The tale of a one-way bridge: A regimen of orders issued and complied with

May 30, 2016 11:40 pm | Updated May 31, 2016 09:00 am IST

Cartoon: Surendra

Cartoon: Surendra

Imagine a proposition where two cliffs are connected by a foot bridge. A river flows in between. People on one side of the cliff assert their supremacy as they have the decision-making power, whereas people on the other cliff follow these orders. On this ‘other cliff’ are the people who jump in and out of the flowing river, to take care of the fishes and to maintain the balance of life in the river.

However, the rule-making side decides how often and for how long the people on the ‘other side’ may jump into and remain in the river, how they are supposed to swim, what fishing methods and styles they may use, and so on. This rule-making, order-ensuring side never jumps into the river itself, neither does it seek the opinion of those on the other cliff who have to do so. The bridge between the two cliffs has only one-way passage; the order-making side uses it to pass on orders to the other side. Rarely does a representative of the ‘other side’ cross the bridge, and when she does so it is usually to carry out more orders or to explain a few instances of non-compliance.

Obedience as virtue Needless to say, both sides are largely satisfied, and over the years unquestioning obedience and trudging the linear path of rules is celebrated as a virtue on the ‘other side’.

This may sound absurd or, more disturbingly, rather routine. This analogy is especially true for education. The great divide between the planners and implementers is perhaps the most vital point to be looked into. Such is the power of this divide that it punctures the intentions of a well-meaning plan and turns it into a ragdoll.

I witnessed one such incident last month. At one of the staff meetings, all of us were informed about a rule that made it mandatory for the teachers to ensure dictation every day, for at least three subjects, which are English, Hindi and Mathematics. The purpose of dictation is to ensure that children learn to spell. The primary requirement is that children become well-acquainted with the sounds and can join them together meaningfully.

Being a primary school teacher in a municipal school, this rule spelt disaster, for two reasons. First, the students are grouped according to age and not according to level of learning. So the task becomes meaningless as approximately one-fourth of the students are way below the class average and hence a common activity such as dictation is wasted on them. Secondly, the size of the class, which is close to 50, makes it impossible for the teacher to analyse and give detailed feedback to each student on a daily basis, as that would take up a major part of the day leaving little space for other activities. Therefore, taking dictation daily is reduced to an act of tokenism, squeezing the utility and purpose out of it and reducing it to a chore.

Funnily enough, even Class I students, who have been admitted to the school a few weeks back and for whom this is the first interaction with the formal school system, are not exempted from this whimsical rule.

How it should be done Dictating words or even alphabets seems futile when the children are still learning to hold pencils and opening copy books, and making sense of the many lines on the sheets is an absorbing activity in itself. Making them do this complex cognitive act of first listening, then comprehending the sounds they heard, followed by reproducing the symbols representing these sounds in their notebooks requires lots of cultivated effort. And that requires practice and time.

Such orders and rules are often well-intentioned, but often leads to distress among students and teachers alike. Students get a repeated message of non-performance, hence they lose interest in school. And in some adverse cases they are even pushed out of the system. Meanwhile, the teachers overburdened with such mechanical tasks, are reduced to fulfilling orders, updating registers and diaries. Most well-intentioned ones among the group find it difficult to make the bridge two-way. The river will deteriorate if both the ordering side and the other side don’t work together.

richa9dang@gmail.com

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