Are You An \’Education Survivor\’?

If you\’re reading this you obviously went through the education system. And maybe you are among those who are grateful that your school days were lovely. And that what you learnt is being put to use every day.

Or maybe not.

Conduct a group discussion with people (friends, colleagues, family members), around their school days. You will find a mix of smiles, frowns and giggles — and the frowns will usually be about their experiences inside the classroom. Almost everyone has a story of how they were wrongly punished or discriminated against or didn\’t receive their just dues for something or the other. Around half the people will recall the oppression they felt at different times — examinations, punishment being handed out, the subject/s they could make neither head nor tail of, the quiet acceptance by their families that they would be mediocre and their own realization that they would not be \’good enough\’ in a number of things.

Cut to the present, and many of them (now quite successful in life) will also be saying : \”Why did we learn all those things? And even what I studied in college, what am I doing with it now?\”

These are the symptoms of the \’education survivor\’. Are you one of them? Are there really as many of them around as my dire prediction indicates? Is it only our tendency to wallow in self-pity? Or just the usual, superficial user-critique of education? Finally, is school education really something like a dreadful disease (or at least a dreadful experience) which leaves behind \’survivors\’?

Are You An \’Education Survivor\’?

Or maybe not.

Cut to the present, and many of them (now quite successful in life) will also be saying : \”Why did we learn all those things? And even what I studied in college, what am I doing with it now?\”

Are You An \’Education Survivor\’?

Or maybe not.

Cut to the present, and many of them (now quite successful in life) will also be saying : \”Why did we learn all those things? And even what I studied in college, what am I doing with it now?\”

Are You An \’Education Survivor\’?

Or maybe not.

Cut to the present, and many of them (now quite successful in life) will also be saying : \”Why did we learn all those things? And even what I studied in college, what am I doing with it now?\”

Five Questions to Ask Your Election Candidate (English Version)

IGNUS-PAHAL

The one who fights for children’s rights! Is the one who will get our vote!

Five Questions On Our Children’s Rights

This election may affect your children. Especially if your would-be representative in legislative assembly keeps the following in mind.

· Education – good / quality education – is everyone’s right. Especially after the RTE, education in every government school should be such that everyone finds it good. But even very poor parents are removing their children from government schools and making sacrifices to send their children to private schools.

Ask your would-be representative – Question 1: What will you do to ensure appropriate and quality education in government schools?

· Teachers’ salaries have gone up. They now get training from time to time to enable good education for children. There is provision for mid-day-meals, school uniforms, play equipment, learning material – all free. But there is demotivation among teachers. They feel neglected. They feel as if they are not being respected.

Ask your would-be representative – Question 2: What will you do so that teachers take interest in their work and are committed to the good education of their children?

· According to RTE the responsibility of running/managing the schools will now be with community and panchayats. But the community and the panchayats feel: how can we give any advice to the school? They do not find themselves capable of advising / supporting schools. And they feel this is not even their work.

Ask your would-be representative – Question 3: What will you do to enable the active involvement of community and panchayats in improving education in our schools?

· Community and parents both expect that education will ensure children’s development as well as employment. But now people say: All this education is going to lead only to unemployment, so it is better that the child be engaged in some wage-earning work right away.

Ask your would-be representative – Question 4: What will you do so that every member of the community is aware and committed towards the education of their children?

· If we look at the money spent on education, most of it is used for salries, infrastructure and maintenance. Crores of rupees are spent every year on this. Even then our schools and education offices look dirty and disorganized compared to private institutions. And the people responsible for improving education for children cannot even be heard talking about it.

Ask your would-be representative – Question 5: What will you do so that government schools and education offices look attractive? So that people in the system not only think of children’s improvement but also do what is needed?

Your views will have an impact, won’t they? But only if you raise these questions! Give your vote only if you get an answer! So go ahead, ask questions, get others to ask, and let us know!!

Did you brush your ideas today?

A few minutes spent watching TV or flipping through a magazine would convince anyone that looking good is one of the most important objectives in society! Ads for creams of all kinds, face washes, shampoos, razors, jewelery, clothes — all evidence that we are firmly in the the midst of a \’lookist\’ age. If you don\’t \’look\’ it, you aren\’t it!

