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Quality education as the pupil’s right

Revisiting the past can be an exciting experience. It opens a window to show how events and ideas take shape.

The Class X examination results of 2006 saw a pass percentage of 68 in Kerala. But 104 schools remained at the bottom of the heap. The 68 per cent pass had a different meaning for some: a third of all students had failed. No system that upholds the constitutional values of equality and social justice could have ignored or overlooked a failure of such a magnitude. So Kerala launched the quality education programme with the slogan of “quality education the pupils’ right,” covering 95 of the 104 schools. But the critics’ voices were acerbic. They looked at it as political propaganda. It did not enthuse some of the State government’s well-wishers, either.

But the Class X results of 2007 silenced them. The 95 schools saw exciting results. To the surprise of many, all of them moved out of their ‘failed’ status. A few of them even marked 100 per cent pass. How did this happen?

The pass percentage in these 95 schools was 33 or less in 2006. They are scattered across the State, but with concentrations in rural settings. The students were from a working class background. They invariably had no noon meals; nor were the conditions in their homes favourable to learning. Naturally, in classroom settings guided by conventional modes of transaction they faced difficulties in learning Mathematics, English, Hindi and Chemistry.

There has been some disquiet over their conditions of learning. The less privileged are less fortunate in accessing quality education. Sensing the disquiet, the State government initiated the quality education programme in the academic year 2006-07. It envisaged a process-oriented learning programme to unlock the boundaries set by the limitations of socio-economic backgrounds, and to open a path to engage children in learning and development. The State Department of Education designed academic interventions, involving the Director of Public Instruction (DPI), the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT), the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA) and the District Institute of Education and Training (DIET), as well as educational functionaries at different levels. With a need-based resource flow to the tune of Rs. 1 lakh to each school, the programme was rooted in the support of collectives involving parents, the community, voluntary organisations, local self-government institutions, teachers and experts. The collectives provided a framework to shift the focus from ‘your children’ and ‘your school’ to ‘our children’ and ‘our school’.

The professional development of a teacher that transforms him or her as an agent of change is the central aspect that runs through the programme. Focussing on learning in Class X, the initiative helped design a need-based learning programme for all. A teacher’s module based on a process-oriented perspective covering various subjects, outlined subject-specific transactional treatment of concepts and ideas. Once in a week, members of the resource groups joined the teachers to engage the classes. After class they reflected and discussed the classroom experiences and drew up plans for the following week. The whole process was monitored in a different manner. The DPI and local resource persons were part of the monitoring mechanism.

Half-yearly examinations held in these schools based on common question papers helped identify certain fault-lines. For instance, answers to questions in Malayalam that focussed on creative expressions revealed a lack of clarity of ideas, whereas in the case of questions in English the answers showed up broken ideas. Some students performed mathematical functions but failed to demonstrate any knowledge of the principles involved in them. In science, the tendency to repeat ideas in situations where they were not needed was observed. In social science, they failed to state the precise answer to a question; instead they preferred to detail whatever they knew. Though students who came in this category were not too many, these answers posed serious concerns when the focus was on learning by all.

The resource group critically reflected on the fault-lines and formulated a set of subject-specific modules to address the areas of concern. At school, students got extended learning time. In the evening they gathered at neighbourhood learning centres. Children in a neighbourhood gathered after school hours, preferably at the house of a girl student or a community member who volunteered to provide facilities for evening study. With the support of the collectives, schools provided the children noon meals, as refreshments during the extended learning time.

The academic initiatives conceived and executed through the involvement of different levels of educational functionaries and teachers and with the support of the collectives, set in motion a process of change. The focus placed on the process of learning by all marked a change in curricula practices. While in 2006 the 95 schools recorded a pass percentage of 33 or below, in 2007 they all moved beyond the zero to 33 range, scoring varying levels of success. While 46 schools came in the 51-75 per cent range, 37 schools came in the 76-99 per cent range. Four schools marked 100 per cent pass. It was a remarkable achievement for these schools, peopled by less fortunate children.

It has been an arduous journey to this triumphant moment. It reflects the efforts of teachers in providing quality education. The initiative has given the teachers the space to formulate school-specific programmes, involving the collectives and resource groups. The opportunity that the teachers get to relate with the collectives, the parents, the community, voluntary organisations, local experts and local self-government institutions creates the much needed space for decentralised thinking, decision-making and taking actions in their collective interest. It also opens the space for greater participation by all individuals in their children’s education. This is what the 2007 Class X examination results in the 95 schools speak of.

What is striking is that if these children are given the right conditions to engage themselves in the process of learning, they are capable of learning and moving out of their academically marginalised status. Further, the academic initiative mirrors the readiness and adequacy of the response systems to accept challenges and to respond to such situations. The readiness with which various institutions and different levels of resource groups functioned in creating conditions for learning, enhanced the richness of the academic interventions. It helped transform the school into a learning centre. This is a shift towards a collective effort that is critical for children’s development-oriented initiatives.

Our experience shows that marginalised children are capable of learning and achieving results if the right conditions are created for their engagement in learning. Trusting the teachers and giving them decision-making freedom open the way for professional development. It is interesting to note that the participation of the collectives strengthened and sustained quality education initiatives through decentralised decision-making. I hope that the critics of the participation of local self-government bodies in education will get to see the meaning of the reality on the ground.

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