‘Quality in Education’ Q&A - 2

Q. Why are many middle-class parents are getting increasingly dissatisfied with traditional urban private schools in India?

A. Many are in fact questioning the very relevance of schools. Factory model of school education is questioned and De-schooling is gaining ground and has come a long way since the days of Ivan Illich.

Unfortunately, the parent community is not concerning itself with basic issues like Learning Vs. Schooling.  In Indian cities, schooling is considered as a means to asserting social and cultural power.

Assuming that schools should remain relevant for at least some years to come, we may look at the nature of issues that cause dissatisfaction with the present school system.

There are specific issues and there are system related issues.

It is possible that some child-specific issues may get automatically resolved when appropriate systemic changes are made, other issues may still be there.

It may be possible to resolve some child-specific issues irrespective of systemic changes.

Some issues may not get resolved unless there are systemic changes.

We need to differentiate between issues that are contingent upon systemic changes and those that are not.

While attempting systemic changes we need to proceed cautiously because;

i) our school systems are struggling to accommodate conflicting objectives

ii)we have to have contingent plans ready when we are trying to tweak an established system (which already has some proven merits) particularly because 'young lives are at stake'.

Many of the problems echoed by parents are 'self-limiting.' These problems are very much likely to go away by the time children reach the end of VII std. Not because they are going to get good teachers but because the children would have developed sufficient cognitive skills. A case by case analysis can address and alleviate fears.

One can understand the anxiety of parents living in a world changing at the speed of thought. Human beings can and do adapt to these changes very quickly. But they can not evolve that fast. Human embryo does not yet mature @speed of thought and still needs 9 months plus to develop and human children still need the time-frame proposed by the likes of Jean Piaget, to develop cognitive skills. (So patience, my dear parents, patience!)

I understand the need parents feel to shape and fashion their children in tune with the life-style in vogue. The schools need to adapt to these aspirations, but certainly not at the cost of fanning egocentrism in children (and in parents).