up children and life in general.
There is a sense of moving together. This par-ticipation by parents is
a very important source of strength for a school which is attempting
something new. There are two other important reasons for keeping the
school small. The teacher body is small enough to allow for a fully
participatory style of func-tioning in the administration of the
school. There is no hierarchy. All major decisions are taken by the
entire body of teachers. There is a sense of shared responsibility
which is necessary to cre-ate the right atmosphere for exploring
something new. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, in the classroom
it-self, when the teacher is interacting with a group as small as eight
or ten children, there is the possibility of an atmosphere of shared
attention, a contact which lies beyond the task at hand. This attention
is the very essence of learning and dis-cipline: it has nothing
whatsoever to do with acquiring a skill. Key to creating the right
environment is the relationship between the teacher and the student. It
cannot be based on authority and fear because these are the very
instruments of conformity and pat-tern. There has to be affection and
trust in which the student feels cared for.
Once again the size of the school becomes important. Not only do the
teachers and students know each other well, but their relationship
extends beyond the school. There is a spirit of shared enquiry and
dialogue. Children are encouraged to raise questions and examine issues
with-out bias. In such an environment, major problems of order and
discipline rarely crop up. Competition and comparison do not play a
role in this educational pro-gramme. There are no examinations. Because
of the close contact, the teacher has an understanding of the student's
difficulties and abilities. Difficulties are resolved either in the
course of teaching the subject itself or through specially Vikasana,
where tending the vegetable patch is as important as learning languages
have opted out of looking after cattle to learn to read and write.
Talking about a day at Vikasana, Malathi says, "The centre starts its
activities at 8.30 a m. All the children are entrusted with duties like
caring for trees, cleaning the rooms and surroundings, providing
drinking water. Then, the children assemble to sing songs in Kannada,
English, Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Bengali, French, German and Ital-ian.
This is followed by yogasanas specially designed for children." Lessons
in academic subjects follow.
Everyone accepts cooking responsibilities for lunch. Lunch is free.
After-noon classes include pottery, carpentry, weaving, paper-folding,
painting and gardening. Making handicrafts is integrated into the daily
process. Two children at a time look after the vegetable patch. They
adopt trees and look after them. Alongside, they make their own desks
and chairs; build their own rooms; make their own clothes. Malathi
continues, "Children learn to read, write and speak three languages.
The highest priority is given to the student-teacher relationship."
Some students have now returned to the school as teachers, Malathi
seems to have achieved the school's aims and objectives: free, quality
education to the rural poor, with an emphasis on self-learning, helping
students to choose careers after their education, being a resource
centre for non-formal education, imparting awareness on tree plant-ing
and the need to maintain ecological balance, educa-tion for peace and
not for competition. Some children have had training at the Aurobindo
Ashram, Delhi, Akruti, and Mritchakatika (a centre for pottery) in
Bangalore, "thus underscoring the fact that one does not need to depend
on certificates to choose careers." Funds are a major problem at
Vikasana.
Catering to about 20-odd children, and providing them free lunch, books
and other material, can be a juggler's act. Though the school receives
some money from the Neelbagh Trust and other bodies, the funds are not
sufficient. Vikasana needs fun and donations from philanthropists and
institutions. That would go a long way in ensuring that the school
continues to grow. Geetha Rao is a Bangalore - based journalist.- The ABCs of undoing knowledge,
Kabir Jaithirtha, Humanscape, 01/08/1998, /eldoc/n00_/01aug98HUS6.pdf
AT The Valley School, the Krishnamurti Foun-dation India (KFI)-run
school in Bangalore, set on a lush green, 110-acre campus, the guiding
principles are no reward, no punishment, no comparisons and no
competition. Children from age six onwards are taught to value a
questioning mind, develop skills in art, sculpture, pottery and dance
as in curricular subjects. By Class 9, they are expected to take
internal exams as they ready themselves for Class 10 and 12 exams. The
parent-school interaction is uni-que: parents volunteer as part-time
teachers in crafts, languages and art. Says director Satish Inamdar:
"At KFI schools, we're still exploring an idea, to see if a human being
can be brought up without fear, and in turn awa-ken the intelligence of
a child and allow it to flower."
...Delhi-based Mirambika, an alternate school set up in 1981 with 57
students and now teaching some 135 children. Its motto is learning by
asking questions. A free-progress school, Mirambika has no standard
classes, just groups up to Level 8 and no uniforms or exams. Languages
and mathematics are the only subjects taught in classrooms, the rest is
learnt through project work. Teachers are referred to as Didis or
Bhaiyas and serve as guides to help the children find their own space
and process. Lesser students and eclectic learning tools have led to
alternate education becoming a luxury that only those with means can
aff-ord. At The Valley School, the annual fee of Rs 35,000 can be
changed based on parents' income, a system of graded fees thateven CFL
with a base fee of around Rs 30,000 a year follows. The idea is to
attract a cross-section of students, a challenge other alternate
schools also face. Says Nirmala Diaz, founding member and trustee of
Sloka, the Hyderabad-based Waldorf School that like over 800 Waldorf
schools globally follows the philosophy of Austrian educa-tionist and
philosopher Rudolf Steiner: "We want to be accessible to middle-class
families and still have a class strength of 25. Balancing our cash
registers is always a problem."
- Filling Unmet Needs, ARCHANA
RAI, Outlook, 10/12/2001, /eldoc/n24_/10dec01out1.pdf
Alternative Curriculum Schools
AT The Valley School, the Krishnamurti
Foundation India (KFI)-run
school
in Bangalore, set on a lush green, 110-acre campus, the guiding
principles
are no reward, no punishment, no comparisons and no competition.
Children
from age six onwards are taught to value a questioning mind, develop
skills in art, sculpture, pottery and dance as in curricular subjects.
By Class 9, they are expected to take internal exams as they ready
themselves
for Class 10 and 12 exams. The parent-school interaction is uni-que:
parents
volunteer as part-time teachers in crafts, languages and art. Says
director
Satish Inamdar: "At KFI schools, we're still exploring an idea, to see
if a human being can be brought up without fear, and in turn awa-ken
the
intelligence of a child and allow it to flower."
...Delhi-based Mirambika, an alternate school set up in 1981 with 57
students and now teaching some 135 children. Its motto is learning by
asking
questions. A free-progress school, Mirambika has no standard classes,
just
groups up to Level 8 and no uniforms or exams. Languages and
mathematics
are the only subjects taught in classrooms, the rest is learnt through
project work. Teachers are referred to as Didis or Bhaiyas and serve as
guides to
help the children find their own space and process.
Lesser students and eclectic learning tools have led to alternate
education
becoming a luxury that only those with means can afford. At The Valley
School, the annual fee of Rs 35,000 can be changed based on parents'
income,
a system of graded fees thateven CFL with a base fee of around Rs
30,000
a year follows. The idea is to attract a cross-section of students, a
challenge
other alternate schools also face. Says Nirmala Diaz, founding member
and
trustee of Sloka, the Hyderabad-based Waldorf School that like over 800
Waldorf schools globally follows the philosophy of Austrian
educa-tionist
and philosopher Rudolf Steiner: "We want to be accessible to
middle-class
families and still have a class strength of 25. Balancing our cash
registers
is always a problem."
- Filling Unmet Needs, ARCHANA RAI, Outlook, 10/12/2001,
/eldoc/n24_/10dec01out1.pdf
KNB
"It was equally clear that middle-class children needed
the
interaction with the poor if they were to grow up with an awareness and
appreciation of the social reality in our country". Therefore, its
founders
decided, KNB would be a school where "Dalits would learn
alongside
the elites".It happens in KNB nearly by the way,
this mixing of children from
disparate
backgrounds, this offer of opportunity to those steadily denied it. Yet
it is emphatically not by the way, but an important part of being at KNB.
