 ROOTS OF THE PROBLEM

1. Knowledge vs Information

In our discussions with people directly involved in syllabi and textbook preparation all over the country, we found one argument repeated over and over again as the main justification for the phenomenon we have described in Chapter II. The argument was that India has to catch up with the developed countries where an explosion of knowledge has occurred; therefore, our children must learn a lot more than they used to, which means that new topics, new concepts and information have to be added to the syllabi and textbooks. This argument seems to be so widespread and so tenacious that those who believe in it use it as an undebatable 'given'. When it is pointed out to them that children of the so-called developed countries learn certain concepts a lot later than our children do (for example, in chemistry, the concept of valency is now taught in our schools in Class VII whereas European children do not hear about it till they are in Class IX), supporters of the 'explosion of knowledge' argument simply say that the European societies are already way ahead of us, so they can afford to instruct their children at a relaxed pace. In geography, when it is pointed out that European and North American children do not have to study every continent (only selected countries are intensively studied instead), the answer given is that in Western societies children have access to many resources of learning outside the school whereas the majority of our children are dependent on the school for getting to know about the world. The idea entrenched in the 'explosion of knowledge' theory finds similar justifications for the present state of syllabi and texts in other school subjects.

The notion that there has been an explosion of knowledge apparently treats knowledge and information as synonymous. It is true that the twentieth century has been a period of massive expansion in human capacity to find new facts and to store them, but the concepts and theories that assist in the generation and Organisation of information can hardly be said to have multiplied at an 'explosive' rate. (It is another

matter that in an ex-colonial society it often looks as if all new 'knowledge' is being produced by 'others' and our job is simply to 'learn' and consume this knowledge.) Also, the important thing in children's education ought to be concept-formation and growth of capacity for theory-building, rather than possession of vast amounts of information. The 'explosion of knowledge' idea prevents us from appreciating that learning in childhood is not the same thing as storing information about different subjects. If we say that a child has knowledge of phenomenon 'x', we can anticipate three possible ways in which this statement will be interpreted:

i) the child has been given information about phenomenon X;

ii) the child can reproduce information about phenomenon 'X';

iii) the child hag understood phenomenon 'X' and he or she can apply this understanding on other phenomena.

It is mostly the first two meanings that hold in the context of formal education in our country, the first being used as a basis for the second. 'Understanding' is often confused with 'acquisition of facts'.

Such a confusion leads to the neglect of 'understanding' as an aim of education. It would be 'correct to say that this neglect of understanding has gone so far and deep in our education system that a child can pass almost any examination without any understanding of the phenomena he or she has been told about in books or in the classroom. To a great extent, this paradoxical situation can be attributed to the excessive emphasis placed in our syllabi and textbooks on information or 'names' of things. Children have no choice but to memorise all the 'names' in order to 'prove' at an examination that they have 'understood' a phenomenon. Despite all kinds of claims that examinations have been reformed, they continue to focus on testing the possession of 'correct' information (i.e. the names of things, definitions, examples, etc.). Recall-type questions outnumber the questions that test the child's capacity to speculate, evaluate or judge, and to apply an idea in an unfamiliar context. Board examinations, taken at the end of Class X and Class XII, have remained rigid, bureaucratic and essentially uneducative (as the child never sees why he or she was marked in a certain way), and mainly a source of awe because of the amount of information they demand in a manner ready for instant recall. Such a system obviously influences the tests and annual examinations taken by schools in earlier classes as well as the daily pedagogy practised in classrooms. The fact that entrance tests of prestigious institutions like the Indian Institutes of Technology have less focus on recall (although they put a premium on speed) is ignored, and even these tests are cited for justifying the excessively large syllabi in certain subjects in the senior secondary classes.

2. Isolation of Experts from Classroom Realities

The new topics and information put into the syllabus and textbooks at the time of each successive revision are usually added at the behest of experts of different subjects. These experts are university-level teachers, sometimes including individuals of high stature in the research world. Their involvement in the writing or revision of textbooks is indeed appreciable but they have little exposure to children in classroom situations. Their exposure to school teachers is also confined to interaction with the few teachers who are selected as members of syllabus and textbook committees. Several factors, such as the difference of social and official status, make it difficult for school teachers serving on these committees to freely put across their feelings and experiences regarding the teachability of a syllabus or the style of a textbook.

