There Are No Such Things As Failures, There Are Only Results.

(It was written in 2009 when I was teaching in Maldives while preparing for my assembly speech.Teachers used to speak in the morning assembly on various topic)

Today I would like to talk to you how our attitude towards success and failure influence the result of our action. At first I should like to share an experience I had this year. I am going to talk about a student very briefly. In the beginning of this academic year I found him passive and reluctant to complete the tasks in the classroom. This student had different excuses. Either he won’t bring the book, if he brings the book he won’t have the interest. On the other hand he was receptive at times. Finding his ability to communicate I consulted this matter with the leading teacher and he talked to him. 

Thus I could find changes in his response. He started participating actively. But after few weeks again his interest declined. My advice had no effect on him. Finally I got a chance to meet him with his mother. I discussed this matter with his mother and told her son is really skilled and could get through the exam if he worked hard. Before mother could say anything he spoke frankly. He told me “Sir actually I have decided not to study English. It is not my subject. Every year at the beginning itself I leave English.  Few weeks I worked in the class not for me, but to make you happy.” Then he explained the reason. He never passed in English exam and even if he passed it was only the first  unit test.  It never repeated. 

Dear students, there is no such thing as failure. There are only results.  To inspire this student, I told him about a man’ great success. There was a man who 

 Failed in business at age 21

Was defeated in legislative race at age 22

Failed again in business at age 24

Overcome the death of his sweetheart at age 26

Had a nervous breakdown at the age 27

Lost congressional race at age 36

Lost senatorial race at age 45

Failed in an effort to become vice-president at age 47

Lost a senatorial race at age 49

Who was selected president of US at age 52....Do you know who is this man. Abrham Lincoln who was the great president of United States of America.

Recently I happened to read an article in Readers digest about a boy of unusual vision.  It was about a boy named Calvin Stanley. It seems Calvin rides a bike, plays baseball ,goes to school and does just about everything else that a eleven year old can do except see.

How could this little boy do all these things while many people in the same situation just give up on life or live in sorrow. Calvin’s mother is a master reformer. She has turned every experience Calvin has experiences that others would have classified as ‘limitations’- into advantages in Calvin’s mind. Since that’s what he represents to himself, that’s what Calvin experiences.

Calvin’s mother remembers the day her son asked why he was blind. “I explained he was born that way and it was nobody’s fault.” She told him.  He asked “WHY me”, I don’t know why, Calvin. May be there is a special plan for you” Then she sat her son down and told him “You are seeing Calvin; you are just using hands instead of your eyes. And remember there is nothing that you can’t do”

One day Calvin was very sad because he realised h e would never see his mother’s face. She said “Calvin, you can it with your hand and by listening to my voice and you can tell more about me that way  than somebody who can use his eyes.” 

Calvin moves in the sighted world with trust and faith and the unshakable confidence of a child whose mother has always been there for him. Calvin wants to become computer programmer and somebody design programs for the blind.

Dear students, it’s your attitude, your decision, faith, confidence and determination and above all your interest that matters. No one can touch you if you are confident.  Once again I remind you, there are no such things as failures. There are only results.  

Thank you. Have wonderful day.

On a Historical Verdict by Allahabad High Court to Save the Education System

“The Allahabad High Court on Tuesday took a serious note of the pathetic condition of primary schools in the state and directed the chief secretary to ensure that children/wards of government officials/servants, those serving in the local bodies, representatives of people and judiciary etc., send their wards to these schools. 

Only then would they be serious enough to look into the requirements of these schools and ensure that they are run in good condition, the court observed.

During the course of hearing, the court noticed the deplorable condition of these schools and observed that although they are catering to the needs of 90% population of children, their condition could be described as shabby.”

 -TIMES OF INDIA, August 19^th 2015

There is no dearth of constitutional provisions to educate the children of our country. The below are some of the provisions that points towards the responsibility of the state to have the indispensable role in educating the young minds of our country.

Article 29(1) states “No citizen shall be denied admission into any educational institution maintained by the State or receiving aid out of State funds, on grounds only of religion, race, caste, language or any of them.”

The Fundamental Rights of the Indian Constitution has also adopted the four fold ideal of justice, Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. Our Constitution laid down that in the eyes of law, everyone should have an equal status, to no one the justice be denied, everyone should have liberty of thought, expression.

The fundamental right of equality clearly signifies that in the eyes of law no distinction can be made on the basis of any position, caste, class or creed. Side by side the right of equality of opportunities to all is also provided. The equality of opportunity is meaningless, unless there are equal opportunities for one’s education.

The well-known Kothari Commission, 1964-66 recommended that Central Government should undertake the responsibility in education for the equalization of educational opportunities with special reference to the reduction of inter-state differences and the advancement of the weaker section of the community.