The proof is evident when you speak to the higher-caste students here.
They are unable to see why there is, or was, or should be, any
difference
between them and their lower-caste friends. They are bewildered that
this
is an issue at all.
KNB fees are low. Even so, about a
fifth of the students pay no
tuition
fee. Their books, uniforms, class trips and mid-day meals are also
free.
While raising the fees makes financial sense and some parents could
certainly
afford an increase, consider this from a 1996 report by the principal:
"By
raising fees, we would be in danger of alienating those lower
middle-class
people who are the backbone of our school and give it its
distinctive character". How many other schools acquire a "distinctive
character"
from
their poor students and are proud of it? How many other school
principals
aim to be distinct in this way? - School Of Thought, DILIP D'SOUZA, Times of India,
12/08/2003,
/eldoc/n24_/12aug03toi1.html
Former students nostalgically remember
the days of "Sahboj"
when
students and teachers prepared food in a community kitchen and ate
together.
A bulk of the raw material for the "Sahboj" meals came from the
students'
produce. Today the common meal concept still exists but all the raw
material
is purchased from outside. And naturally since money has to be spent
for
the meal, former students are no longer invited as freely as before.
The
Panchayat system has tak- en a beating too. Students were taught about
the importance of exercising discretion and judge-ment when electing a
represen-tative. Now the school sticks to the "house' system like other
mainstream schools. Earlier, turn wise each student in the school had
to
compulsori-ly speak at the morning assembly. "Atm Bhava Prakshan"
was designed to instill confidence in the student as no fixed
topic was set. "It had tremen-dous results on the student's
personality and confidence," say teachers. But now each house selects
its representative and the child is assigned to speak on a main topic.
The principal, says, "The main transformation took place after the
school
was recognised. Books were introduced and modern aspects of ca-reer
orientation
emerged". - Experimental school falls prey to modernisation, CHANCHAL
PAL CHAUHAN, Statesman, /eldoc/n24_/12oct01s1.pdf
Despite the boost given through various grants, concessions and
reservations
tribal education in India still remains a myth. While the government
and
NGOs come out with innovative programmes to bring tribals to the
mainstream
controversies on indigenous tribes and preserving cultures pose
problems
of different dimensions.
Literary classes in tribal colonies
organised by governmental
agencies
and voluntary organisations have been going on for quite some time. But
providing them the best possible infrastructure and learning situations
in their natural settings without affecting their age old customs and
practices
is definitely a new experimentation. An attempt in this direction is
Vivekananda
Tribal Centre for Learning (VTCL) at Hosahalli near N-Begur in HD Kotte
Taluk of Mysore district.
The school started in 1990 on a seven acre campus close to the Gundre
range of Bandipur forests by the Vivekananda youth movement, Mysore is
spread on 18 acres today accommodating a high school section, primary
school
section, tailoring institute, administrative section, three labs,
library,
spacious play grounds etc in the sylvan surroundings.- A school in the wild, P U ANTHONY, Deccan Herald, /eldoc/n24_/15apr04dch6.htm
EXCEPT during the nine months before he
draws his first breath, no man manages his affairs as well as a tree
does," George Bernard Shaw had once said. That is the ideology which
landscape designer Vijaya Chakravarty has been trying to instill in the
minds of young children, for the last three and a half years. Her
commitment prompted her to return to the rudimentary, in association
with the Sanjivani Deep School for the Paraplegic Foundation, Navi
Mumbai.
The students at Sanjivani now connect with nature through the medium of
gardening, taught the intricacies of growing different varieties of
vegetables, flowers, in-door and outdoor plants, under various
con-ditions and soil types. The unique alternative education is aimed
at developing a child's agricultural skills. "Intelligence in children
varies from one to another. Some might excel in a par-ticular field and
others will have other incli-nations. - Connecting with nature in school,
Indian Express, 18/07/2002, /eldoc/n24_/18july02ie1.pdf
Playhouse at 50, Bulbul Sharma, Seminar, 01/02/2005, /eldoc/n20a/01feb05SEM67.html
Where the mind is without fear, Amukta Mahapatra, Hindu,
11/01/2004,
/eldoc/n30_/11jan04h1.html
The ABCs of undoing knowledge, Kabir Jaithirtha,
Humanscape,
01/08/1998, /eldoc/n00_/01aug98HUS6.pdf
- Siddhrajsinhji and wife protect old 'subjects' from modern
travails,
AJAI PASRICHA, Outlook, 13/08/2001, /eldoc/n24_/13aug01out1.pdf
- School experiments new methods of education, Pioneer,
16/02/2000,
/eldoc/n24_/16feb00pio1.pdf
Resistance to the spread of non-formal schools usually comes from
parents themselves.
They insist that their children be 'toppers', even if that means
subjecting them to a stressful, irrelevant and competitive educational
system Arthy Muthanna Singh
W hen I moved to Mumbai about two years
ago, my primary concern was my son's schooling. Problem was, unlike
most parents, I was looking for a non-formal school: a progressive one,
if you like. In my naivete, I had actually imagined that I'd be spoilt
for choice. After all, this was Mumbai, the big city, and I had come
from a small town in Goa. I discovered soon enough that Mumbai had the
dubious distinction of offering no choice at all in non-formal
education, whereas practically every other metro in the coun-try did.
During my quest for that elusive school, I spoke to many mothers.
Strangely, most of them seemed quite satisfied with the schools their
children attended. What was I making such a fuss about? I soon acquired
the reputation of a paranoid mother ask-ing for too much. Paranoid,
granted. But was I ask-ing for too much? I don't think so.
All I wanted was a school where my child would be treated as an
indi-vidual. I wanted him to enjoy learn-ing, and not have the fear of
exams and homework looming above him constantly. Was it too much to
want to extend his childhood a wee bit further? I wanted him to have a
teacher who could relate to him as a person, not as one of 40 mindless
zombies. I cannot seriously believe that most parents are ac-tually
happy with what their children have to go through every day in school.
What do I mean by 'non-formal', I am asked every other day. It is
easier to spell out what I don't want. I do not want competition. I do
not want fear. I do not want 'dark sarcasm in the classroom'. (Thank
you, Pink Floyd). I want the child to be left alone; to retain his
individuality. I do not want him to become 'just another brick in the
wall'. I attended a quasi-non-formal school in the Nilgiris, St.
Hildas. By 'quasi' I mean that it was affiliated to the ICSE Board, but
until we gave those final examinations, we en-joyed ourselves
thoroughly.
A lot of music, theatre, sports, athletics. With the numbers in the
class kept very low, indi-vidual attention from the teachers was
possible, without be-coming a strain. It helped to have most of the
students (about 90 per cent) and most of the teachers living on campus.
What are now viewed as hobby classes were very much part of the
curriculum there. Maybe my memory is clouded by nostal-gia for what my
son cannot have, but the only time of stress I can remember was my
final year at school: before the ex-aminations. There's still a
question mark in my mind about examina-tions and whether they should be
abolished altogether, but At the Saifee High School, every child is
taught at an individual level what I am quite sure about is that
children should start get-ting used to the idea of exams only around
the age of 14. Before that, they must be left to pursue anything that
takes their fancy. After all, how much of the algebra you learnt in
school is of any use to you today? Unless you happen to be a
mathematician, what is the relevance of the subject? My husband
attended one of the first J Krishnamurti schools in Benaras.