Teachability can be defined as the quotient of content that an average teacher can put across at a comfortable pace in a thirty-five minute school period. If our textbooks were to be judged in the light of this criterion, most of them, especially in the sciences, mathematics, and the social sciences, would appear as unteachable. The amount of information and concept-load they present are far in excess of the amount that can be put across in any meaningful way in thirty-five minute periods allotted for a school subject in one academic session. It appears that no rigorous count, using the thirty-five minute period as a unit, of the total teaching time available for a subject in any year is used as a basis for determining syllabus and text content. Indeed, the syllabi and textbooks are evidence to say that the experts involved in preparing them have little knowledge of school and classroom realities. This limitation of the experts extends to their possible ignorance of children and of the processes that children use for learning new ideas. Textbooks simply do not reflect the versatile search of the ordinary child for clues to make sense of natural or social phenomena. Typically, school texts proceed in a linear fashion, adding bits of information in, and concepts as they go along. The linear patterns they follow often spill across school years, i.e. something left off in Class VII is picked up again in Class IX, and so on. Very seldom is an effort made to construct knowledge-patterns in non-linear ways.

We feel that if experts involved in the preparation of syllabi and textbooks had the opportunity to work with children and their teachers, they would have a chance to develop some insight into children's learning strategies. This would have helped them to develop the ability to emulate such strategies in script-writing for textbooks. Interaction with children might enable experts to develop a certain amount of sensitivity towards the living and versatile approaches used by children.

Also, in the course of such interaction, the experts might also perceive the need to equip themselves with knowledge of children's psychology, particularly the psychology of learning, before venturing out on the task of textbook preparation. This, of course, implies that the job of syllabus and textbook preparation be perceived as a serious professional activity, not as a part-time obligation.

3. Centralised Character

In the specific context of the curriculum planning and textbook production, we feet, the system invites a number of problems upon itself on account of being unnecessarily centralised. It seems there is a widespread misconception which justifies centralisation in these matters. This misconception treats the content of syllabus and textbooks as synonymous with learning and testing norms. On the basis of this confusion, A is argued that syllabi and textbooks should be the same all over a state, even all over the country, in order to ensure uniformity of standards. This kind of argument completely overlooks the lopsided manner in which standards are set under the present system by an examination system which focusses on information rather than on skills and capacity to apply skills. Indeed, there is a 'catch 22' situation: the examination system ignores skills, concentrating on memorised information, definitions and descriptions; therefore, syllabus and textbooks, which cannot do justice to diversified milieux, varying needs and facilities, become necessary to ensure that all children 'know' the same 'facts'.

This circular argument has created a situation in which curriculum and textbook preparation is confined to the state capitals and New Delhi. At regional and local levels, teachers do not perceive curriculum development and preparation of educational materials as part of their job. And indeed, the way these tasks have been defined and traditionally carried out in our country, they are not the teacher's job. The teacher sees his or her role as one of elucidating whatever content of knowledge is prescribed in the syllabus. At the primary and lower secondary stages, teachers come to know the syllabus through the textbook which acts as the de facto syllabus. 'Covering' the syllabus means 'covering' or finishing the textbook. This kind of perception results in the confinement of classroom life to a narrow orbit. Classroom knowledge assumes total independence from the child's own experience and knowledge of the world. As a consequence of this de-coupling, children begin to compartmentalise knowledge into two categories: that which has currency III the school anti classroom, anti the other which has uses and relevance outside the school. Necessarily, the knowledge in the first category ceases to have any 'life' and becomes increasingly ritualistic and burdensome.

Teachers also carry the same kind of categorisation in their mind; very few of them are able to help the child make bridges between what is learnt at school and what is required to face real-life situations. One teacher who tried to make such a bridge in a lesson about letter- writing was asked by a Class VI child: "Madam, shall we write it the way we write at home or in the school way?".

While several factors, including those related to the training of teachers, can be held responsible for this aspect of the situation, we feel that the centralised structures of syllabus and textbook preparation set the tone. Howsoever 'good' a textbook produced at central level may be on professional standards, it cannot reflect the subtler nuances of life in a village of Kashmir or Assam. Adaptation to local conditions is indeed officially carried out to match the content of textbooks with local conditions, but it does not change the basic character of a textbook. Adaptation of syllabi to local conditions is even less effectively possible.

4. Convention of 'Teaching the Text'

Lack of adequate opportunities for teachers to Participate in the processes of syllabus and textbook preparation is a major factor indirectly responsible for the problem of unrealistic syllabi or curriculum load. Teachers perform a more direct role in the context of this problem by perceiving the content of the textbook as a rigid boundary or definer of their work in the classroom. Boredom is the inevitable outcome when a tersely written textbook is taught in a rigid, mechanical manner. Poor grasp among teachers of their role as translators of the curriculum into classroom activity is a widely prevalent characteristic of our system. We are citing this as a relevant aspect of the phenomenon of curriculum load without suggesting that there is a vicious cycle here, i.e. teaching cannot improve unless there are better textbooks, etc. We feel that strategies to improve textbook writing and production must work parallel to strategies for improvement in teacher training and for creating an ethos in which teachers would feel motivated to take an academic interest in their work. The perception that a teacher can do little in the classroom that is different from what the textbook says is part of a historical legacy. This legacy must be transcended and the self-perception rooted in it must be changed. Teacher training institutions and the mass media, both can assist in making this change possible.

