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Recently I was approached by watchman of our layout. His son, studying 8th standard in a Kannada medium government school had got lowest marks in Social Science, and the worried father had come to seek tuition for his son.

I agreed to take lessons and asked him to send his son every evening for an hour. On first day, when the boy arrived on his bicycle, he did not look like coming from a poor family. For his age he was looking very healthy and well built.

In my first class, I asked him why he got less marks in Social Science. He said he had not studied for the test. I asked him to open the Social Science book and read the lesson on which the test was conducted. He started reading it – loudly, and I was shocked to hear what he was reading.

He was struggling to construct even simple words. He was pronouncing those words as if they were alien to him (he was reading Kannada, his mother tongue).

One observation I made was that; he had never heard standard Kannada words(those which are used in texts) in his class, even the meaning of very common words was unknown to him. I insisted him to try and give answers in the local dialect, but he persistently failed.

For a Kannada medium student, reading Kannada should be a fundamental necessity to understand the subject. When he is struggling to read the text, there is no way he can understand the content of it.

Next day I asked him to read the whole chapter. He took enormous time, and energy to finish it. He was not at all ashamed of it. When I said that I would prepare him in such a way that, in few months he would be getting top rank, he instantly said, “I am already a 7th rank student”! (out of some 50 students)

Few days ago I read that the education Minister of Karnataka was mulling over a plan to introduce English as medium from 5th standard in Government run schools. How ridiculous that proposition is. When teachers are not qualified to enable students to read in their own language, how they are expected to teach a language totally alien to the children?

During summer vacation, my cousin and her 8 year old son had come to our home to spend vacation. This boy is studying in a ‘convent’ in his village – it’s a private institution run by few graduates in his village itself. They have adopted private syllabus and the medium of instruction is both Kannada and English.

One day while I was reading the Kannada daily, from behind he shouted the headlines of that newspaper. I asked him to read the content also. He started reading them with ease, occasionally tumbling while pronouncing difficult words. Later I asked him to read English daily, he read it with more ease. Then I taught and encouraged him to search for words in dictionary and learn their meaning, after some time he started enjoying the process.

He had just finished his 2nd standard. He was sent to a private school, and in a village. What difference made him to learn fast, far better than learning in a Government run schools?

One clear answer for this question is – quality teachers and also concerned teachers. Government pays better salary to their teachers. They lack vision, concern and many times quality and ability to teach students innovatively.

Not all teachers are bad, but certainly most of them are.

There was more shock in store for me from my new student. I wanted to check if he at least knew the Kannada alphabets. I asked him to write his name. He wrote ‘Surya‘(ಸೂರ್ಯ) correctly and speedily. Then I asked him to write ‘kaarya’(ಕಾರ್ಯ) – he took more than a minute to write ‘kariya’(ಕರಿಯ) - a popular movie name in Kannada, and still couldn’t write ‘kaarya’. He had to replace ‘su’(ಸೂ) from ‘kaa‘(ಕಾ) from his name and write it. He failed in it.

Later I dictated many words to him. All of them he wrote wrongly. Finally I asked him to write ‘akshara‘(ಅಕ್ಷರ) – shockingly he could write only first syllable.

I gave him a set of 50 words, and asked him to write them 50 times. He came back finishing the task. Then I dictated a whole page from a textbook, and asked him to correct himself whatever mistakes he had committed while writing.

I hear people crying that they are not given employment, and locals should be given preference while employing. Every recruiter would want to hire a best person. We do not address the fundamental deficits in our education system, rather we go for cosmetic changes to make reforms appear shiny.

Unless Governments address ‘quality’ issue in schools, increased enrollment ratio will only produce increased ‘illiterates’.

Social justice is not met by mass enrollment, or increased rates of ‘literacy’ – there should be an effort to mitigate the deficiencies plaguing the education system and then address those issues with utmost urgency.

Surya was robbed of his talent by his teachers. No child is dumb until he is made one.

 

 

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