Provisions under Article 45 of the Directive Principles of State Policy that, “The state shall endeavour to provide within a period of ten years from the commencement of this Constitution, for free and compulsory Education for all children until they complete the age of fourteen years.”

Article 15, 17, 46 safeguard the educational interests of the weaker sections of the Indian Community, that is, socially and educationally backward classes of citizens and scheduled castes and scheduled tribes.

Under Article 46 of the Constitution, the federal government is responsible for the economic and educational development of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

All these years successive governments in Centre and various states have been running away from their prime responsibility to provide free and compulsory quality education to all children. Though several committees have been appointed on educational matters, no government accepted suggestions for democratic and equitable education system in our country. The state that always supported the interest of the elite class/caste sabotaged the idea of common school system. It thwarted all possibility for the emergence of a country that got equality, freedom from the tyranny of caste system, discrimination and all kind of oppression. 

What happened with the implementation of District Primary Education Programme (DPEP), which was continued with Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), was the collusion of Indian state with World Bank and International Monitory Fund (IMF), the agents of Imperial forces.  It was aimed at confining the quality elementary education and higher education only for the minority elite class. Now Indian education is widely open for the market forces to implement their agenda of business and profiteering. It will force the children from the marginalized sections , if possible to be literate, to find livelihood in some unorganized sections, self employed sectors or some kind of laborers (skilled or unskilled) without any right to demand any job opportunities that require deep knowledge and sophisticated skills. 

The Allahabad High court verdict has serious implications and it could be the first step towards a common school system where every children of India will have equitable and quality free education if implemented without diluting. It is a crucial step to improve the education system in government schools and thus the entire education system in the country which would weaken and annihilate the private school lobby which has grown to a mafia now. Though this verdict does not have all the essential provisions for a strengthening the public school system, if implemented nationwide it would give hope for a society with relatively less disparity and oppression.

Children Deprived of Learning Experience.

It was during the journey to Madhya Pradesh, I could enjoy the company of a 4 year old girl Roshni. She belongs to a rural area of Gorakhpur district born to a farmer family. Just like any other girl of that age she explored all the opportunities for fun and excitement with fellow passengers. Gradually I turned my focus on reading a book and others slipped down to silence. She could observe the stillness and grabbed a notebook from her mother’s bag and started scribbling Hindi alphabet and drawing some pictures. No one advised her to do so and it was her own initiative. 

Teachers and parents who always attempt ‘creating interest’ in children to learn lessons, acquire knowledge and skills often are unmindful of the fact that children are self motivated and there is an inherent urge in them to learn new things and experience the joy of exploring the unknown. There is pure desire for development which is shaped in their own pace and nature. Disregarding this universal fact, we use coercive strategies and classroom and home give them undesirable moments of tyranny. What could have been realized just by creating conducive atmosphere and supplemented by some kind of stimuli turns to be hegemony of the elders over children to achieve certain results without considering the organic system of childhood. 

The situation in most of the  rural public schools  are different though they produce the same result of their semi urban/urban counterpart of private schools that practice non productive education which impart curriculum with information that are transmitted to children through conventional pedagogy. Different situation does not mean productive atmosphere, on the other hand it is rather free of pressure from parents, teachers, peers and community at large. Most of the rural Government schools are last shelter for vulnerable children who can’t afford private school expense. Public education system has not moved forward from rudimentary facilities of all weather building, black board, chalk and text books with few teachers, in most of the time inadequate to maintain the approved child teacher ratio, to run the show sponsored by the state. In the midst of this deplorable condition few children acquire the status of being literate that enable them to reproduce information (not knowledge) without understanding which is the beginning of rote learning. The other children remain drop out (actually they are pushed out as the eminent educationist Prof. Anil Sadgopal describes due to the discouraging and unproductive classroom experience) or continue attending class without learning anything substantial until they find a compelling situation to earn a living. 

It is important to investigate why children who have the instinct to learn, to enjoy the excitement of discovering new things and grow remain stunted in the schools. Every year Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) analysis by Pratham reminds us of the poor learning outcomes in the Government schools which promote the capable parents not to send their children to Government schools. Children at the age of 2 to 4 learn a language fails to learn anything more in the classrooms prove the dismal atmosphere they are made part of. It is important for every educator and responsible citizens of our nation to recognize why our schools fail to encouraging children to develop inquiring minds and ability to find answers to millions of questions through personal and collective investigations. 