In the context of constructing a new self-image of the teacher, pre-service training is a key but elusive area of reform. Past attempts to improve teacher training programmes and institutions have met with rather limited success. By and large, teacher training continues to be isolated from mainstream academic areas related to education. Inservice

training too in most of the places, has assumed the character of a ritual devoid of academic substance or the capacity to stimulate. The current efforts to provide statutory status to the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) (as envisaged in the National Education Policy) may perhaps make some impact on the weak training that is generally available in the country to people who want to work with children, especially young children.

Administrative and legal concern needs to be applied to several training programmes running as commercial success stories, such as those offering a degree by correspondence. Similarly, there is need to examine existing policies with regard to nursery teacher training courses and institutions. Indeed, what is required is a review of the overall training policy which permits the traditional bifurcation of degree programmes from non-degree programmes, and their application to different stages of school education. We hope that after acquiring statutory status, the NCTE will work out a comprehensive training programme to cover all stages of schooling, ending the bifurcation we have mentioned above. Such a programme will have to be radically different from the present ones which are anchored in the culture of late nineteenth century normal schools, and are sadly lacking both in perspective and means to equip teachers with the capacity to understand children and their learning processes in a professional manner.

5. Competition-based Social Ethos

Our social ethos, particularly in the urban areas, are now fully entrenched in the competitive spirit which is fast becoming our way of life. The desire to catch up with the industrially developed countries has given it further impetus. Rising aspirations of people in all sections of the society and the growing realisation that education is an important instrument to fulfil their aspirations have resulted in a craze for admission to English-medium schools which start imparting formal education too early in the child's life.

The educated sections of the society believe that command over English is the key to upward mobility in social life. This has led to unprecedented growth in the number of private schools where English is not only taught as a subject but is also used as medium of education in all subjects right from Class I. It is a well-known fact that young children studying in English-medium schools mug up the content of science and social sciences without understanding. It is an accepted principle of pedagogy that whatever is memorised without understanding proves burdensome for children. Any language other

than the mother tongue of the child, if used as medium of instruction, is a big source of academic burden on children. Most of the parents in urban and semi-urban areas do not realise it, in fact they try to promote the use of English as medium of education. Unfortunately, instead of resisting the pressure of the competitive spirit prevalent in the society or directing it in appropriate channels, our educational system has succumbed to it. The most conspicuous manifestations of this phenomenon in education are upgradation of content of syllabus by advancing introduction of many topics and subjects in utter disregard of the process of maturation. The entrance tests for admission to professional courses like engineering and medicine have influenced the objectives, content and methodology of education in many ways. The 'quiz culture' which has taken roots in education, can be attributed to these tests.

With a view to provide incentives to 'high achievers' and 'talented' in different fields, high profile competitions are organised by different departments and institutions in the name of 'talent search', which at the most provide moments of brief glory to the winners but damage the 'ego strength' of numerous others who participate in the contests at the cost of leisurely pursuit of knowledge at their own pace and in their own ways. The experience of the ignominy of failure on the part of millions of children have long- term deleterious effect on the personality of the individual and the matrix of society. It would be better to reward group performance so as to convey the message to everyone that excellence in group work rather than individual effort should be the target.

6. Absence of Academic Ethos

Adequate time, staff, accommodation, and its maintenance funds, pedagogical equipment, playgrounds are essential pre-requisites for effective curriculum transaction but, unfortunately, an overwhelming majority of schools do not have even the minimum essential facilities. It is a matter of great concern that the number of teachers with a sense of commitment is gradually shrinking while cynicism, feelings of helplessness and hopelessness are on the rise. Lack of adequate infrastructural facilities, rigid administrative structures and growing cynicism are responsible for the absence of academic ethos in majority of schools.

The methods of teaching used by majority of teachers are devoid of any type of challenge for the students. Transmission of information rather than experimentation or exploration or observation characterises the teaching-learning process in most of the classrooms. We have no

reason to believe that there is something wrong with our children, rural or urban. Luckily they have not compartmentalised knowledge; they are interested in seeking understanding rather than mere information. As they are educated by us, while they grow older, freshness goes away, as does romance and curiosity. Before anything is learnt they want to find out why they need to know. Must we, in the name of so-called 'proper education' go on committing the murder of their innate desire to discover and to learn on their own ?