Part III : A No Win Situation

As per Lord Wiki:

A no-win situation, also called a “lose-lose situation”, is one where a person has choices, but no choice leads to a net gain. For example, if an executioner offers the condemned the choice of dying by being hanged, shot, or poisoned, the condemned is in a no-win situation... In a less morbid example, if one has a choice for lunch between a ham sandwich and a roast beef sandwich, but is a vegetarian, that might be considered a no-win situation.

So, how is it relevant to any discussion on Indian education? Frankly, I don't know. Just a thought came as I began to write this piece. As they say, 'soch kahin bhi aa sakti hai.'

So here it goes... Part III of this series and the second reason why students and parents get disillusioned and disengaged with education.

Who wants education anyway? We have all heard romantic stories about really under-privileged and deprived people cutting all corners (which is ridiculous as many don’t have any corners to cut, to start with!) to pay for the nearby private school fee in the hope of educating their kids. My kaamwali bai spends half her salary on the school and tuition fee for her two children!

Do these people actually care for education? 

Nonsense. All they want for themselves and their kids are three things-

1. Paisa (money)
2. Izzat (respect in peer group/society)
3. Taraqqi ke asaar (hope of future growth)

And before you frown at the over-simplification, hang on a moment. These very things may be true even for you and many of us more elitist ones too.

Coming back to my point, people by-and-large really don’t give a damn about education other than the fact that education seems to be their only hope for above three. So, when a family cuts on its meager rations so that the child can go to school, the father is actually praying that his son/daughter will one day make more money than he ever did, will have greater respect in society and will grow up into someone they can all be proud of some day. These are the three, and maybe only three, wins which matter in the game of education.

Alas! The God of education in India seems to be deaf to most of these prayers. And how…

The right to education (RTE) has two fundamental, and apparently well-intentioned provisions-

1. That no kid can be ‘failed’ up to class 8^th irrespective of the fact whether he has attained the learning proficiency levels for that class or not.
2. That every child has to be taken in his ‘age appropriate class’ whether or not his learning level matches with the requirement of that class. 

Now, the arguments in favor of above (the child does not fail but the system fails him, failing leaves indelible psychological scars on the child, and the like) are obviously noble. The question is how (or who) is this sensitivity and concern helping? The combined effect of above two manifests in many ways, which can hardly be called desirable by any yardstick-

• While we have an acute shortage of good teachers, the fact is that even the best teachers are bound to be challenged in our system. Any teacher, when given a class of 50 students spread across 5 different academic levels, can find himself out of depth.

• The teacher, not able to teach and not allowed to fail, goes through the motion (there goes your teacher motivation). He barely covers the course, gives a few questions and their answers for the students to cram and reproduce in the ‘exams’.

• A kid in class 7^th (say) who is actually at class 5 level and is so completely overwhelmed by the syllabus finds escape in cramming those questions and the sham continues. There is no challenge, no engagement, no success and no failure!

• But only till class 8^th! Come class 9^th, and our kids fail by scores and eventually drop out of the schooling system (middle school drop-out rate in India is more than 80%)

In this scenario, what is the chance that our children will learn any meaningful academic/ vocational/ professional skills? Can they hope for any kind of economic returns out of this kind of ‘schooling’? Can they hope to attain growth and social status through this education? Are they being prepared adequately to make a responsible contribution for themselves, their families and to the country?

Finally, do we actually believe that mid-day meals, school toilets, direct subsidy, and what have you (though all arguably positive, sensitive steps) will compensate for above?

The truth is that people don’t care for this sham. Indians are tough people. They don’t necessarily want it ‘easy’. They will any day take a tough game with an even and fair chance of meaningful rewards. 

However, to the utter misfortune of this great nation and its people, the ringmasters of education in their convoluted wisdom have ensured that there is no way people are getting their three victories (paisa, izzat, taraqqi ke asaar) through education. They have made education a game that nobody can possibly win.

Or maybe someone is already winning, just not the one you expected??!!

Part II : For Whom The School Bell Tolls?

Ernest Miller Hemingway : 1899-1961

Nobel Prize winning American author and journalist Ernest Hemingway, known for works like A Farewell to Arms, For Whom The Bell Tolls and The Old Man and the Sea, was a master of telling tragic tales in his economical and understated style.

Indian school education is also a tragic tale, albeit being told quite extravagantly.

Why India needs to educate its some 25 crore school kids is a question which does not need any scholarly deliberation. The Internet is full of information, conclusions and rhetoric on the subject. In any case, it all boils down to (and variations of) -

• Industry needs it… how else are we going inculcate higher order skills among our workers and be more productive, profitable, and competitive in the market place?

