Haritha Vidyalayam, the educational reality show has proved that the real gems of School Education is nowhere else than in Government Schools. It was an opportunity to dig out the creative potential of lion’s share of our students and the best model of the collective efforts of teachers, parents and the local community. Calicutnet spoke to the eminent judges, who experienced the pulse of present education scenario in connection with the grand finale of Haritha Vidyalayam.

Dr.R.V.G Menon, the chief jury and eminent educationalist and environmental engineer has said that Haritha Vidyalayam, the reality show could help them to realize how the new curriculum and innovative methods of teaching had helped students, practically in their class rooms.

Parents’ role, in changed scenario

Dr.R.V.G Menon has underscored the need that students must learn his or her studies and social values from the schools itself.

“In many foreign countries students are not even allowed to take away their study materials and books to their homes. They are not assigned to do home works also”
He has said that when the education set-up is molding in tune with global changes, parents acting as tuition teachers at home won’t help their kids. But this doesn’t mean that parents have no role at all in their kids’ education, Dr.RVG clarified.

“The range of vision of parents should change. Home support must be based to provide children to think independently with an enquiring mind.

Parents can guide them to the right path like how they are familiar with books and how to approach all other medium like newspapers as supplementary to their knowledge enhancement and overall growth as curious onlookers of the world around. Children should get support from both their homes and the society to grow as a responsible individual.”

“Parents otherwise should not involve in their studies as teachers do in the school. It might confuse the kids. Even if parents have good educational background and subject knowledge, they are not professional teachers. Parents have their own limitations. The home support in studies is strictly allied to circumstances. Those who have this facility, stand top in classes by catching alphabets and numeric faster than other kids who do not have the facilities. Teachers also focus this group and their performance had been projected as school’s common success. Parents, who are unable to provide support by themselves at home due to time constraints or vice verse, go behind tuition teachers to make their children competitive. It was the common practice during the pre-DPEP era.

Positive impacts of new curricula and methodology:

He has said that the change in the curriculum and method of teaching has been discerned. There are many positive signs in the schools despite of their size and regions.

“By learning curricula- based lessons at schools provide equal platform for the kids to think and grow independently despite of their family background or financial status. The learning method with remarkable quality can be achieved from the schools alone.”

“The system of simply learning by heart has been changed. New activity oriented system help them to think creatively. The teaching method and curriculum in College level education also should change in accordance with the changes in the schools. Already there have been some changes by introducing Credit based Semester System and giving drive to internal evaluation.”

He said the reality show could help them to learn how the new curriculum and innovative methods of teaching had helped students, practically in their class rooms.

“Actually DPEP was mainly meant for increasing the infrastructure facilities to education. But in Kerala context, we utilized its possibility and introduced curriculum reformation.”

“In the beginning there were many allegations against new activity -oriented way of education by saying that our children had been used as guinea pigs of new experiment. But, later the change has been recognized at national level also. The ICSE and CBSE also approved the activity oriented, participatory education, by emulating Kerala model. This shows the importance of innovative method of activity –based and child-friendly education.”-Dr.R.V.G. pointed out.

Are we losing mainstream system?

Setbacks of the introduced methodology:

Dr.R.V.G said that there is some setback also in this method. “The strenuous evaluation and academic inspection methods have been sidelined with the implementation of new system. Earlier Assistant Education Officers (AEO) and Districts Education Officers (DEO) were the concerned authorities for monitoring the quality of education and its common discipline.

This mainstream system of inspection has been lost and DIET (District Institute for Education and Training) or Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA) acted as the monitoring authority of the quality of education without the power of supervision. It should be corrected.”

“Paradigm shift of the age old education system has been productive and there is a big positive change all over Kerala. We could realize many constructive signs all over the schools. The findings have strong counter point to challenge the fallacy of public education in government and aided schools.”

Environment concern of students

“All over Kerala, the students are concerned on their environment. But what are required are the critical analyses of environmental issues. Students should experience the practical aspects of the environment. Emotionally, every child is anxious about environmental issues. But it should be analyzed critically.”