But as we groom our bodies, it might be a good idea to groom our minds as well! Failure to do this seems to have brought about (or perpetuated) the many difficulties we find ourselves in. For instance, as our education system (with around 5.7 million teachers and close to three hundred thousand education officials) rumbles on, and we strive to bring about a major improvement, this is one barrier that keeps springing up again and again. Our thinking tools have become either so dull or limited that at every stage of the transition presents huge challenges:

How can each stakeholder envisage the improvement desired in their own way (i.e., have their own vision)?
How can all involved begin to understand / conceptualize the massive shift involved?
Since improvement is helped by planned rather than a random set of actions, how to help each person plan better – which implies the ability to identify what is desired, what the gaps are, conjuring up a repertoire of \’solutions\’, weighing the different options to identify the ones that fit the situation best, and knowing the difference between sequencing and prioritizing!

And we haven\’t even come to the actual implementation yet… which involves actions such as teaching, mentoring, communicating, supervising, organizing and managing, monitoring, counselling, developing, recording and analyzing, assessing and evaluating — all tasks that require a range of thinking skills. It comes almost as a shock to realize that different actions require different ways of thinking. That before you start thinking on something you need to ask yourself – which would the best way to think here? Much like a surgeon choosing the right tool at each stage of a complex operation. In fact, that is what our situation is tending to be – of a surgeon armed with only a kitchen knife and hence limited in terms of what she can do! In fact, if you don\’t \’think\’ it, you aren\’t it!

What can one do to begin overcoming this situation? A few suggestions to start with:

Make a list of all the key actions you perform
Identify the thinking skills or ways of thinking required (e.g. do you have to be more \’out of the box\’ and creative, or do you have to maintain a rigorous commitment to the given information and derive a logically valid inference).
Practice these skills
When undertaking new action, please choose the appropriate thinking tool you need to use
Finally, don\’t forget to brush your ideas! That is, do reflect on the ideas we use in the daily course of our work – have they become stale? or dusty or outdated? do we need to discard them and move on to different ideas?

So even as we become willing participants in the \’lookist\’ age, here\’s hoping that more and more of us will also create our own \’thinkist\’ age!

Contesting Cribbing

If you\’re a person working to improve the educational system in a country like ours, here\’s something you\’ll recognize: whether it\’s journalists or academics, colleagues from NGOs or \’well-wishers\’ of children, everyone is pretty good at \’problem pointing\’. They\’re really good at telling us exactly how BAD things are. Numerous articles, speeches, social media entries, research pieces, presentations, and even protests, copiously crib about a range of ills affecting education : how the system is dysfunctional, teachers are absent, accountability is missing, children aren\’t learning, process is dated, children are oppressed, administration is rigid, policies are rich but unimplemented, how the disadvantaged continue to get a raw deal right through… Recognize it? I do, for some of this is what I do as well!

But here\’s the rub – all this elaboration on what is wrong (some of it is serious research that is credible as well), how far has it helped find exactly what to do. That is, what to do which would help us get rid of the problems being pointed out. Don\’t get me wrong, I\’m all for the growing numbers of those who are able to detail their dissatisfaction at the continued limitations of our education system. It\’s just that I\’m unable to learn enough from it to know what needs to be done.

Because when one gets down to the doing, a whole lot of other things unfold that you were not quite prepared for. Turns out dealing with diversity is not exactly easy, and most of the pat suggestions don\’t really hold in face of the actual ground realities. Turns out that poor (or even exploitative) governance is such an all-pervading reality that what we can do in / through education just pales in front of it (try sitting in a district education office for a day if you don\’t believe me). Turns out that our \’log frames\’, strategies, plans and spreadsheets capture something in our mind but all of it simply crumbles when the actual implementation takes place. It\’s often noticed that some of the best experts, especially those from the universities, are usually eager to help in the planning and the evaluation – but not the part that comes in between, i.e. the implementation!

So I\’ve come to the unfortunate conclusion that a great proportion of those involved tend to complain mainly because it is the easiest thing to do. Just like many newspaper sections talk of potholes on the roads, delayed or poor services, or lack of facilities (usually in a self-righteous tone that includes phrases such as \’even 60 years after independence\’ – you get the picture). All this in the hope that saying what is wrong will somehow make it go away. As if it really does!