One can safely say that this institution was the forerunner of most
non-formal schools in India. What he re-members most fondly about the
Raj ghat Besant school are the stress-free years of learning and the
ample opportunities to pursue his own interest in Hindustani classical
music. Unfortunately, non-formal schools are seen as elitest,
pri-marily because the number of stu-dents in each class is kept low.
As a result, the fees have to be high. Or do they? At the Chamraj High
School in the Nilgiris, fees are just Rs 40 per month. This has been
possible because the tea company pumps a percentage of its profits into
the school. This non-formal school was set up to give the chil-dren of
the labourers who worked on the tea plantation a chance to benefit from
a progressive school.
The children in each class do not exceed 25, and wherever possible,
there are two teachers to a class. Music and drama take up a large part
of an average day. Every class brings out its own newspaper and topics
like recycling and the geography of their immediate surroundings ensure
that education has a rel-evance to their lives. When we lived in Goa,
my son went to a playgroup called Watoto (which means 'child' in
Swahili). He was three and because I did not have the courage to send
him on his own, I'd go along everyday. Before long, I was asked to
train on the job, and got into teaching full-time. The teacher-student
ratio was 1:8. My son was exposed to painting, pottery, tree houses,
games, animals and much more. The school was till the fourth standard.
As far as possible, children were taught through projects and hands-on
experience. There were no tests or homework.
The report card was like a statement of fact, about what had been done
that academic year, and not how well or how badly it had been done. It
was the kind of school that the children did not want to leave. It
incorporated a bit of the Waldorf system, a bit of the Montessori
system and a little of the J Krishnamurti system as well. We constantly
had to reassure parents who had no yardstick to measure their child's
progress by. Most of the parents' fears came from comparing their
children with those from regular schools in areas like writing and
numbers.
Toppers, at what cost?, Arthy
Muthanna Singh, Humanscape, 01/08/1998, /eldoc/n00_/01aug98HUS3.pdf
Alternative curriculum Schools Former students
nostalgically remember the days of "Sahboj" when students and teachers
prepared food in a community kitchen and ate together. A bulk of the
raw material for the "Sahboj" meals came from the students' produce.
Today the common meal concept still exists but all the raw material is
purchased from outside. And naturally since money has to be spent for
the meal, former students are no longer invited as freely as before.
The Panchayat system has taken a beating too. Students were taught
about the importance of exercising discretion and judge-ment when
electing a represen-tative. Now the school sticks to the "house' system
like other mainstream schools. Earlier, turn wise each student in the
school had to compulsorily speak at the morning assem-bly. "Atm Bhava
Prakshan" was designed to instill confi-dence in the student as no
fixed topic was set. "It had tremen-dous results on the student's
personality and confidence," say teachers. But now each house selects
its representative and the child is assigned to speak on a main topic.
The principal, says, "The main transformation took place after the
school was recognised. Books were intro-duced and modern aspects of
ca-reer orientation emerged".
-
Experimental school falls prey to
modernisation, CHANCHAL PAL CHAUHAN, Statesman, /
eldoc/n24_/12oct01s1.pdf
Alternative Curriculum Schools
-
Siddhrajsinhji and wife protect old
'subjects' from modern travails, AJAI PASRICHA, Outlook,
13/08/2001, /
eldoc/n24_/13aug01out1.pdf
Staff Reporter New Delhi THE VISION Valley School, in its preparation
for the 21st century aims to remove the traditional sys-tems of
education and introduce a new effective system based on scientific,
modern, positive and practical principles and applica-tions. The school
shall endeavor to attain its goals through excellent management,
brilliant teaching staff, safe surroundings and an innovative system of
education. Situated in the foothills of the Himalayas and two and half
kilometre from Kashipur along the Kundeshwari road, the school is
nestled in a quiet and picturesque ambience.
The campus is in perfect harmony with nature and the world famous tiger
re-serve Corbett National Park is 30 kilometre away. Another popular
tourist spot and hub of education in the country Nainital is also in
close proximity. Kashipur is just 221km. from New Delhi and is easily
accessible by road and rail.
The school aims at providing the pupils with an amicable en-vironment
to horn their skills and in the process exercise their fundamental
right for educa-tion. The outstanding feature of the school's academic
programme shall be the novel idea of getting its students to perform
well with-out having to unduly burden the parents in any way. It aims
to install Indian tradi-tional values and a sense of pride in Indian
culture and art in their pupils. At the same time, making them aware of
the new streams of thought and enlightenment, so that they achieve a
natural and practical synthesis between the two, enabling them to
tackle all challenges in the life ahead. The school prepares its
stu-dents for the examinations con-ducted by the GBSE, New Delhi. These
examinations are taken at the end of the classes X and XII. The medium
of instruction is English. The school is equipped with spacious
buildings. It can also boast of some of the best facilities provided
for sports and games, co-curricular activities of a varied nature,
computer etc be-sides concentrating on academ-ic excellence as its
priority.
The school has ideal potential for a good residential life for its
pupils with the best facilities be-ing provided. The school lays great
empha-sis on character building and dis-cipline. It expects parents to
co-operate with the school in this crucial area of a child's
devel-opment. The school management en-deavours to appoint well
qualified and hard working teachers. The school generally does not
endorse tuitions. Sri Satish Chandra Memorial Scholarship is awarded
annual-ly to brilliant pupils of financial-ly weak parents. The new
academic session be-gins in early April every year. The lower age limit
for admission to nursery is 4 years as on March 31st of the year of
joining school. Admission is strictly on the per-formance of the
candidate in the entrance examination. An at-tested birth certificate,
transfer and character certificate and passport size photographs are to
be presented at the time of ad-mission. For further information
con-tact: The Principal Vision Valley School, Kuan Khera, Kundeshwari
Road, Kashipur-244713(UP).
-
School experiments new methods of
education, Pioneer, 16/02/2000, /
eldoc/n24_/16feb00pio1.pdf
Alternative Curriculum SChools Tribal Education
Despite the boost given through various grants, concessions and
reservations tribal education in India still remains a myth. While the
government and NGOs come out with innovative programmes to bring
tribals to the mainstream controversies on indigenous tribes and
preserving cultures pose problems of different dimensions.
Literary classes in tribal colonies organised by governmental agencies
and voluntary organisations have been going on for quite some time. But
providing them the best possible infrastructure and learning situations
in their natural settings without affecting their age old customs and
practices is definitely a new experimentation. An attempt in this
direction is Vivekananda Tribal Centre for Learning (VTCL) at Hosahalli
near N-Begur in HD Kotte Taluk of Mysore district. The school started
in 1990 on a seven acre campus close to the Gundre range of Bandipur
forests by the Vivekananda youth movement, Mysore is spread on 18 acres
today accommodating a high school section, primary school section,
tailoring institute, administrative section, three labs, library,
spacious play grounds etc in the sylvan surroundings.
-
A school in the wild, P U
ANTHONY, Deccan Herald, /
eldoc/n24_/15apr04dch6.htm
Teaching Methodology Alternative Curriculum Schools
-
Where the mind is without fear,
Amukta Mahapatra, Hindu, 11/01/2004, /
eldoc/n30_/11jan04h1.html
Alternative Curriculum CShools Reality Education
The first half of the day is devoted to studies and the rest to skill
training in carpentry, pottery, masonry, permaculture, herbal
medicines, book binding and tailoring. It must also be one of the few
places training children in Bhagotam, a local folk art form. Only
children above nine years are admitted, many dropouts from government
schools. There are no fees to be paid in this school, run by the Deccan
Development Society (DDS), a non-government organisation working in
this area (to conserve traditional crops and agro-bio-diversity), for
the last 15 years. Before 1998, most children had never been to any
school, according to the school administrator, Bhimsen Murthy. Even
now, only 10 per cent may have attended school earlier. Many worked as
labourers or helped their parents with housework, grazing or farming.
