The Hindu : Front Page : SSA scheme in Thalavady hills a non-starter

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Tuesday, Oct 02, 2007
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SSA scheme in Thalavady hills a non-starter

Karthik Madhavan

In the hills schools students learn not with books but through illustrated, printed cards
But the cards are available only in Tamil

THALAVADY: ‘Education For All’ project Sarva Siksha Abiyan (SSA), extended throughout Tamil Nadu in primary schools from this academic year, is more or less a non-starter in the hills here.

Bordering Karnataka, the hills have a good mix of linguistic minority students, whose mother tongues are Kannada and Urdu. Considering the students’ status, the State Government has set up Kannada and Urdu medium schools. In the primary education (classes one to four) in these schools, the Government implemented SSA in which students learn not with books but through an interactive method using illustrated, printed cards.

The cards and accompanying accessories like the learning ladder are important, without which the learning process called activity-based learning (ABL) cannot proceed.

The problem for the students in the hills is that the cards are available only in Tamil. Of the five subjects, the students do not have the learning cards for Kannada (language subject, as Tamil is for Tamil medium students), science, social science and mathematics.

“The only cards the students use are for English. Teachers in the linguistic minority schools say in the absence of cards in Kannada, the students use books and in that there is a disparity. The difference in teaching methodology and examination pattern between ABL subject, in this case English, and non-ABL subjects confuses the students, ” says a teacher on conditions of anonymity.

She says in the ABL subject the students grasp faster and better and in the others they are pretty slow in learning. Not only that, the class pattern is also affected. Another teacher, also requesting anonymity, says ABL neither follows a class system nor a timetable.

Students from one to four are brought together to go about learning from cards in their own pace in the structured pattern. Whereas, when it comes to learning through books, each class is separated and teaching becomes a difficulty. And, it is time-bound, meaning the teacher is required to complete lessons within a given timeframe.

Aside from the students’ problem, there is one for the teachers as well. “We received our SSA training to implement ABL in Tamil but are supposed to carry it forward in Kannada and in this we experience a problem,” the teachers say.

Asked about the need for ABL cards in Kannada, sources in the SSA office, Erode, say they have drawn the attention of the State Project Director, who is empowered to take a remedial action.

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