Environment concern of students
“All over Kerala, the students are concerned on
their environment. But what are required are the critical analyses
of environmental issues. Students should experience the practical
aspects of the environment. Emotionally, every child is anxious
about environmental issues. But it should be analyzed critically.”
Why these environmental issues are being
tackled? Or why this has originated? What is the type of social and
financial factor that causes damage to our environment? Such kinds
of enquiries are the real way of learning. We have to go far to
achieve in this area.”
Private students lose the soul of learning
Students who come from various segments of
society can observe and share the life experience while they study
together - Dr. R.V.G has said. In a government school, there may be
students coming from families facing starvation, scarcity of
clothing etc. When these matters are recognized and it gives anxiety
to the child, it is a learning experience.
To make a child self-disciplined the
surroundings of government or aided school environment is good.
Private schools do focus on syllabus oriented
learning alone. The soul of education is missing there.
IT
Learning
Students are well aware of computer usage.
Filtering of information can’t be possible by students themselves at
this age. But in schools it is under supervision of teachers and it
is monitored strictly. But generally, we have to march ahead to
achieve more in this area.
“If you ask, what did make me happy throughout
the mission, I would say the participation of local community in
their schools with trust and dedication. The collective efforts of
parents, teachers and the immediate community have been always
encouraging. The size or facility was not the characterization. The
real concern was the genuine bond of students with teachers.
Malayalam or English medium, most importantly, the students should
get care and love from their teachers. The medium should be love.”
We checked the efforts of schools to provide
equal participation to each child and we credited the deliberate
attempt of the schools for uplifting each student in particular
level of learning.”
“When the community keep their schools close to their heart, all the
fractions join hands to make their school a great one with the
strong participation of PTA, teachers and students with the support
of the local community, “concluded Dr.Menon.
An epitome proof to showcase that team work leads to success,
ensuring participation from most remote and backward areas of the
state, that too in coalition with multiple agencies- Anvar Sadath
voices his opinions and experiences on the show.
“In Kerala there had been a fallacy in general
among the people that public education was something inferior to
private education. But the reality was entirely different .There
have been best schools and talented students. As the byproduct of
new education under DPEP, the meritorious gains by many government
and aided schools had been unnoticed properly. Haritha Vidyalayam
has become a live experience to reflect the gains of our schools”.
As Victer channel’s director, Anwar Sadath
conceived the idea to make a platform for the schools that have
something to show the society.
“In the beginning it was not a reality show in
mind. But while considering the huge number of schools, it seemed to
be more convenient to host a show. At first, Victers was in mind to
air the show. Later, Doordarshan also came forward to telecast the
show in prime time;“says Anwar Sadath, Executive Director of IT
@School project and director of Victers channel.
The theme was divided into 11 sectors.
The aim was to find out model schools as
template or replica to the society and utilize the maximum
possibility of school education.
While discussing the initial matters to make
the subjects section wise, we noticed the Green Kerala Express.
Anvar has said that the teachers had become
more vigilant and involved in all aspects of teaching process. There
has been a platform for extracting all kinds of creative talents of
children. Totally the system could enhance the concept and as the
result of the effort, the productivity has been increased, he said.
Another important advantage of the show was the
participation and good performance of backward regions, he pointed
out by showing the instance of Raja Kumari School at Poomala, where
sixty five percent of pupil represent the tribal community.
In the beginning, he said it was really
challenging to coordinate different departments for a common goal.
But gradually the collective effort and team work turned to great
success.
“The spontaneous learning method could help
students to think independently and analyze things practically.”
The show was an equal opportunity for all to
show the planning and managing tools in Education.
The new curriculum helped students in logical
thinking and situation facing in larger way and it increased their
self confidence in communication skills. In short he said the show
was the evidence that within limited circumstances government
schools could perform well in all the areas of concern with the
unique support of community at large.
Akbar Kakkattil, famous writer and former
teacher was all in praise for the talent in children and their
maturing minds.
He said that in some areas children even think
greater than matured people. With imagination and keen observation
of their surroundings, they were able to present their talent. The
changes that had taken place in the schools were even beyond
imagination-he exclaimed.
Another important point that he noticed
throughout the show was the participation of schools from villages
and their excellent performance amidst many limitations.
In the new way of learning, number of students
was not the concern while taking for granted, but how they practiced
the methods of teaching and learning by giving thrust to children’s
over all development including his emotional quotient.
