From :
K. C. Panigrahy
Chairman,
Koraput Education Alliance, Koraput
E-mail : kcpanigrahy@gmail.com
To
The Members of Koraput -
Education Alliance,Koraput
Sub : Ensuing meeting of Koraput Education Alliance.
Dear Sir,
You are aware that the District level meeting of the Koraput Education Alliance is to be held on 27th of every month and accordingly the Secretary may issue the agenda for the ensuing meeting.
In the meantime there was a seminar at Koraput on 'Issues in Education of Disadvantaged Sections' funded by the DPEP, Koraput. I had the privilage to preside over the inaugural ceremoney of the seminar and I had submitted a paper as my Presidential address. I am attaching herewith the same for the perusal of all concerned for just comments.
In fact, I am not able to appreciate the above theme and the exercises carried on in the seminar styling the same as an 'All India Seminar'. I am not aware of whether the DPEP, Koraput has the mandate by any all India agency or agencies to agitate over disadvantaged sections and suggest the alternative. In the absence of such reference from the authority, this type of exercises in 2009 seems to me useless in Koraput context. Koraput is a Scheduled Area and almost all are treated as disadvantaged ones and all the programme like TLC, Sarva Sikhya Abhiyan, KBK etc are introduced in Koraput since long to treat all the population of Koraput without discriminating any section. Earlier we have adopted all most all the strategies suggested in the seminar papers. Rather, I feel, now we may have to ponder over; why the schemes / programmes introducted in Koraput has not yielded desired result after spending so-much time and public fund.
The key note address placed in the said seminar, seems to me, is nothing but a synopsis of earlier statements of the Government and conspiciously there was no reference to such matters of Koraput specific having paramount importance. The field studies said to be conducted by the researchers seem to be mere carbon copies of an office inspection report generally made in a routine manner in Government departments as a ritual. The remedical suggestions are devoid of critical academic analysis and seems to me as a journalistic reporting.
I am taking the liberty of requesting all concerned in education of Koraput including the civil society members to agitate over my rustic comments.
Thanking you
Yours faithfullly,
K.C.Panigrahy,
Koraput
CC to :
The Secretary, Koraput Education Alliance for his kind information. He is requested to invite the Officer-in-Charge of DPEP, Koraput, Director-COATS and the Head of the Education Department of the DAV College, Koraput to the meeting to be held on May 27. I am forwarding this mail to all the above said authorities.
K.C.Panigrahy,
Koraput
KORAPUT REGION : BASIC ISSUES ON EDUCATION
-K.C. Panigrahy, Koraput
The trend of poor education of Koraput region and the unsatisfactory quality of learning has been stressed time and again during the past six decades and this concern increased since 1980's. The question has also been discussed extensively by the academicians, administrators, committees and groups. After declaration of the National Education policy of the Government of India, number of projects/schemes were launched in Koraput which are said to be well reserched with innovative ideas. Experts on education along with their team camped permanently in Koraput region for execution of the said well researched and disigned Koraput specific Projects/schemes to educate the Koraput population. As the Koraput region is notified as a Scheduled Area under the Constutution of India, all the Project/Schemes, and special projects like KBK etc, are said to be designed to meet the special needs of the population of Koraput region majority of whom are disadvanteged lot as per the definations.
After adopting special disigns of Koraput specific Since Ninth Five year plan like Sarva Sikhya Abhiyan, Total Literacy Scheme, KBK etc. which failed to fulfil the aims lopsided debate/seminar in 2009 seems to detract the major issues that need to be addressed for a sustained and result oriented effort for providing proper education to the Koraput population for their all round development.
In this context we may have to first evaluate our earlier designs and shall have to identify the draw backs of our earlier exercises for the failure. We have also to ponder whether the earlier exercises are really Koraput specific and then why the Koraputians are not able to enter the job market under the SC. & ST. quotas to secure their legetimate share. The outsiders and the erst-while East Pakisthanis have grabed the majors share of all the jobs created for the so-called reserve categories of Koraput Population. It is a pertinent question to be looked into while considering woes of the disadvanteged sections of Koraput.
Before, debating on education of Koraput in this seminar, we may have also to refer to the fundamentals of an approache to the population of Scheduled areas spelt clearly by Verrier Elwin, the great thinker and who watched closely the people of the Scheduled areas during his intensive tour. We may note here that the guidilines spelt out by him have not been disputed by anybody as such are also relevent today. (Extracts from the said guide lines are available as a booklet at the Tribal Museum, Koraput). Unless one is aware of the basic factors of Koraput there may not be any credible deliberation in this seminar. Let us all be true to our salt and not to engage in routine and ritualstic exercises in spending public funds for this seminar.
For ready quick appraisal and reddy reference of the Participants of the Semeinar certain notings are quoted bellow which may guide the deliberations in the Seminar.