So far, 63 students have appeared for their SSC examinations and over
40 have passed either in the first or the second attempt. A children's
committee is involved in decision-making and every day, the general
assembly is devoted to various subjects. The student's skills and
knowledge are analysed during the admission test and, till the fourth
level, no government textbooks are used. The teachers prepare the
curriculum themselves and the children are taught formal subjects like
the languages, mathematics, science and the social sciences from the
fourth level only.
-
Education for a lifetime,
MEENA MENON., Hindu, 13/01/2002, /
eldoc/n30_/education_for_lifetime.html
Alternative Curriculum Schools
-
Playhouse at 50, Bulbul
Sharma, Seminar, 01/02/2005,
./eldoc/n20a/01feb05SEM67.html
But it could have worked, some teachers believe, if adequate
preparations had been made by Shwetha E George I n a dilapidated
building sporting the board 'Govern-ment High School' in Alwaye, a
prominent town in Ernakulam District, a few Class One students are
trying to learn the tables of seven by counting the seeds of the
manjadi plant. A few others are reading aloud an 'adukkalapaattu' and a
'bhakshanapattu' (songs on kitchen vessels and food) from charts
clipped to a rope tied across the classroom. No text-books and no
scribbling down mean-ingless information. The noise is deafening, the
scene pure chaos. 'The kids have never enjoyed learning better," says
their teacher, "but an official order to cease this kind of teaching
could come any day now." This school is one of the many
government-aided schools in Kerala that has undergone a curriculum
revision under the DPEP (District Primary Education Programme)
intro-duced by the Left government in the early nineties. A
child-centred form of education that was intended to bring out total
involvement of the child in the learning process, DPEP was completely
alternative in its method.
The concept was borne at the international seminar on education in
Thailand in 1990 in which participating countries decided that
edu-cation must be provided to everyone by 2000. The Central Advisory
Board of Education approved the plan and de-cided to implement it with
funds from World Bank (40 crores for each selected district) in 150
districts in India, six of them falling within Kerala state itself.
Kasargod, Wayanad, Malappuram, Trivandrum, Palakkad and Idukki. Fearing
that differences might crop up between DPEP and non-DPEP districts, the
SCERT therefore agreed for a total curriculum revision in all
government schools in Kerala. The need for an alternative system was
never greater in the state.
The National Institute of Education Planning and Administration's
report on educational standards stated that although Kerala rated high
in class quantity, it ranked only 18th in terms of the reading, writing
and mathematical ca-pacity of the student. In fact, for every 100
students admit-ted into primary schools, only 70 per cent reached the
10th grade and only 14 per cent of them passed the state examination
without moderation. The Yashpal Committee report on primary education
was also an eye-opener. "Joyless learning — that was what he discovered
about the education system in our country," says Jayasree, a government
school teacher in Ernakulam. Teach-ing, he said, was made a
product-oriented process in which getting the right answer proved a
child's competency. "So all he needed was a good memory. His inherent
skills were unnoticed. Teachers played the dominant role and
spoon-feeding went on for generations." Therefore, the main objective
of DPEP was to focus on each child's interests and how he learns
instead of what he learns, reduce his work load (school bag should not
weigh more than four kilos), increase the quality of education and
teachers and reduce the number of drop-outs. Therefore, text books were
changed. Written content was minimised. Drawing, colouring, group
activities, field trips and reading comers in classrooms were the new
curricu-lum. Teachers were trained in batches by expert groups.
Monitoring agencies comprising of higher-grade teachers and jilla
officers toured schools to extend support and tech-nical tips. But it
bombed. In just the fourth year of its implementation, the DPEP lost
the complete faith of the public and was labelled the greatest fiasco
of the Left government. Parents began com-plaining that their wards
were not being given any written homework. They could not fathom how
composing a song on kitchen vessels would help these kids pass the
Tenth Board Exam. Anti-Left parties maintained that 'alternative
educa-tion methods' are brainless schemes funded by the World Bank to
keep backward countries more backward. The en-tertainment industry made
films and street theatres showcasing the classrooms as venues of
absolute mayhem, where kids use neither text books nor school bags. So
much so that the text-books for the eighth graders have not arrived
yet. But the
newly-elected Con-gress government has not officially abolished the
scheme either.
In effect, however, schools are re-verting to
conventional teaching. What really went wrong? "It was an excellent
scheme. But it was imple-mented without any proper planning," says
Chacko PI, a teacher in CMS High School in Pallom. "No Students of 'The
Choice' school in Kochi awareness campaigns prior to implementation."
The whole scheme was decided, planned and implemented within just six
years. Although teachers' training started immediately, nothing was
done about existing school infrastructure.
"Forget better labora-tories, not even a file was bought." Scrap books,
story books, performance records, semi-nars and exhibitions are the
must-haves of an alternative teaching system. "A DPEP-based Geography
text-book re-quires every student to have a map of India and a globe of
their own because these are mostly learn-by-yourself meth-ods. How can
a government school that has about 60 stu-dents in each primary class
have that many maps to pro-vide? " What happened to the funds, neither
the government nor the teaching fraternity has an answer. Even the
'road-side classes' that were conducted to convince the public of the
need for an alternative system came too late in the day. By then
criticism had mounted and the situation was irre-versible. In addition,
this kind of teaching calls for double effort from the teachers. They
must be resourceful and in-novative. "For instance, 'three and two make
five' is a standard teaching method," says Jayasree. "But in DPEP-based
teach-ing, the child is given the result 'five' and asked how many ways
he can arrive at that answer. So he calculates 'ten mi-nus five', 'four
plus one' and gets a better grasp of what addition is all about."
enacting their chapter on Kashmir The evaluation system under the DPEP
was also a com-plicated one.
In addi-tion to a Q and A form, a student is also sub-jected to various
cur-riculum statements. For example, the Eng-lish- language teacher has
to find out if he reads story-books, asks for the meaning of unfamiliar
words, reads titles, headlines, signals, etc. As for 'Writing', is he
able to write down names of his classmates, lists of things he uses
daily, messages on greeting cards and so on? Not all teachers are
willing to do that extra work. "It was a very good scheme while it
lasted," says Molly Cyril, principal of one of Kerala's most exclusive
private schools, The Choice, in Ernakulam. In private schools where
teachers are a law unto themselves, implementing an alter-native mode
of teaching is much easier.
No dearth of money and no unions to root for rights, these schools
arrange field trips, organize exhibitions, put up a fashion show to
teach about textile industry, plant paddy crops in the backyard during
their social science period and cook bhelpuri and chaat inside the
classroom for their chapter on Mumbai. However, a government scheme
cannot survive without public support. "And we lost it because we
rushed headlong into it" says Chacko. "Most teachers were only
beginning to get the feel of it. Given a second chance, we can still
make it work." With parents still clammering for ranks, a political
system that will continue to interfere and a demor-alised education
department, can they, really? Some names have been changed to protect
identities of the officers of the education department. Shwetha E
George is a freelance journalist who focuses on development issues in
Kerala. She can be contacted at
shwethavarghese@rediffmail.com
Continued from page 14 In the meanwhile, the girls shared their
experiences with traders, shopkeepers and sometimes, even their
teachers touching their hands deliberately.
