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Hillary calls for inclusive education

Siddhesh Inamdar

“India could experiment and see if imparting education in Indian languages helps students”

— PHOTOS: VIVEK BENDRE, PTI

COMMON CONCERN: U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton with Bollywood star Aamir Khan at Teach India and Teach for India programme organised at St. Xavier’s College in Mumbai on Saturday.

Mumbai: Though the education system in the U.S. is good, its reach is not entirely inclusive, visiting Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said here on Saturday.

“We have great universities but not for everyone and not for students who fall behind.”

Ms. Clinton said education was an issue “very near and dear” to her heart.

The occasion was a discussion at St. Xavier’s College, on the state of education in India and the U.S., where she had for company Bollywood actor Aamir Khan. She praised him for being an “advocate for education.”

To make education more inclusive, Ms. Clinton said, India could experiment and see if imparting education in Indian languages helped students instead of laying emphasis on English.

However, bilingual education was difficult. “In New York, there are many students wanting to learn in Spanish, Chinese and Russian. But there is a shortage of teachers, leave alone bilingual teachers.”

Ms. Clinton with a Self Employed Women’s Association woman during her visit to the Hansiba SEWA Trade Facilitation Centre in Mumbai.

Mr. Khan spoke of his film ‘Taare Zameen Par,’ in which he addressed the lack of inclusiveness in education.

Ms. Clinton said she did not believe children’s capacities were limited, though opportunities given to them were. Poverty had a huge role in the denial of opportunities, she said.

To make education effective, it was necessary to lay emphasis on training teachers. She pointed out that she had taken many initiatives in the U.S. to promote education, for instance, a test she introduced for teachers in Arkansas. This test weeded out teachers who were not made for teaching.

On the other hand, Ms. Clinton said, there were teachers who spent $400 annually out of their pockets to buy additional material to assist in teaching. Training and equipping teachers was a pre-condition for producing excellent students.

Mr. Khan elaborated on her point in the Indian context. In order to produce good teachers, he said, India would have to give “top priority to education so that one day the top jobs that people vie for are in the field of education.”

As a society, “our emphasis” should be on enlightening children and not on rote learning, so that “tomorrow’s children can take humanity forward in ways we can’t even imagine today.”

Ms. Clinton said there was a lot of competition for children’s attention in today’s world. Interacting with volunteers of education initiatives, Teach India and Teach for India, she said: “There is so much else going on in the culture that the importance of education goes down from a child’s point of view.”

“Let’s be creative”

Sharing his experience, one volunteer said children would tell her point blank if her lessons got boring.

To keep students constantly engaged, Ms. Clinton said, it was important to use technology effectively. “Let’s be creative.”

PTI reports:

Ms. Clinton visited a trade outlet of the Gujarat-based NGO, Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), in South Mumbai and interacted with its 1,000 shareholders through ‘Skype’ (an Internet visual communication mode).

Ms. Clinton emphasised the role of women for inclusive and sustainable economic progress of the world.

The world could not progress if women were left behind in development, as they were key to economic progress and social stability. “If we leave women behind, we will simply not progress.” she said.

“At this time of global economic turmoil, we see disproportionate impact on women and the SEWA represents the innovative and successful approach to sustainable and inclusive development.”

Ms. Clinton lauded the skilled artisans of the NGO for using communication technologically effectively.

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