(i) Extracts for the Verious Elwin report :
x x x x x x x x x x x x
(a) V.I.Ps and other visitors, who are often unacquainted with the realities of the situation, make matters worse by even more ambitious statements, and the continual investigations by evaluation teams and committees like our own still further complicate the situation. As a party of tribal folk remarked; "So many important people come to look at us, all asking the same questions, and nothing whatever happens." One Block headquarters was visited, in the space of a few months, by members of the Renuka Ray Committee, the Inaccessible Areas Committee, a 'Border Areas Relief Committe', a sub-committee of the Central Advisory Board for Tribal Welfare which was enquiring into nomadic tribes (which did not exist in the District) and our own Committee, as well as several high officials of the State.
x x x x x x x x x x x x
(b) This suggests that a wrong attitude has been created among officials. One way whereby this has been done is through the way we talk, which tends to increase subconsciously the sense of superiority. The word 'backward' is a very dangerous one. It is being used ad nauseam all the time-backward tribes, backward areas, backward classes. How then can we avoid thinking of ourselves as advanced, elevated, progressive and thus superior ? And how can the educated tribals, so constantly described in these disparaging terms, fail to develop an acute inferiority complex with all its unhappy consequences ? In any case, 'words like 'backward' and 'uplift' imply subjective judgements which are often based on a wrong sense of values. Who is backward—the simple honest tribesman or the merchant who exploits him ? Who is backward—the creative artist at her tribal loom, the gentle mother with her child among the hills, or the inventor of the atom bomb which may destroy her and all the world ? Are these self-reliant cooperative tribes the really backward as against the self-seeking, individualistic, crafty products of our industrial civilization ?
(ii) Comments of Dhir Jhingran, the Director, Elemantary Education, HRD, Ministry (Indian Express : Sept 19,2006)
Research in India and abroad has shown that children who are forced to study through an alien language from their first day in school have a stunted cognitive development. This is more applicable for children from deprived socio-economic backgrounds with little home support and prior exposure to the standard language used at school. They face a very serious double disadvantage of, one, trying to learn a new language and, two, simultaneously trying to cope with the content being taught in the new language. The most common language teaching methods used in our classrooms are — repeating after the teacher, copying the alphabet from the blackboard or textbook. These are inappropriate for learning a new language. Not being able to learn the school language effectively, such children face a mounting burden of incomprehension and get branded as slow learners. We then start remedial teaching programmes for them without addressing the problem that is responsible for their plight.
There are no straightforward solutions. Yet there are a few policy measures that could begin to address some of the language learning disadvantage situations. One, by beginning teaching in class one through the child’s home language in remote tribal areas with the aim of gradually shifting to the regional language and English. AP and Orissa are at present implementing pilot interventions of this nature in eight and ten tribal languages respectively. Two, an overhaul of language teaching practices in primary schools, especially for teaching second and third languages. Three, an effective pre-school programme that is designed to address the language issue can go a long way in reducing some of the trauma and complete incomprehension that engulfs children when they join school at the tender age of five or six. Four, we need to prepare teachers in pre-primary classes and classes one and two through pre-service and in-service training programmes for negotiating the cultural and linguistic diversity in classrooms. This would help address the biases about children from different language and cultural backgrounds. A non-negotiable principle that must be adopted at the primary stage is that all primary school teachers must know their students’ home language and be willing to use it in the classroom. The quest for quality education for all children would remain incomplete without addressing this neglected issue.
(iii) Extracts for the Report of the State Level Seminar on Tribal Education in Orissa : April 10 to 12, 2006
The report of the second day of presentations and discussions included the following suggestions:
There is a difference between "language teaching" (a curriculum supporting the learning of a specific language) and "teaching through language" (teaching any number of curricula through the student’s mother tongue language). It is important to teach tribal children "through language" and not through "language teaching". A difference between school language and home language has been proven to lead to lower achievement and school drop out of tribal children.
Text books should not be the only support materials for tribal children; knowledge from the local community should be made available to the children.
Teaching through language should be accompanied by child-centred learning, described by presenters as having the following nature: Learner centered, Active, Solving problems, Team work, and Self discovery (LASTS).
Lastly, it seems that :
(a) If we really want to change the Participation Patterns of the tribes in schools, then schools have to undergo change as well.
(b) There is no point in saying that the tribal leaders (villagers) have been empowered to make dicisions on schools managements etc. relating to educational activities unless we make sure that they have the knowledge, skills and capacity to make those decisions.
(c) The education could be a radical tool for change if it is linked with community needs and disires.
In the light of the position analysed above, there is paramount need and it is also imperative that the hole gamut of the basic problem of education and the remedies are to receive top priority rather than taking of other issues.
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