This was an important thread to explore. This complex phenomena
however, could not be dealt with during the short inter-action. There
was some discussion around their aspirations and the basic requirements
to achieve them. How far it is acceptable/agreeable for them to
continue their parents' occupations was discussed. It was important to
stress that there were very few options directly after the seventh
standard. They were given information about the three streams in
college, and what it takes to become a nurse, teacher, doctor, lawyer,
etc. in response to their queries. They felt reassured that Open
Universities make it possi-ble for school dropouts to catch up with
education later. Vacha is in the process of modifying these modules
further. They welcome further discussions and insights at
vacha@vsnl.com or at Municipal
School, Ground Floor, Tank Lane,
Santacruz (w) Mumbai- 400054.
-
Off the beaten track, Shwetha
E George, Humanscape, 01/01/2002, /
eldoc/n00_/01jan02HUS2.pdf
By Shushmita Dutt
The assumptions at the beginning of India's struggle for achieving
Universalisation of Elementary Education (UEE) were that universal
elementary education wasn't possible because there weren't enough
schools. These as-sumptions, however, were soon questioned by
educationists, because they did not take into account the
socio-economic realities of the country. It was not long before it
became clear that the question of enrolment in schools was not merely a
question of supply of schools. In spite of the manifold growth of the
formal school network in the post-Independ-ence era, it has not been
possible to draw all eligible children in the age group of 6-14 into
school, nor even to retain all those who were initially enrolled. The
reality in many Indian families is that children work in the fields
with their parents, babysit younger siblings so that mothers can work
for wages, take on other household respon-sibilities or themselves work
for wages. The educational sys-tem had to take this reality into
account.
The system of Non-formal Education (NFE) was conceived in 1978 to meet
the requirements of those children who were unable to attend formal
schools. The process was meant to be part of a microplanning strategy,
to reach out to every family and every child, and involve them in the
process of education. The ground realities, however, have proved that
without absolute commitment and large-scale human resource input, the
very characteristics which should have made NFE attrac-tive have worked
against it flexibility, localisation and need-specific strategies have
often been used as loopholes to offer sub-standard education. Today it
is becoming increasingly clear that the Indian educational system
requires more than just an expansion of the school system and an
inclusion of the NFE system if it is to be set right. It is also being
accepted that without a parallel growth in economic activity and rise
of other social develop-ment indicators, the true benefits of education
will not reach the masses.
Gradual disillusionment with the existing educational conditions has
given rise to a concern that the very educational paradigm accepted by
India may be unsuited to a large majority of its people. In an attempt
to tailor the de-livery system and content to the specific needs of
various sections, there have been some small-scale experiments with
educational structures, curricula, teaching strategies, teacher
training, evaluation and certification, the teaching calendar and
management. The term 'Alternative School' is finding its way into the
educational lexicon and beginning to gain respectability. The exact
connotation of the term does not seem to have been frozen yet, and
attempts are still on to find an educational paradigm which may be
satisfactorily pigeon-holed under 'Alternative School'.
The NCERT concept paper on NFE and Alternative Schools (AS) defines AS
as a system which has a delivery mechanism distinct from formal schools
and NFE. It has been conceived as transacting the same curricu-lum and
textual material as in the formal system but outside the structure. But
the concept paper seems to further indi-cate that it is essentially the
degree of flexibility in curricu-lum design and teaching-learning
approach that makes the difference between the formal and the AS. The
paper goes on to identify the Open School and Shiksha Karmi schools as
examples of AS. Some educationists struggling to explain what is meant
by alternative schools have pointed to it being more economical in that
it may be situated in places and for numbers where it is not feasible
to have a formal school. (Then is it a NFE centre under another name?)
Others claim that alternative schools have the qualities of being
child-friendly and attrac-tive. (What! Isn't the ultimate aim of a
formal school the same?)
As is evident, the exact connotation of the term is yet to emerge. Or
perhaps it is one of those chameleon terms which mean many things to
many men. The need for alternative schools There still remain some
fundamental questions that must be clarified with regard to alternative
schools. The first of which is: why do we need them? In answer to that
question it may be said that there is a large component of children who
have not found the educa-tion presently on offer to be sufficiently
meaningful. A study undertaken by Mode for UNICEF in five states of
India as recently as 1995 indicates that the vast majority of students
attending formal government schools, their parents, as well as students
who have dropped out and their parents, seem to hold unfavourable
impressions of school. The same study records that the majority of
SC/ST students and parents feel that only rich or high-caste families
benefit from education.
The perceived value of education among children who have never enrolled
and their parents is also very low. Prof Yashpal in the National
Advisory Committee Report 1992 {Learning Without Burden) has commented
upon those who refused to compromise with non-comprehensibility and
preferred to drop out rather than submit to years of rote learn-ing
without understanding. Some interesting information is available from
the National Sample Survey, 1986-87, regard-ing non-enrolment and
drop-outs. Nearly 30 per cent of those.
HUMANSCAPE • AUGUST 1998 • 11 The ideal alternative schoolteacher needs
to be far more resourceful and innovative than the teacher in a formal
school He should be able to draw upon the local myths, legends,
ethno-medicine, history and heroes and relate the curriculum to local
environmental and socio-economic needs, hopes and aspirations.
surveyed, both in the rural and urban areas, gave the reason for
non-enrolment as 'Not Interested'. A larger portion of the never-
enrolled females gave this answer than did the males 33.3 per cent as
against 26.5 per cent. This could be interpreted as a demand-side
constraint to enrolment.
However, some scholars have dug deeper and interpreted it as a
supply-side constraint rooted in poor schooling facili-ties (water,
separate toilets) and quality of education (cur-riculum content,
essential learning). This point becomes more relevant when it is
considered that relevant curriculum content should motivate students to
complete their education and utilise their schooling to better their
quality of life. In the same survey, 16.3 per cent of rural and 20.3
per cent of urban dropouts cited 'Failure to Pass Exams' as reasons for
drop-ping out. Again, it would have to be clarified whether this is a
demand-side constraint or a supply-side constraint because of
irrelevance of curriculum content and poor quality of edu-cation or
both. Then there is the question of the curriculum for alternative
schools: the need or otherwise for a desegregated, contextual and
section-specific curriculum. Whereas some argue strongly for a
curriculum that answers specific needs and is relevant to their lives,
others see this as a perpetuation of social division.
While the effects of the first suggestions might become visible
immediately in higher enrolments and reten-tion, the effects of the
latter might be evident in the longer term when corrective measures
will be too late. Alternative schools would need to consider the above
issues very care-fully. The perfect AS teacher Those who hold a brief
for AS argue that the formal system is monolithic and mass-oriented,
incapable of recognising indi-vidual needs and small but im-portant
differences between in-dividuals. Formal schools are part of an
enormous whole; in order to exist they have to adopt common curricula
and instruc-tional materials.
Even the pool of teachers must be clones as far as possible,
interchangeable and inter-transfer able, with approxi-mately the same
qualifications and training. Wittingly or not, the result is a
homogenisation of a heterogeneous, diverse popu-lation. AS hopes to be
responsive enough to desegregated needs, and provide the kind of
school-ing that children from various sub-sections of society
(pres-ently out of school) may relate to. The ideal AS teacher, even if
less academically qualified than the formal school teacher (as in some
AS experiments currently under way), would need to be far more
resourceful and innovative while clearly keeping the goal of AS in mind
if he/she is to be suc-cessful. He/she should be able to draw upon the
local cul-ture (myths, legends, ethno-medicine, history, heroes) in the
course of teaching and relate the curriculum to local environ-mental
and socio-economic needs, hopes and aspirations. Such a teacher would
almost certainly need to be local. The question of control and
certification The extent of decentralisation indicated by the above
ex-pectation would argue for individual, evolving systems cov-ering
perhaps one agro-climatic or cultural zone. They may be local, specific
systems built upon a single prototype.
