Part I
This
review will be presented in a series of three innings as there is a lot to say…
Philosophy and Approach
The new text
books claim in the preface that they are following the National Curriculum Framework
2005. However, given below are the points where they completely overturn the
philosophy and approach of NCF 2005, in total contravention of the constructivist approach to learning going
back to an era of learning as a response to a stimulus, promoting rote,
breaking learning into atomic bits and teaching as bring about a change in
behavior through practice and drill.
The Preface
Can lowering
the aims be the answer?
The preface
states the rationale for learning English in the State in elementary schools,
it says that English is our lingua franca. It says that the text book ‘makes
students competent in all areas of learning in the English Language and states
these areas as: listening, speaking, reading and writing’.
But the NCF 2005
states that the goals for second language learning are twofold: an attainment
of a basic proficiency such as is required in natural language learning and the
development of language into an instrument of abstract thought and knowledge
acquisition. It further goes on to say that language is a source of all
learning, a medium of understanding and creating knowledge. Or are we as a
state masking our inability to provide enabling conditions for equal access to
higher learning?
If this is the
aim of all language learning (including English, which is the medium of all
higher studies) why does Rajasthan aim so low: to achieve only a basic
proficiency in the language so that it can be used as a lingua franca? What is
the mystery behind this? Or is it because these are State Board text books
where children of marginalized communities study that we keep our objectives to
the minimal level? Aren’t we then depriving the learner of unequal access to
higher education and to economic empowerment?
What do the text
books tell us about the assumptions of the writers about the following?
Assumptions
about Children and Childhood in the text books
Children are
considered as imperfect adults. It is the duty of the adults around them to
teach them morals. Eighty percent of the lessons are directly teaching
children:
Children must
not waste water, they must be clean, they must help others etc. There is no
harm in preaching. However is this the objective of the English language text
book, and do children become better human beings by preaching and moralizing?
NCF 2005
explicitly states that children are cognitively constructing knowledge. They
need to make their own decisions about concepts by through experience and
discussion. ‘Child centred pedagogy means giving primacy to childrens’
experience, their voices and their active participation. Our (traditional)
pedagogical practices focus on the socializing of children and on the receptive
features of children’s learning. Instead we need to nurture and build on their
active and creative capabilities. Frequently the notions of ‘good’ student that
are promoted emphasize obedience to the teacher, moral character and acceptance
of the teacher’s words as authoritarian knowledge’.
The class III
text book has 15 lessons out of which seven treat the child as if she were an
unformed creature, likely to be swayed to do wrong and has to be taught morals
through a hammering of the ‘right behaviour’. Given below are a sample of lessons
from Class III text book which do this:
-
Work while you work – teaching
the child time management
-
A Smile with a Blessing –
helping others
-
Good Habits
-
Swach Bharat Abhiyan –
cleanliness
-
Traffic Lights – Road sense
-
Life Echoes – love and hatred
-
Ant and the Hunter - gratitude
Throughout Class
III the exercises concentrate on writing what is bad and incorrect behavior. Pages
32 and 33 are a sample. Look at the picture read the question and reply.
-
Don’t play in the rain. No, I
won’t.
-
Don’t tease animals. No, I
won’t.
-
Don’t pluck flowers. No, I
won’t.
Does saying what
is ‘the right thing to do’, lead to thinking why we should do this or that?
Preaching and ensuring right or wrong will only lead to behavioural change will
it change the mind? Secondly is this the only objective of Class III that seven
out of fifteen lessons should be devoted to cultivating the ‘right habits’?
Wouldn’t it have been better if the students had been given the opportunity to
discuss in groups, in the mother tongue and respond with their thoughts, while
the teacher could help them respond in English. Free expression, the right to
voice one’s opinions (even unacceptable ones), to be discuss, rationalize and
think through – is it impossible to create such exercises or should we say that
we are not equipped to do so.
Language learning is skill development
Language learning
is about learning a set of skills: listening, speaking, reading writing and
grammar. The approach is through drill and practice using pictures and words. The
child must repeat after the teacher to learn, so activity 2 after every lesson
requires the child to repeat words after the teacher from class 4 onwards. Why
is it that there are no theme based activities with vocabulary, games, and
group tasks to arrive at the meaning of the words through concept formation?
Why this stress on drill? Do we believe that we learn everything, remember
everything because we learn it by heart when cognitive and neurological
research tells us that the mind is a network of ideas and we learn by making
connections between concepts.