Why these environmental issues are being tackled? Or why this has originated? What is the type of social and financial factor that causes damage to our environment? Such kinds of enquiries are the real way of learning. We have to go far to achieve in this area.”

Private students lose the soul of learning

Students who come from various segments of society can observe and share the life experience while they study together – Dr. R.V.G has said. In a government school, there may be students coming from families facing starvation, scarcity of clothing etc. When these matters are recognized and it gives anxiety to the child, it is a learning experience.

To make a child self-disciplined the surroundings of government or aided school environment is good.

Private schools do focus on syllabus oriented learning alone. The soul of education is missing there.

IT Learning

Students are well aware of computer usage. Filtering of information can’t be possible by students themselves at this age. But in schools it is under supervision of teachers and it is monitored strictly. But generally, we have to march ahead to achieve more in this area.

“If you ask, what did make me happy throughout the mission, I would say the participation of local community in their schools with trust and dedication. The collective efforts of parents, teachers and the immediate community have been always encouraging.  The size or facility was not the characterization. The real concern was the genuine bond of students with teachers. Malayalam or English medium, most importantly, the students should get care and love from their teachers. The medium should be love.”

We checked the efforts of schools to provide equal participation to each child and we credited the deliberate attempt of the schools for uplifting each student in particular level of learning.”
“When the community keep their schools close to their heart, all the fractions join hands to make their school a great one with the strong participation of PTA, teachers and students with the support of the local community, “concluded Dr.Menon.

An epitome proof to showcase that team work leads to success, ensuring participation from most remote and backward areas of the state, that too in coalition with multiple agencies- Anvar Sadath voices his opinions and experiences on the show.

“In Kerala there had been a fallacy in general among the people that public education was something inferior to private education. But the reality was entirely different .There have been best schools and talented students. As the byproduct of new education under DPEP, the meritorious gains by many government and aided schools had been unnoticed properly. Haritha Vidyalayam has become a live experience to reflect the gains of our schools”.

As Victer channel’s director, Anwar Sadath conceived the idea to make a platform for the schools that have something to show the society.

“In the beginning it was not a reality show in mind. But while considering the huge number of schools, it seemed to be more convenient to host a show. At first, Victers was in mind to air the show. Later, Doordarshan also came forward to telecast the show in prime time;“says Anwar Sadath, Executive Director of IT @School project and director of Victers channel.

The theme was divided into 11 sectors.

The aim was to find out model schools as template or replica to the society and utilize the maximum possibility of school education.

While discussing the initial matters to make the subjects section wise, we noticed the Green Kerala Express.

Anvar has said that the teachers had become more vigilant and involved in all aspects of teaching process. There has been a platform for extracting all kinds of creative talents of children. Totally the system could enhance the concept and as the result of the effort, the productivity has been increased, he said.

Another important advantage of the show was the participation and good performance of backward regions, he pointed out by showing the instance of Raja Kumari School at Poomala, where sixty five percent of pupil represent the tribal community.

In the beginning, he said it was really challenging to coordinate different departments for a common goal. But gradually the collective effort and team work turned to great success.

“The spontaneous learning method could help students to think independently and analyze things practically.”

The show was an equal opportunity for all to show the planning and managing tools in Education.

The new curriculum helped students in logical thinking and situation facing in larger way and it increased their self confidence in communication skills. In short he said the show was the evidence that within limited circumstances government schools could perform well in all the areas of concern with the unique support of community at large.

Akbar Kakkattil, famous writer and former teacher was all in praise for the talent in children and their maturing minds.

He said that in some areas children even think greater than matured people. With imagination and keen observation of their surroundings, they were able to present their talent. The changes that had taken place in the schools were even beyond imagination-he exclaimed.

Another important point that he noticed throughout the show was the participation of schools from villages and their excellent performance amidst many limitations.

In the new way of learning, number of students was not the concern while taking for granted, but how they practiced the methods of teaching and learning by giving thrust to  children’s over all development including his emotional quotient.

The participation of local people in their neighboring schools has really benefited to fruit many creative projects and activity oriented learning process.