Or they may be absolutely individual systems loosely connected to other
such systems. When considering any individualistic system it becomes
the responsibility of the planners to en-sure that individuals within
one system do not lose their abil-ity to reach out to another. The
importance of cross-fertilisation of ideas and innovations depends on
this. And so does the ability to access information, technology and
even finan-cial support from the mainstream. Finally, the AS student
has the right to expect that his/her education will be recognized by
other parallel systems of education and allow the option of continuing
education in such other systems.
The question of a recognized form of certification, therefore, becomes
important. After AS, what? So far there has been little serious thought
given to adopt-ing AS beyond the elementary level. Is it the aim of
alterna-tive schools to facilitate children who have dropped out or
never been to school to make up for lost time and join the mainstream
at some point? Or does it advocate that AS stu-dents accept elementary
schooling as sufficient for their needs? Or again, does the alternative
system of education intend to provide alternatives to all levels of
education? The entire issue of evaluation and certification is
intertwined with this and would need to be sorted out. If alternative
schooling is ultimately going to keep the option of mainstreaming open
for its students, it will perforce have to toe some formal school
lines. The question then is, how much and which ones? Emerging issues
of concern With any innovation or experiment there are certain
legiti-mate concerns which require thought.
Some of these are:
• Does AS fulfil its requirement of attracting previously non-enrolled
children?
• How does the quality of education compare with what is available in
formal schools?
• Does AS offer anything not available in formal schools? Motivation,
interest, joy in learning, greater confidence, lead-ership training,
environmental awareness, a sense of respon-sibility towards the
community, ownership?
• What level of acceptability does AS have vis-a-vis em-ployment,
higher education and mainstreaming? How ac-ceptable is the AS
certification in other districts, other states?
• Are AS structures sustainable? Can they be replicated?
• Is the system of evaluation of pupil attainment effective?
• Does the low academic qualification of AS teachers af-fect pupil
attainment and quality of teaching?
• Does the community continue to support and sustain AS in the long
run? Does AS meet community aspirations? Other areas that need
in-depth, longitudinal study are:
• The coverage and access of the AS network: can AS reach all/some/most
of the unreached?
• The management structures and processes of AS: are these efficient,
sustainable, vibrant, able to change as per need?
• Profile of the target population: what socio-economic, cultural,
educational backgrounds do the students and par-ents come from?
• The perception of the target population about AS, its value, its
ability to fulfil their aspirations.
• The participation and ownership/involvement of the com-munity with
the scheme, its planning and functioning.
• The teacher profile and training: how does it answer AS needs?
• The teachers' and other officials' perception of AS func-tioning.
• The budgetary aspect and unit cost per child per se as well as
compared with other systems.
• The curriculum and instructional materials.
• The AS calendar
• The retention and dropout rates of students
• The profile of out-of-school children in the catchment area of the AS
• Causal factors for non-enrolment of above group
• The classroom processes and transactions
• The learning achievement of the students.
A detailed study and review of some presently ongoing experiments on
evolv-ing alternative systems of education is of crucial importance at
this juncture in India's attempt to meet the goals of UEE. Many of the
questions posed above would perhaps be re-solved. Answers to all
questions may not be available from one experiment — it is more than
possible that findings from a number of such small-scale experiments
will need to be collated for a meaningful learning experience to take
place. One such experiment, the Shiksha Karmi Schools under Lok Jumbish
in Rajasthan, which has been ongoing for some years now has already
been studied and evaluated at great length. Some subsequent experiments
have also drawn upon the experience gathered there.
It is now required that other experiments (AS under District Primary
Education Pro-gramme or DPEP may be studied in-depth as there has been
substantial progress in implementing AS) be documented in the same
manner so that an eventual sharing may take place. It would be
interesting to see how the existing AS systems ultimately resolve such
problems as certification and evalua-tion. These experiments will also
provide important insights into problems that might occur with regard
to the function-ing and sustainability of a comparatively large
network.
References
1 Ambasht, N.K. (1996) Non Formal Education and alternative School-ing:
A Conceptual Paper. NCERT.
2 Dev Indra, (1994) External Evaluation Report on the Non Formal
Education Programme in the Chhatisgarh region ofMadhya Pradesh : Final
Report. SCERT. Bhopal.
3 Naik, Chitra (1985) Developing Non Formal Primary Education -A
Rewarding Experience. Indian Institute of Education. Pune.
4NCERT. (1996). Capacity'Building for Non-Formal Education 1988- 96: A
Report on the Activities and Programme of the Dept of Education and Non
Formal Education and Alternative Schooling.
5 Shukla, Subir, 1996. Theme Paper on Alternative Schools. Unpub-lished
Paper. Educational Consultants India Limited. 6 World Bank Report No.
15756. (1996). Indian Primary Education: Achievements and Challanges.
Shushmita Dutt is a Bhopal-based writer.
-
Why India needs alternative
schooling, Shushmita Dutt, Humanscape, 01/08/1998, /
eldoc/n00_/01aug98HUS2.pdf
The present system of education is devoid of our rich cultural
heritage. The erstwhile gurukula system aimed at making the pupil a
complete man, inculcating moral and ethical values in him. E ver since
we deviated from our age-old gurukula system which was value-based,
ethical and moral, our educational system took a destructive turn. The
advent of the British and their necessity to have clerks, who would be
machine-like, paved the way for Lord Macaulay's system of education
which unfortunately is still in vogue. This sys-'tem is devoid of our
rich cultural herit-age which aims at making the pupil a complete man,
inculcat-ing moral and ethical values. It is sad to note that the
gurukula system of education which is the backbone of a country's
civili-sation is considered to be unpro-ductive by our people's
repre-sentatives in Parliament. To a Government whose aim is result
(concrete and material) oriented, culture and ethics- oriented
edu-cation appears to be unimpor-tant. An educated person is ex-pected
to be of clean habits, pleasing manners law-abiding, kind-hearted,
unselfish, soft spoken and of helping nature. Education is useless if
the "edu-cated people" are otherwise.
The need of the hour is education based on ethics.
The three fold aim of value-based education ought to be:
• Problem-facing capacity
• Problem-solving capacity and
• Large-heartedness and serv-ice while solving the problems which are
at physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual levels.
Only a person of ethical excellence can be of righteous help to
humanity. Morality is expected to ensure ethics. —HI Dr K Subrahmanyam,
the principal of Vivekananda College at TiruvedaKam, near Madurai and
author of Values in Education. 10 The former is the code of conduct and
the latter is the purity of character. The present educational system
is not directed towards or based on ethics.
The first and foremost reason for this is the madness for materialism
and the lure of sense pleasure which are unchecked by strin-gent laws
and uncontrolled by society for want of inspiring models. Education
ought to be a mission. But it has ceased to be even a duty and in
recent times has become a business. All the deterioration is due to
weakness for wealth and luxury at the cost of love of humanity. The
three-fold functioning of the educational activity ie — spot out the
talent, train it to perfection and direct it towards the able service
to humanity — therefore is jeopardised. Even those who need education
most for earning a liveli-hood are affected due to profiteering in
education. Money-making and mission-ary service do not go hand in hand.
However, without inconveniencing fi-nancial viability, unbiased
meritocracy can very well be maintained, if only the institution
builders can put up with a few teething troubles. There are
philan-thropists who are willing to fund insti-tutions which stand on
solid principles. Often, official interference is high-lighted as a
hindrance for im-parting education based on eth-ics. But in practice it
is found that there will be official inter-ference, only when the
thrust on ethics is absent in education. There are institutions, though
few in number, which are to-tally free from official interfer-ence
simply because of their meticulous adherence to sound principles.
