Post the pandemic parents have realised that most tech-based apps are an option for their children to gain “additional” knowledge and they don’t in any way replace the traditional schooling system where the child is imparted knowledge by a teacher, in a classroom, in person. The classrooms, books, pens and bags are back with a vengeance post their two-year absence.
While we expect Teachers to be subject matter experts and know how to manage children, they also have to deal with the following issues that are prevalent in a majority of Indian primary schools:
1. Large Teacher-Student ratio: This obviously reduces the time spent per child by the individual teacher. Leads to loss of focus due to larger strength in the classroom.
2. Subject Portions: Teachers must complete the prescribed portions within a specified time. This could lead to less time for revision and many a time, leads to a rush towards the end of the year, to finish portions. This is where the foundational learning gaps for the child begin to show, and this challenge compounds when they progress to higher grades.
3. Teacher knowledge gap: Given the hectic annual school schedule, there is almost no time for the teacher to get trained on the latest topics or explore other teaching methods. This is very unfortunate because the teacher also needs to be regularly oriented for better teaching effectiveness. This gap keeps increasing year-on-year for teachers.
4. Meeting the Parent’s expectations: The teacher is expected to meet and exceed every parent’s expectation of their child. This is a challenge as all children are different and learn differently. If the teacher is equipped and oriented to impart teaching in multiple methods, more children will learn based on their preference and gain knowledge.
5. Marks scored is paramount: Over the last 75 years, we have embraced ‘rote’ learning and have gotten cemented to it. This has led to Marks being the only measure to identify a child’s ability to learn or intelligence. This being the situation, all it needs for a child to prosper in our current schooling system is a good photographic memory to capture and put down answers on an exam sheet. On the contrary, when a child gains knowledge about a subject, they become passionate, and marks follow.
Can we tackle, address and overcome these issues as Teachers, Parents, Education Companies and well-wishers? Yes, we can address them very effectively, with a concerted effort. A few directions / solutions are listed here.
ISSUE: Student Teacher Ratio
Education Companies: Design a curriculum which encourages group and peer learning so the teacher can be effective, even with more children in class.
Teachers: Adapt to a curriculum that helps you be more effective with small groups of students in a class, rather than individual teaching.
Parents: Encourage your child to learn with groups of classmates, this also builds their collaboration and social skills.
ISSUE: Teacher knowledge gap
Education Companies: Devise Teacher orientation programs which are short and aimed at up-skilling. Keep the teacher in mind while structuring the training. Ensure that the orientation helps the teacher in effectively teaching children.
Teachers: Teachers are one of the first role models for a child if they up-skill themselves on a periodic basis they can constantly be the best in their profession while easily help the child gain knowledge and progress with confidence.
Parents: Parents, need to support the school that has teachers who are regularly trained and up skilled. This will help their children being educated by a teacher who is up-to-date and trained to impart knowledge in the correct way.
ISSUE: Parent expectations:
Education Companies: Education companies need to design their curriculum that helps the child gain knowledge which in-turn will be appreciated by parents as they will see their children demonstrate the knowledge on a regular basis in their everyday interaction.
Teachers: A well-trained teacher will be able to confidently handle a parent query based on the belief in the strong methodology they follow on a day-to-day basis. A qualitative assessment of a child’s progression when explained to a parent will be appreciated and accepted.
Parents: Parents need to firstly believe the teacher and listen to them about the methodology that they are following to ensure that their child makes a steady knowledge progression.
ISSUE: Marks
Education Companies: A well-designed curriculum that imparts education in a multi-dimensional method always leads to a child developing interest towards studying. This will certainly lead to a child performing well in the evaluations and scoring well. Activities for the child should be made interesting and practical so that they improve qualitatively.
Teachers: Teachers need to spend time in qualitative assessments of the children. When gaps in this show up, remedial measures can be planned so that the child can make progress and the learning gap is reduced. Continuous Comprehensive Evaluation needs to be focussed on in the classroom so that a child’s progress becomes more fuller.
Parents: Parents need to focus on the qualitative progress of their child, this will help the child to learn as per their pace and they will feel encouraged to learn. Marks are a result of either ‘rote’ or ‘knowledge’ learning. Rote eventually leads to failure at some point, but Knowledge is permanent and leads to a confident and successful child.