“It provided an equal opportunity to learn oneself better than anything. Parents could understand the progress and draw backs of their own children. Similarly the teacher can observe themselves.”

In the beginning stage of new learning system, people were skeptic and they didn’t get enough platforms to monitor it. Need for the evaluation of the activity based learning system was the need of the time. High level thinking of children has given a positive sign to go ahead with the system, undoubtedly with some corrections and clarifications-Akbar Kakkattil concluded.

“Haritha Vidyalayam, the educational reality show has helped lot to change the image of government schools in the society. Many positive signs have been spotted in the general education sector in Kerala with the implementation of innovative curriculum.”- says Piyush Antony, one of the jury members of the reality show.

“The ‘size ‘of schools or exposure of “star” students had nothing to act in the matter of evaluation.

Within their limited resources and facilities, how they have come out in the teaching, learning and all other areas was the point of concern. The schools, giving equal participatory chances to every student to dig out their potentials have been really treasured.”-says Piyush.

Local Action for Global Thought

“There are many values that children should learn from his or her school environment. When a child is learning a lesson on agriculture (eg: Krishi Oru Samskaram), he or she is equipped to grasp its various aspects and above all its extreme necessity for the survival of humanity.  When the children interview the farmers as part of their study, they can realize the importance of the role of agriculture and the process of farming. Most significantly, the dignity of the labor is spotted. There is a social angle also in that chapter as its name. The child can learn the science, social outlook and culture of agriculture in this way.”

The same child is learning the instances of agriculture in other countries with the help of IT enabled services.

“As per the new curriculum, whatever knowledge they acquire, has been linked to their day to day life. This generates interest in their studies. A good participatory learning method with the help of teachers is fulfilled. Whatever theories we have learned for years, as part of our school education, new method has proved its practical possibilities.” – says Piyush.

“The child learns from his environment first and acquires its practical lessons from teachers, parents and the local community. When the students learn and compare the same sector of other countries, they start to think globally and grow as a global citizen.”

“Learning of one’s own origin and culture is essential to learn other cultures.

This show has given ample scope for cross learning among schools”. She said that while interacting with teachers who were the viewers of the show, they had said that they had noticed many innovative ideas and applied them in their schools.”

“When I compared the text books of fifth standard with CBSE and ICSE, I could visualize the difference. The shallowness of CBSE text is disappointing and that put questions in my mind “Why we should send our children to CBSE Schools by spending huge fees?”

Fallacy of prestige

While asked why the upper class always prefers English medium CBSE Schools, Piyush said that from her experience through the interactions with the parents and teachers, it was as the result of insecurity of the middleclass.

“Efforts for a Status quo in the upper-class that originated by forgetting the fact that many of our great forefathers had acquired knowledge from our ordinary schools. Besides this there was a peer pressure also.

She said that it was a fallacy that the government schools had no status. Besides that many had a wrong notion that private schools mould their child to be competitive in English. The end result is that the products of CBSE become poor in both Malayalam and English. There is no method of teaching English as a language effectively in many of these private schools. But the government and aided school students learn Malayalam widely and in-depth. Similarly they can perform in English also whenever required.

“At Neerkkunnam Government School, one of the Doordarshan (DD) employees told me that his children were sent to Malayalam medium in the government school there. He said he had come out from this school and now he has been handling English thanks to his job in the news department of D.D.Kendra. It was one of the best examples of positive outlook of parents.”

We are the people to give onus to our schools. Otherwise, who else will give?

If we put our investment to them, we are the one to ask for accountability.

Enhancing the world of reading

School libraries have a great role in education. In government and aided schools, there is enough space for this process than private schools.

To Piyush, teaching and learning is a process with perfect participation and total involvement of students and teachers.

Social Vision

The class on the chapter on poverty, led to a global perspective by learning from Kerala context. The teacher who has read the hand book on this lesson and the students, who have done the activities well, would definitely look on the issue at global level and they would become socially responsible citizens. Children learn and practice activities based on environment protection. In some schools we could find plastic crematorium. This is the instance of an education with a social vision. In short the new way of learning is life-oriented.”-says Piyush.