Editor’s note – The following is a short case study by a Mumbai-based youngster who, in this article, discusses some of the measures he took to implement better learning philosophies in Mumbai’s Municipal schools through the School Excellence Programme (SEP)
Author’s note – I work as a Gandhi Fellow in Kaivalya Education Foundation. Based in Brihanmumbai, and functioning as Headmaster Sahyogi (Coach) for School Excellence Programme (SEP) in Municipal Schools of the city. Here’s I’m sharing two of the experiments by me in Mumbai Municipal Schools. The output is very small but it is a step towards making sure that there is space for child to express himself freely and school especially public funded ones become learning communities-Larger goal of SEP.
Editor’s special note about the cartoon – It appears that our cartoonist who illustrated this article had a dark sense of humour of his own. No offense to the Headmistress.
“…aap sahi kehte hain, hum sochte sirf Marathi mein hain issliye angrezi ko samajh nahi paate. Angrezi aane ke liye angrezi mein sochna zaroori hai. Chaliye accha hai aap cchoti si workshop kijiye hamare adhyapkon ke saath., English sikhane ke liye…”
“You are right, we just think in Marathi that’s the reason we are not able to understand English. To understand English one needs to think in English. Good, you do a small workshop with our teachers, to teach English”, Neela Hankare, Headmistress of Vikroli Park Site Marathi School covered under School Excellence Programme (SEP).
Before the beginning of SEP last year in October-November an assessment test was conducted by Education Initiative (EI) across Mumbai Municipal Schools. It was found that the children are weak in English which is a second language. The case was the same in this school. To start with, a staff meeting was called to discuss the EI report. The result was shared. It included that children are not able to spell the words correctly, not able to draw the meaning of given word etc. Problem was shared and all teachers agreed with the concern.
I am neither an educationist nor an expert in pedagogy. But from my experiences in classroom teaching- first phase of fellowship, I shared few ideas with them. This included fear-free environment for kids to express themselves in English. Incorrect grammar, wrong spellings-whatever they feel like doing-let them do. Second step was to write few new simple words in English on the board and ask kids to write sentences by using the given words. The meaning of it should be written in English and while reading those words teacher should explain them once in Marathi. With this way first they will learn new words and their usage later grab additional words apart from the given ones.
Teachers were excited about the recommendations but not convinced. They wanted me to demonstrate my proposals in the class. I was a little hesitant yet excited to use the learning of past experience in Mumbai schools.
We did the activity in 6th standard. We selected few words from their English Textbook. First wrote the words on board with their meanings in English. Explained their meaning once in Hindi. They were requested to form sentences with the given words like “Nest”, “Create” etc.
Nest-House of bird-Chidiya ka ghar.
Create-Make- Banana
They formed small sentences like “Sparrow live in Nest”, “Crow make nest”; “I create pen” etc. The grammar of the words was corrected right in front of them. But this encouraged them to play with the new English Words. Now whenever I go to their classroom-they try to talk to me in English.
Few teachers took initiatives like writing small words in classroom. The teacher of 2nd standard called me in to see those and asked kids to read them for me.
In 4th & 5th Children were not able to spell their names in English so the teachers wrote their names on A4 sheet and pasted on the walls of classroom so that they can get the glimpse of it whenever needed. Post workshop teachers started experimenting with the material for English provided by Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan.
There were Flash Boards with alphabets and words with their picture. 4th standard teacher asked me about for the better usage of these boards for helping kids to learn the English alphabet. One conventional way was to give the cards to children to copy. She was already doing that but not very satisfied with that. So we experimented with the same boards. I copied few words from them on the board and asked children to identify few letters through their sound in respective words. Kids liked the activity but not all were participating. So we concluded that it would be better if the same is done in groups.
Interestingly after the English Workshop teachers started coming up with problems like “Is there a better way to teach longitude – latitude and directions as students are not able to grab it?”-Headmistress once asked “We have Abacus-but can you tell us how to use it”.
In the past, from the same Headmistress I used to hear the request for a clerk; but now, more than a clerk, she needs an academic supporter in the school.
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