Character is strength, not weakness. And one needs to be strong to be
of character. Then the question will be whether we can ensure good
character by introducing academic courses in ethics. Courses on moral
science and ethics will only be a mockery if they are not conducted by
peo-ple of character and conviction. Parents, teachers and elders in
society have to set an example. Else, all efforts to inculcate eth-ics
in the classroom will be a waste. Only a revolution from the youth can
set society right. That day is not far off. The youngsters are fed up
with bad models. The awakening is sure to come. The unmotivated, the
ill-motivated, the adversely motivated and the demotivated teachers are
the greatest en-emies to the very citadels of education. And good
teachers are not only few, but even they are bullied by the bad. Unless
society learns to respect a good teacher of ethics and provides
protection, there is no stimulus to sustain integrity.
-
Towards Unbiased Meritocracy,
K Subrahmanyam, Humanscape, 01/01/1998, /
eldoc/n00_/01jan98HUS.pdf
Rammohan Roy and Mahatma Gandhi are as important to us as the spiritual
insights of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and Vivekananda. Alternative
schools which have opted out of the rat race of marks and percentages,
and which deal with much smaller numbers of students lay great emphasis
on allowing the individuality of each child to flower. Is our child
flowering in a class of 40, we may wonder. There are no simple
yardsticks to judge this. But its worthwhile remembering that
individual achievement, individual striving for perfection and
individual salvation, are all taken as givens in our culture. At the
same time it is automatically assumed that behind this individual
success lies a self discipline based on deprivation and self control.
Indeed, this is what reinforces our link with other Asian cultures and
separates us from the self-gratification seeking cultures of the West.
Beyond a point, individualism and self direction may bring children in
conflict with the atmosphere that prevails in their homes. A more
realistic appreciation of the individual child, which is rooted in the
Indian cultural ethos, and which is a continuation of the structures
children are familiar with at home, can be found in one such school in
Madras. Started in 1957, the school still has a strong student-teacher
relationship. There is an effort made at all levels to draw out every
child in a class. Teachers are advised to look for and accept 36
interpretations of a poem, rather than impose a single version of their
own. The school does not label children as bright children or 'slow'
learners. Talking about children who do better as adults than in their
school years, the school's policy says "If on the T O the stress and
strain we already feel in dealing with our lives in these times has
been added a new anxiety. Are our children being crushed and
overburdened in the school system? Amongst the babel of voices talking
loudly about exam results, tuitions, aggregates and percentages, there
is a distinct murmur that says, "Let me find an alternative education
for my child, somewhere where the music in her/him will not be stilled;
where she/he will grow to the best of her/his capacity.
To fulfil the needs of this small, but growing section of parents, a
number of schools have started in the last few years, which claim to
care more for the child than the system, and have put the needs of the
child before that of Examination Boards. The philosophy behind these
schools, and the success they have achieved in their stated goals, have
escaped analysis or question because they are too recent to be fairly
evaluated.
Nevertheless, the very existence of such alternative schools has opened
up a Pandora's Box for the conscientious parent. If your child is an a
traditional school where the three 'r's are still being taught, you may
begin to wonder 'Am I doing my best for my child? Shouldn't she/he be
in A, B or C where she/he could be realising her/his true worth? In a
country where State Education is confined to either Corporation Schools
or the relatively inaccessible Kendriya Vidyalayas or Navodaya
Vidyalayas, the vast majority of middle class parents seek a private
education for their child. Most either choose a school run by
missionaries or the Church or by a more recent private trust. These
schools follow the curriculum of State or Central Board and seem to us
in form and content to be not very different from the schools we
studied in twenty years back. From here the cosy world of the
alternative school looks not only desirable, but also important for our
child. But is it really so?
Consider the following: Alternative schools are often, though not
always, based on the vision and philosophy of a great individual. This
may be Sri Aurobindo, J. Krishnamurthi, Maria Montessori or another
distinguished philosopher or educationist. Approaching these schools
for admission, parents are often submitted to a scrutiny to evaluate if
they are able to appreciate this vision. Not only is this situation
fraught with possibilities for their intimidation, it also sometimes
marks the beginning of another education for the parent/s. Leaving
behind their degrees, they must now learn anew what is right for their
child, straight from the vision of the schools inspiration. Apart from
the disadvantage it puts us at as parents, do we really want the
education of our child to be defined or confined by the views of an
individual?
By now we have experienced enough life to know that the lessons we
learnt from social reformers and crusaders like Raja Rammohan Roy and
Mahatma Gandhi are as important to us as the spiritual insights of
Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and Vivekananda. Alternative schools which have
opted out of the rat race of marks and percentages, and which deal with
much smaller numbers of students lay great emphasis on allowing the
individuality of each child to flower. Is our child flowering in a
class of 40, we may wonder. There are no simple yardsticks to judge
this. But its worthwhile remembering that individual achievement,
individual striving for perfection and individual salvation, are all
taken as givens in our culture. At the same time it is automatically
assumed that behind this individual success lies a self discipline
based on deprivation and self control.
Indeed, this is what reinforces our link with other Asian cultures and
separates us from the self-gratification seeking cultures of the West.
Beyond a point, individualism and self direction may bring children in
conflict with the atmosphere that prevails in their homes. A more
realistic appreciation of the individual child, which is rooted in the
Indian cultural ethos, and which is a continuation of the structures
children are familiar with at home, can be found in one such school in
Madras. Started in 1957, the school still has a strong student-teacher
relationship. There is an effort made at all levels to draw out every
child in a class. Teachers are advised to look for and accept 36
interpretations of a poem, rather than impose a single version of their
own. The school does not label children as bright children or 'slow'
learners. Talking about children who do better as adults than in their
school years, the school's policy says "If on the T O the stress and
strain we already feel in dealing with our lives in these times has
been added a new anxiety. Are our children being crushed and
overburdened in the school system?
Amongst the babel of voices talking loudly about exam results,
tuitions, aggregates and percentages, there is a distinct murmur that
says, "Let me find an alternative education for my child, somewhere
where the music in her/him will not be stilled; where she/he will grow
to the best of her/his capacity. To fulfil the needs of this small, but
growing section of parents, a number of schools have started in the
last few years, which claim to care more for the child than the system,
and have put the needs of the child before that of Examination Boards.
The philosophy behind these schools, and the success they have achieved
in their stated goals, have escaped analysis or question because they
are too recent to be fairly evaluated. Nevertheless, the very existence
of such alternative schools has opened up a Pandora's Box for the
conscientious parent. If your child is an a traditional school where
the three 'r's are still being taught, you may begin to wonder 'Am I
doing my best for my child? Shouldn't she/he be in A, B or C where
she/he could be realising her/his true worth? In a country where State
Education is confined to either Corporation Schools or the relatively
inaccessible Kendriya Vidyalayas or Navodaya Vidyalayas, the vast
majority of middle class parents seek a private education for their
child. Most either choose a school run by missionaries or the Church or
by a more recent private trust. These schools follow the curriculum of
State or Central Board and seem to us in form and content to be not
very different from the schools we studied in twenty years back. From
here the cosy world of the alternative school looks not only desirable,
but also important for our child. But is it really so?
Consider the following: Alternative schools are often, though not
always, based on the vision and philosophy of a great individual. This
may be Sri Aurobindo, J. Krishnamurthi, Maria Montessori or another
distinguished philosopher or educationist. grounds that such late
bloomers may spoil our results, we were to weed out and then claim
great results we would be doing injustice to the child." This
integration of children of different ability and temperament without
hindering them is apparent in other areas too. For the last several
years, it has had hearing impaired and some vision impaired children
studying at the same level with others of their age. No longer boxed
and labeled, these children can be seen performing as well as the rest.