• Country needs it… is there a better kindling to fuel the economic engine, really?

• World needs it… courtesy (as I heard Shekhar Kapoor say at a forum) our failed family planning program over last 30 years, we now have a demographic dividend… Meaning we have crores of able bodied, young people even as most advanced countries have an aging populace (poor suckers are being penalized for such sins as great health services, higher life expectancy, social security, etc.)… Meaning that we will be the global suppliers of blue-collar workers in times to come… Meaning, if our kids are not educated, it will cause serious inconvenience globally.

Uneducated Indians are a big nuisance. And since nuisance value is often the most urgent and compelling value, crores of our uneducated kids have suddenly become very valuable. No wonder everyone is talking about Indian education. After all, this is about human resource of the future!

Now, here is a term that I love for its in-your-face honesty and transparency – Human Resource. It does not try to camouflage anything. The operating word here is RESOURCE, which to my mind is something that can be drawn upon, used and consumed to create wealth and benefits… for someone else because the resource itself is obviously getting consumed!

And that, gentlemen, is the first reason why all our efforts on education are failing. Looking at our kids as 'resource' we simply never asked what the children themselves and their families might want from education. What could be their motivations, limitations, concerns, rewards and benefits?

Needless to say that we are paying a big cost of not paying enough attention to this seemingly small aspect. All our education programs, investments and implementation efforts are going horribly wrong with we being absolutely clueless!

Consider this broad scenario-

• As per ASER 2014, enrolment up to primary level has come to 96%. However, the kids are not learning anything worthwhile. Data also says that student attendance is falling. The question is that those who are coming to school, why are they coming and what are they doing there? There are some pointers-

• Incentive such as mid-day meal and other enticements/motivations (state specific) play a big part.
• Small kids going to school bring peace to home for morning domestic chores and hence mothers are motivated to send them to school!
• The school itself is by and large a jolly good time for kids with teachers hardly present or interested in teaching.
• But most importantly, at this level, the basic learning outcomes are visible to the parents even if they may not count for anything much in ASER or PISA surveys. For example, kids learn reading and writing in the native language, and basic counting and arithmetic skills start showing up in a practical sense – recognize and count money, check correct balance when a small item is sold/purchased, etc.

• Things become interesting when these kids come to class 6^th.

• The studies start becoming more serious and involved. Since, as ASER report suggests, they have not learnt anything much till now, the going gets impossibly tough for most of them.
• Even though RTE ensures that they can’t be ‘failed’ and made to repeat a class till 8^th, the experience itself is exasperating for many children and demotivates and disengages them from education.
• The futility of it all starts dawning on the kids as well as the parents. They start feeling that even if they drag up to 9^th, they are sure to fail there and, in any case, passing 10^th is a very bleak possibility.
• In our system, employment and employability is practically out of question for someone who does not have a 10th pass certificate. This is the basic minimum eligibility for almost every job in private or government sector. Without this certificate, one can only hope for low or semi-skilled self-employment.
• In such a scenario, the sooner one learn the tricks of any vocation that comes his way, the better it is. School appears a waste of time and drop out rate start mounting. In fact, data suggests as high as ~80% drop outs during the middle school years in India!
• Onset of puberty also adds its twist to the whole equation. Girls start dropping out due to social and practical reasons (no toilets in schools, for example), and boys start dropping out as the family can definitely use another bread earner.

Unfortunate as it may sound, the fact is that, for most of our kids there is an opportunity cost of time spent in school. A poor child (and his parents) who can’t see how his education might translate into economic benefits and a better life in current and foreseeable future might be motivated to opt for menial work, which gives him money here and now.

Frankly, for all the global and national brouhaha, education is a luxury many can’t afford.

Part I : Playing Ball With Education

The season of education surveys and ensuing debates is here again!

The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) of 2015 (actually ASER 2014) has been released. We may subsequently have NCERT’s National Achievement Survey (NAS) followed by endless studies on surveys and then endless debates on the studies on surveys!

Let me, therefore, not get into data and analyses, which are available all over the net for anybody’s sumptuous consumption. Let me also state upfront that I feel ASER, NAS, and many other surveys-studies (govt, private, desi, bidesi, Harvard and by others) are doing a brilliant job of showcasing the dismal state of affairs in education. 

However, as we have seen over last couple of years, numbers and percentages may change a wee bit but the overall absurdity and gravity of the situation remains the same. Hence, I can’t help thinking that we are just glorifying the ignominy of superficial manifestations of an otherwise fundamental malaise. Great reports, animated discussions and impressive graphical representations of the symptoms are good only thus far and no more.