It is hard to find any objects in the Govt. schools that stimulate the children to learn and attain knowledge through action. Even library and laboratories are luxurious and unimaginable amenities in Government schools. Children in these schools are denied every opportunity to work and gain knowledge which is beyond the conventional chalk and talk pedagogy. There is neither opportunities for them to acquire knowledge nor to be creators of new knowledge. The situation embarks on catastrophic end when the content of curriculum and pedagogy are completely disconnected from their reality. Children in the rural areas do not find a linkage between the lessons given in the prescribed textbook and their realities and finally withdraw themselves from the system. Most of the teachers who are burdened with responsibilities of maintaining records are discontented about their job for various reasons and they do not make any effort to contribute something of their own to improve the miserable state of affairs. 

It is obvious that children in every school should be given opportunity to work with equipments and experience knowledge through doing and observing rather than unreceptive storing information to reproduce to prove their competence. The aim of productive classroom should be to build conscious citizens for a truly democratic, egalitarian, secular and enlightened India. Therefore it is essential to create classrooms that foster creativity, innate desire in every child to learn and experience the joy of productive knowledge considering the diverse needs of young minds and socioe-conomic realities.  

Lessons from Mr. David and Issues of Development

Development (Vikas in Hindi) is the rhetoric that resonate every sphere of life including political speech and Social work. The more you deal with the core of the topic, the more you get into the labyrinthine arena of its uncertainty that would lead you far from any definite conclusion of its means and ways. Like any other person involved in development I too was indulged in the multifarious tasks of project activities with fusion of confidence, skepticism, satisfaction, disillusionment and of course optimism that emerges out of lessons leant from everyday experience while working with people and environment. Such was the experience bestowed upon me and my colleagues while working with Mr. David Syme, a veteran development consultant from Australia. He came to Gorakhpur as the team leader of the Mid Term Review of a project that is implemented for the mainstreaming of Persons with Disabilities. In the introductory session of the review he termed the process of evaluation as ‘an appreciative enquiry’ which would be participatory and looking at the positive side of whole affairs.

I do not wish to write about the evaluation and its outcome but about the process and an important lesson that I could absorb as a splendid principle of development and of course life. During the process he was very particular to ensure that diverse voices were heard during the field visit to interact with community members especially persons with disabilities. He interacted with them without discrimination in an atmosphere of mutual respect and understanding. Thus all the participants could express their view and experience freely and generously. 

I was amazed to find how he facilitated the discussion with patience and great sense of understanding. He was not in a hurry to get the participants to reply immediately after a question ( it was not a question, but an enquiry into their realities) but allowed them to take time and express themselves. During the conversation he reminded the team members “we should even appreciate their silence because we should not expect the community members to respond immediately after a question placed in front of them. They need to understand and reflect in their own pace and manner.” He also reminded us we should not be in a hurry to define change but rather we should allow people to express what they consider as change or development. What you define as change may not be so for a community in a different context.

Now about the splendid principle of development that I could absorb from Mr. David was his comment during a conversation which I consider the ‘manthra’ of development or even as a core value of human life. He said “My duty as the leader of evaluation team is not just to throw ideas into various stakeholders but to facilitate them to move towards the desired direction and support them to attain it in diverse means.” This statement really touched me as I find the absence of this core value in various spheres of life including development activities, where we sometime even go to the extent of coercion. The best example in development is the way Government conceive the whole idea of eliminating open defecation from rural and urban areas. Wide range of programmes including Total Sanitation Programm, to Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan and now Swatch Bhrart Abhiyan were Government centric and the Government expecting the people to change towards adopting safe disposal of human waste after constructing the toilets at subsidized rate without even creating demand. Millions of rupees from the exchequer were invested to construct toilets and vast majority of them are used by the people for various purposes such as a store room and they remain dysfunctional. 

As Government deal with development issues, teachers at school, parents at home, priests at temples, churches, mosques etc., leaders of organizations, managers of the firms, the intellectuals in seminars and workshops play the role of reservoir of ‘progressive ideas’ and agents of change that are more enthusiastic to make others feel inferior and make them aware of their drawbacks. Thus blaming, paying  focus on weakness along with possible solutions becomes the central areas in the above mentioned fields of life. In development sector one can find two groups, one the providers (knowledge, ideas, resources) and the other at the receiving end. The providers always believe they are infallible and its their duty to provide others solutions that they believe the right thing to adopt. I found a bold departure in David’s approach towards people in enabling them to become agents of change themselves. The whole approach was not to dominate the other with his wisdom and experience but to assist people towards the desired changes or progress. He interacted with various stake holders especially who are key people in the project implementation side at various occasions with the keen intention of a better project cycle management. He was not just pointing out the errors or weakness but facilitating all of us towards the change.

Finding faults, drawbacks, sharing solutions and bunch of advices are a common man’s cup of tea but without a judgmental attitude, respecting diverse views, and facilitating people towards change without imposing an inferior feeling into the minds of others is possible only for persons like David who are blessed with decorum, insight, and true wisdom.