Although exams are not introduced till class VI, there is continuous
assessment of classwork and surprise tests which are graded, not
marked. Appreciation for good performance comes in the form of a star
or a clap from one's class mates. A typical student of this school girl
or boy, looks at you curiously, with the uninhibited gaze and the
slightly scruffy look that proclaims how comfortable she or he is with
herself or himself. Compare this with the world of the alternative
school, where the last word on what your child is, and how he or she
should be treated, has already been laid down by a higher,
unquestionable authority. The child from any of the mainstream schools
will fall into the rough and tumble of adult life as an extension of
his school environment. The child from the alternative school may
occasionally find even meeting his peers from other schools a difficult
prospect. Don't blame him then, it's not his fault.
From the beginning,
from the way his school talks about itself, from the way his teachers
talk to his parents, he has learnt to think of his school as better and
different and other schools as structured — therefore not as good. He
imbibes this vicarious cynicism about the education system, and other
schools especially, without experiencing any of its ills. Is it really
healthy, or safe, for children to grow up believing that others
differently placed from themselves are not as good/as creative/as
fortunate as themselves? In the ultimate analysis, we must remember
that few of us can afford the option of the alternative school. All of
us who are dissatisfied with the overburdened school system may not
even be able to find or afford an option. However that is no reason to
despair. Just as we must press for reforms in the exam oriented
education system, we must simultaneously counter the more harmful
effects of schooling on our children. This simply involves being tuned
in to their feelings and ideas sufficiently to know when they are sad
or happy, or confused. In our lives today, sharing our feelings with
our children, spending leisure time with them, taking time out to read
to them or listen to them may be difficult. But it may also be the only
thing we can do to ensure that they become problem solving adults — not
programmed ones.
- Appreciating the individual child, Sharada
Bail, The Hindu,
5/09/1993,
************************************************************************************************
Reports
1. - Japanese Free Schools and Tokyo
Shure, Tokyo Shure, 01/01/2000,
R.N21.28
2. Redesigning the Elementary School
- Multilevel Perspectives From
Rishi Valley, Rishi Valley Education
Centre, R.N21.34
3. - Pacha Saale - The Green School,
Deccan Development Society,
01/01/1994, R.N30.8
4. - Prayas - Experiences in
Partnership - Vigyan Ashram, Singh, Manju,
CAPART, R.N30.7
5. Different Approaches for Achieving
EFA - Indian Experience, United
Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, 01/01/2003,
R.N00.41 pg 83, 196-198
6. Public Report on Basic Education
in India, Oxford University Press,
01/01/1999, N21.P.1, 95-113 Ch 8
7. After Deschooling What?, Illich, Ivan, Writers &
Readers Pub Coop, 1973, R.N20.1
8. . Alternative Education: Re-Contextualizing Theory and Praxis, ARENA,
1996, R.N24.4
************************************************************************************************
Books:
1. - Summerhill, Neill, A.S.,
Penguin Books, 01/01/1926, B.N24.N1
2. - Totto-Chan, Kuroyanagi,
Tetsuko, B.N24.K1
3. - Life Lines, Gribble,
David, Libertarian Education, 01/01/2004,
B.N00.G3
4. - Real Education Varieties of
Freedom, Gribble David, Libertarian
Education, 01/01/1998, B.N00.G2
5. - Divasvapna: An Educator's
Reverie, Badheka, Gijubhai, National
Book Trust, 01/01/1995, B.N00.B13
6. Getting Children Back to School -
Case Studies in Primary Education,
Ramachandran, Vimala, Sage Publications India Pvt. Ltd. 01/01/2003,
B.N21.R2, - “Digantar: Concepts in practice” Jain, Mathur, Sharma, Ch 7
p.g. 249-289
7. Letter to a Teacher By the School of Barbiana, Rossi, Nora,
Sahitya Chayan, 01/04/1992, B.N90.R1
8. End of Education, The: Redefining the Value of School, Postman,
Neil, 1995, B.N00.P3
9. Assessment, Schools and Society, Broadfoot, Patricia,
Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1979, B.N00.B12
10. Underachieving School, The, Holt, John, Penguin Books,
1970, B.N00.H9
11. School That I'd Like, The, Blishen, Edward (Ed), Penguin
Books, 1969, B.N00.B14
************************************************************************************************
Reports:
1. Pluralistic
Learning, Hecht, Yaacov, ,
R.N21.42
2. - Language Learning in Rishivalley
Multigrade schools, Y Padmanabha
Rao, Learning conference 2004, MHRD and Azim Premji foundation-
Teaching Methodology Alternative Curriculum Schools, R.N21.24
3. - Revival Alternatives in education,
January 11-13 2003, Bangalore,
.N24 (put CED Code)
4. - Network Meeting 10, CFL,
Vardanahalli, November 9-11, 2002, R.N24-
Alternative thought/ curriculum school (put ced code)
5. Between Love, Domination and
Reason: Civic Education and its
‘Others’ in Central India, Amman Madan pg 170, Education
Dialogue,
B.N00.C7
************************************************************************************************
Websites:
http://www.isec2000.org.uk/abstracts/papers_d/dutt_1.htm
(inclusive Education)
http://www.servintfree.net/~aidmn-ejournal/publications/2001-04/Avehi.html
http://www.ashoka.org/fellows/viewprofile3.cfm?reid=144944
http://prayatna.typepad.com/education/alternative_education/
http://www.languageinindia.com/junjulaug2001/school.html
http://www.indictrans.org/Articles/English/article_src/Edu/Educationalstrategies.html
http://www.un.org.in/JANSHALA/octber98/issues.htm
http://www.indiatogether.org/stories/lilstars.htm
www.alternativeeducationindia.net
www.auroville.org
www.cfledu.org
www.schoolriverside.com
www.seedschool.net
www.kidken.net
www.kraetzae.de
www.sudbury.de
www.educationrevolution.org
www.bigschool.or.kr
www.currambena.nsw.edu.au
www.playmountain.org
www.jajaschool.net
www.absolsoftec.com
www.workingchild.org
www.sudval.org
www.freedomtolearn.co.za
www.bicusa.org
www.karmmarg.org
www.abacusnow.com
www.f2foundation.org
www.ncacs.org
www.phoenixeducation.co.uk
www.activelearning.or.kr
www.lumiar.org.br
www.kreedagames.com
www.shure.or.jp
www.democratic-edu.org
www.pathsoflearning.org
www.changemakers.org
www.ashanet.org/seattle/proj/LearningNetworkInitiatives.htm
asha-learning@yahoogroups.com
www.creatinglearningcommunities.org
www.aera.net/meeting/am2001/
www.pathsoflearning.net
www.pathsoflearning.org/library/intro2000.cfm
www.vidyaonline.net
www.changemakers.net
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Audiotapes:
1. Homeschooling- The Raghavans of
Anugriha, International Democratic
Education Conference, 4-13 December 2005, Bhubaneswar, Orissa, Tape 3
(4), N24
2. Alternative Curriculum Schools, Education philosophy, Reality
Education
- Taleemnet and Abhivyakti’s- ‘Path
Breakers in Education’ Meeting,
10-13 February 2005, Valpoi, Goa, Tape 8 (6) N24
3. Democratic Education, principles
and practices, Yaacov Hecht,
Institute of democratic education, Hadera, Israel, International
Democratic Education Conference, 4-13 December 2005, Bhubaneswar,
Orissa, Tape 3 (2, side B), N24 report available