FULBRIGHT TEACHERS: Ms. Merribelle Coles, science teacher from Vermont and Ms. Connie Jaramillo, maths teacher from New Mexico.

CHENNAI: "This land is your land, This land in my land; From California to the New York island; From the red wood forest to the Gulf Stream waters; This land was made for you and me." — Merribelle Coles teaches this popular American folksong written by Woodie Guthrie to students of Vidya Mandir, Mylapore.

Ms. Coles and Connie Jaramillo, both teachers from the U.S. are here in Chennai on a Fulbright Teacher Exchange Program. Ms. Coles teaches chemistry and biology at Brattleboro Union High in Vermont and Ms. Jaramillo teaches maths at Las Cruces High, New Mexico. Vaidehi Madhavan from PSBB and Shoba Raman from Vidya Mandir are the exchange teachers for Ms. Jaramillo and Ms. Coles.

The American teachers spoke of the differences in the Indian schooling system, especially how students here were taught subjects in greater depth. "Some of the concepts that we introduce at the higher secondary level, Indian students learn at the Class VIII level itself," says Ms. Coles.

Unlike in the U.S, everything here depends on the student's Class X marks with focus on mathematics and science. The number of electives offered was limited, Ms. Coles noted.

But in the U.S., students have a range of electives to choose from at the high school level — agriculture, animal farm management, organic farming, forensic science, carpentry, weaving, just about anything.

School education in the U.S. is free: the taxpayer pays for it. Irrespective of socio-economic backgrounds all children go to public schools, thereby providing equal opportunity for all.

Teaching methodology

As teachers are also facilitators in the U.S., they combine activities to get the children involved, says Ms. Coles. "Today teachers can teach without a piece of chalk. Animated lectures are followed by group activity, discussions and games too."

The Chennai experience showed the duo that teachers still follow the black board teaching methodology though it was slowly giving way to interactive learning.

Students here take examinations seriously and are keen on scoring high.

In the U.S. the teacher has freedom to evaluate the student, either by written exam with multiple-choice questions or an assignment. Marks are also allotted for activities such as homework assignments, classroom participation, etc.

Significantly, in the U.S., schools are evaluated based on how well their mediocre students improve.

Schools are responsible for improving the performance of poor students.

The teachers, who arrived in Chennai last month, will stay here for about six months.

Impressed by the intelligence of Chennai students, the two said the knowledge, ability and aptitude of students here were much higher than that of their peers in the U.S.

For details about the Fulbright program go to http://exchanges.state.gov or www.fulbrightexchange.org

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