From the part
to the whole
The text books
also assume that a child learns language in atomic bits, from the smallest bit
to the largest bit. Therefore classes I consists of learning how to write the
alphabet:a total of 45 pages of writing, one for every letter of the alphabet,
big and small, including pattern practice,155 words to be repeated by the
children in one book of class one! And no connection between these words that
would aid them to be remembered except that they begin with the alphabet a, b,
etc. There are 15 poems in class I but no instructions to the teacher for doing
activities to increase the phonemic awareness of children. The child goes
through the drudgery of writing 45 pages of repeated alphabet and learns 155
words by heart, albeit there are about 50 pictures accompanying them! This is a
very strange interpretation of input rich environment. Input rich environment
means that children learn words in meaningful ways. This is definitely an
amazingly skewed interpretation of comprehensible input with about 15 poems
thrown in for solace.
In class II we
begin with full-fledged texts. So we go from the smallest i.e. the alphabet to
the biggest i.e. texts, but this is in contravention to the NCF 2005 which
states that children need to have an input rich communicational environment and
the input should be comprehensible input. The texts break the input into pieces
and put them together in texts. So in class I and some part of class II we
expose the child to drills in the alphabet and it is assumed that children can
now write words. There is no practice of writing small words in class II and
III. There is no awareness that the child’s previous knowledge, her world
should be brought into the class room, for from class II we begin to preach the
child.
Piaget turns
in his grave
In class II we
begin with writing again, 6 pages of identification and writing of letters of
the alphabet and words. Beginning with a lesson about Swami Vivekanand which
contains words like parliament, religions, represented, platform, culture and
audience, 6 large and complex words in seven sentences. We wonder at this
interpretation of authentic texts that the NCF 2005 recommends! The writers of
the texts need to look into the Piagetian principles of what a child can do at
the concrete operational stage.
Phonic Approach?
Phonics drills
abound in Classes III onwards whereas research in phonics and phonemic
awareness tells us that this is what should be done in classes I to III. The
NCF 2005 states that children need to have an environment of the spoken and
written language around them in the first few years (pg. 39 Input rich
communicational environments). This initiates the processes of acquisition. How
can the processes of acquisition be initiated when children are bending their
heads throughout classes I to III reading and writing the alphabet and a few
words for 80% of the time?
Where is the
voice of the child? Sacrificing plurality on the altar of values
All the
questions under Activity I test facts
and all the answers are scaffolded by indicating ‘right’ answers. Ninety-nine
percent of the exercises have one answer, there are almost no questions which
are open ended in the text books. The position paper for English, N C F 2005
unequivocally exhorts that children need to be given ample opportunities to
respond with their own ideas, talk about their own interests, likes and
dislikes and opinions.
NCF 2005 says
that in the traditional text books when children speak, they are only answering
the teacher’s questions or repeating the teacher’s words. They rarely do things,
nor do they have opportunities to take initiative.
Let us look at a
set of sample questions from activity I
1.
Class III Page 13 What was the
old woman carrying, Who helped the old lady stand? Where did Meera throw the
banana peel? What did the old lady give to Meera?
2.
Class IV page 13 What did Ram
make for his project? Who took Prakash to hospital and why? Who helped Ram in
joining the school? Why could not Prakash play the match? How did Prakash
realise Ram’s pain?
3.
Class V page 13 Why does the
poet say we are not afraid? Which line in the song tells you that the poet is
not living peacefully in the present? How do you feel when you sing this song?
4.
Class VI page 13 At last… This
line is said by … Who gave advice to the son?
5.
Class VII page 13 Which trees
were being cut down by the royal people and why? Who was the supervisor of the
team? Who lost their lives and why? How did Amritadevi protest? What did
Maharaja Abhay Singh do when he came to know about the massacre?
6.
Class VIII page 10 Where did
the animals usually assemble? What did the animals do in their fun time? When
did the animals show their anger? Who was Nivedita? How did the animals feel
happy? Why did the cages look empty?
Out of the 25
questions listed here only one question is open ended and gives an opportunity
to children to express their opinions or ideas. All the other questions demand
one textual answer. Is comprehension limited to faithfully repeating textual
information? Doesn’t comprehension imply thinking about the ideas, themes and connecting
them with the world of the child?
Stereotypes
The text book
perpetuates stereotypes belonging to a particular world view:
Look at this task
from page 64 activity 4 of the class 4 text book
I was doing my
homework. My mother ______ (cook) food. My sister __________ (play). My father
________ watch TV. My grandmother ____________ (sing) hymns. Our servant
________ arranging things in the drawers.
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