I am immediately reminded of the 2011 Hollywood flick Moneyball (which by the way is a true story) 

In the movie, Brad Pitt playing Billy Beane tells his team of baseball scouts who are trying to replace players (and we may replace everyone from school peon to HRD minister!) “…guys you are just talking… talking la la la la la la like this is business as usual. Its not… Forget solution. You are not even looking at the problem.”

... Then Billy Beane found Peter Brand, the Yale Economist and baseball analyst, who told him, “Baseball thinking is medieval. They are asking all the wrong questions, and if I say it to anybody, I am ostracized… I am a leper…”

And viola! Together in 2002, they changed the game of professional baseball once and forever! (You might see the same principle visible in Rajasthan Royals victory in the first IPL season!)

The point is that when the thinking is medieval and outdated, no amount of expertise and analysis will yield answers. My guess is that Indian education thinking is medieval and regressive. We are asking all the wrong questions. And then obviously getting all the brilliant but essentially useless answers!

Take our key question for instance-

Q : How can we teach for better outcomes?

A : We can’t because we don’t have the money, teachers, school accountability, etc…. QED!

I think we might have asked this question for far too long. And we are stuck in the rut of the same answers again and again.

WE want to teach for BETTER OUTCOMES obviously for US (as in the custodian, designers and managers of this education system). Not for students, not for teachers, not for parents but US. Naturally, why should anyone care? And when the lead actors don’t care, wherefrom the results?

Further, when most people look at education, they look at the huge amount of investment it will take, the unavailability of teachers and infrastructure and the like. When I look at education, I see an imperfect understanding of how teaching-learning will happen in today's world and in the future.

Maybe we need to ask a different Q. For instance, how can some 25 Cr kids be motivated/empowered to learn? The question could be a game-changer. It might open whole new set of interesting possibilities!

So who are these 25 Cr kids anyway? A majority of them might be scattered over the geographical, social and economic diversity of India. Many of them come from poor, rural or semi-urban backgrounds and would be comfortable only in their native language.

What these kids might want from education? Here is my take on what may motivate them-

1. Students and their families should see clear returns/results/outcomes for themselves… There is an opportunity cost of time spent in school. A poor child who can’t see how his education might translate into economic benefits and a better life might be motivated to work for money here and now.
2. Studies should be challenging but with a fair chance of success… I have seen this again and again in my experience of working with school children. However, for the kind of instruction they get, no wonder they view it as a no-win situation.
3. With the penetration of TV, kids are largely aware of and are exposed to modern technology even if they themselves have little access to it. For instance, they are learning more from TV than any books or teachers. And access to Internet and other digital platforms is only increasing. This is a generation, which will learn from technology. Telling mode and textbooks are passé. This is a digital, do-it-yourself generation. We will have to give the power and freedom of learning in their own hands.
4. Good quality audio-visual instructions facilitated in small groups will work wonders, that too in local language and close to home. This whole pre-occupation of getting kids to school needs to be re-examined. In any case, we have 97% enrolments! So what?

I think we have played the game our way for too long. Now is the time to look at the whole business of education through the eye of a child. Who knows? It may even be a child’s play then!

Save Us The Super Brilliance Of The Precious Few

Times of India, Delhi, 11th Jan 2015

http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/index.aspx?eid=31808&dt=20150111

I quite love the presentation and analysis of this article. In fact, if one thinks about it, the conclusions are quite stark and hardly surprising.

So, what does it mean? Does more equality mean less creative brilliance, innovation and enterprise? Absolutely not! However, what it suggests is that only when we have widespread creative brilliance, innovation and enterprise so that the terrain is not monopolised by so few, that we will have equality.

What it may also mean is that the presence of a few extremely brilliant super-achiever individual icons could be an indicator of a largely mediocre and sub-optimised social system. For a system to develop as a whole, it needs to continuously produce newer icons in more numbers and frequency so that monopolies can't set in.

But do societies have weapons to deal with this situation? How can we make creative brilliance, innovation and enterprise a norm rather than a random, rare happenstance as it seems to be at the moment?

To my mind, that weapon can only be education. An education that reaches every child and strongly inculcates in her the values of free thinking, innovation and enterprise from a very early stage. It definitely cannot be the prescriptive indoctrination which is often passed off as education, howsoever well meaning it might be.

Obviously, such an education as needed will not be in the interest of the present day powerful and brilliant masters of monopolies. In which case, will such education get the policy support, investment and the encouragement it will need to develop? 

Well, the writing on the wall makes a sad reading but there is a hope in the ubiquitous, democratic ways of modern technology and internet, provided they themselves are not monopolised!!