The participation of local people in their
neighboring schools has really benefited to fruit many creative
projects and activity oriented learning process.
“It provided an equal opportunity to learn
oneself better than anything. Parents could understand the progress
and draw backs of their own children. Similarly the teacher can
observe themselves.”
In the beginning stage of new learning system,
people were skeptic and they didn’t get enough platforms to monitor
it. Need for the evaluation of the activity based learning system
was the need of the time. High level thinking of children has given
a positive sign to go ahead with the system, undoubtedly with some
corrections and clarifications-Akbar Kakkattil concluded.
“Haritha Vidyalayam, the educational reality
show has helped lot to change the image of government schools in the
society. Many positive signs have been spotted in the general
education sector in Kerala with the implementation of innovative
curriculum.”- says Piyush Antony, one of the jury members of the
reality show.
“The ‘size ‘of schools or exposure of “star”
students had nothing to act in the matter of evaluation.
Within their limited resources and facilities,
how they have come out in the teaching, learning and all other areas
was the point of concern. The schools, giving equal participatory
chances to every student to dig out their potentials have been
really treasured.”-says Piyush.
Local
Action for Global Thought
“There are many values that children should
learn from his or her school environment. When a child is learning a
lesson on agriculture (eg: Krishi Oru Samskaram), he or she
is equipped to grasp its various aspects and above all its extreme
necessity for the survival of humanity. When the children interview
the farmers as part of their study, they can realize the importance
of the role of agriculture and the process of farming. Most
significantly, the dignity of the labor is spotted. There is a
social angle also in that chapter as its name. The child can learn
the science, social outlook and culture of agriculture in this way.”
The same child is learning the instances of
agriculture in other countries with the help of IT enabled services.
“As per the new curriculum, whatever knowledge
they acquire, has been linked to their day to day life. This
generates interest in their studies. A good participatory learning
method with the help of teachers is fulfilled. Whatever theories we
have learned for years, as part of our school education, new method
has proved its practical possibilities.” - says Piyush.
“The child learns from his environment first
and acquires its practical lessons from teachers, parents and the
local community. When the students learn and compare the same sector
of other countries, they start to think globally and grow as a
global citizen.”
“Learning of one’s own origin and culture is
essential to learn other cultures.
This show has given ample scope for cross
learning among schools”. She said that while interacting with
teachers who were the viewers of the show, they had said that they
had noticed many innovative ideas and applied them in their
schools.”
“When I compared the text books of fifth
standard with CBSE and ICSE, I could visualize the difference. The
shallowness of CBSE text is disappointing and that put questions in
my mind “Why we should send our children to CBSE Schools by spending
huge fees?”
Fallacy of prestige
While asked why the upper class always prefers
English medium CBSE Schools, Piyush said that from her experience
through the interactions with the parents and teachers, it was as
the result of insecurity of the middleclass.
“Efforts for a Status quo in the
upper-class that originated by forgetting the fact that many of our
great forefathers had acquired knowledge from our ordinary schools.
Besides this there was a peer pressure also.
She said that it was a fallacy that the
government schools had no status. Besides that many had a wrong
notion that private schools mould their child to be competitive in
English. The end result is that the products of CBSE become poor in
both Malayalam and English. There is no method of teaching English
as a language effectively in many of these private schools. But the
government and aided school students learn Malayalam widely and
in-depth. Similarly they can perform in English also whenever
required.
“At Neerkkunnam Government School, one of the
Doordarshan (DD) employees told me that his children were sent to
Malayalam medium in the government school there. He said he had come
out from this school and now he has been handling English thanks to
his job in the news department of D.D.Kendra. It was one of the best
examples of positive outlook of parents.”
We are the people to give onus to our schools.
Otherwise, who else will give?
If we put our investment to them, we are the
one to ask for accountability.
Enhancing the world of reading
School libraries have a great role in
education. In government and aided schools, there is enough space
for this process than private schools.
To Piyush, teaching and learning is a process
with perfect participation and total involvement of students and
teachers.
Social Vision
The class on the chapter on poverty, led to a
global perspective by learning from Kerala context. The teacher who
has read the hand book on this lesson and the students, who have
done the activities well, would definitely look on the issue at
global level and they would become socially responsible citizens.
Children learn and practice activities based on environment
protection. In some schools we could find plastic crematorium. This
is the instance of an education with a social vision. In short the
new way of learning is life-oriented.”-says Piyush.