Where does all this leave us? To my mind, it leaves us with a lot of cribbing all around us. Every day we continue to read, hear, powerpoint and wordprocess an overdose of shortcomings. Such solutions as are offered are usually:

trite (\’there should be accountability\’ – which is easy to say, of course) or
platitudinous (\’teachers should be dedicated to their vocation\’) or
superficial (\’implement play way method!\’ – makes one\’s skin crawl) or
autocratic (\’strictly monitor these damned teachers, don\’t let them get away\’ ) or
misguided (\’pay teachers more / less if their students learn more / less\’ – you can see how this will favour the already advantaged, isn\’t it) or
even desperate and daft (\’put a web cam in every class\’).

I\’m doing the same, of course, cribbing. But let me try to redeem myself by making a few (hopefully) concrete suggestions:

The first thing is to recognize the huge potential of all this cribbing. It represents an enormous and growing \’cognitive surplus\’ that can be put to better use to further what the \’cribber\’ is interested in – actual improvement.
Along the lines of wikipedia, bring out a collective, well-organised and evolving situational analysis to which people can keep contributing. This will help generate a more structured, well-rounded understanding that might increase the likelihood of finding effective strategies.This should include a critique of the kind of superficial solutions mentioned earlier, with case studies of the difficulties they landed in or the actual improvement they brought about. An analysis of serious efforts and the difficulties faced would help bring about a nuanced problematization.
Those involved in change efforts could find ways of identifying any \’cribber\’ who shows potential, and involve her/him in actual improvement processes – either the process would improve or the cribbing would be contained.
Publicize and set standards for the kind of writing that is deemed as being helpful. This is not easy at all – but the degree to which the social discourse on education is getting overwhelmed by this collective bemoaning (and the resultant diversion from / inability to actually address the issues) is now making it imperative that we find a way out. Any news channel / newspaper could initiate this by developing a policy paper on how to cover the social sector and then actually following it. Once an example is set, others would follow suit (simply because the initiating body would come out looking better, and therefore be likely to grab a bigger share of sensible eyeballs).

You might feel that I\’ve totally mis-read the situation, that we need more people to actually be pointing out what is going wrong. Well, point away – but that\’s no guarantee it will make the problem go away!

What does \’taking pride in being an Indian\’ mean?

Anyone working on curriculum or materials or education in general, ends up wanting children to take pride in being an Indian. But what does \’taking pride in being an Indian\’ mean? Though the idea of \’taking pride\’ can be questioned, here are some things a person \’proud of being an Indian\’ would do / not do (not in any particular order):

celebrate the uniqueness and successes of those who are \’different\’ from us – whether belonging to different religion, ethnicity, language, region, profession…
not spit out in the open anywhere (surprised? well, this is a leading cause of diseases like TB still being active and killing people)
stop complaining about what is wrong (hoping someone else will do something about it) and start taking small steps to make things better, and also urging others to do the same (there\’s power in numbers!)
not restrict their sense of identity to a state or a region or a sub-set of India…
taking the responsibility of being at one\’s best (whether in health, or talent or work or socializing) so that one can ADD to what is already good in India
taking responsibility of keeping one\’s immediate surroundings at the best we can (in terms of things being well-organized and clean/hygienic as well as in an \’ecological\’ sense)
not simply keep harping on the \’golden days\’ of India\’s past but be aware of what we are at present… and hence
not be afraid to face what is really wrong, accept it and work to changing it (e.g. recognize the \’ugly Indian\’ who jumps lines, is rude and selfish, flouts rules and grins when he gets away with it. Or, of course, the bigger issues of poverty, security, discrimination…)

So what does it mean for you, to be a \’proud Indian\’?

What does \’taking pride in being an Indian\’ mean?

celebrate the uniqueness and successes of those who are \’different\’ from us – whether belonging to different religion, ethnicity, language, region, profession…
not spit out in the open anywhere (surprised? well, this is a leading cause of diseases like TB still being active and killing people)
stop complaining about what is wrong (hoping someone else will do something about it) and start taking small steps to make things better, and also urging others to do the same (there\’s power in numbers!)
not restrict their sense of identity to a state or a region or a sub-set of India…
taking the responsibility of being at one\’s best (whether in health, or talent or work or socializing) so that one can ADD to what is already good in India
taking responsibility of keeping one\’s immediate surroundings at the best we can (in terms of things being well-organized and clean/hygienic as well as in an \’ecological\’ sense)
not simply keep harping on the \’golden days\’ of India\’s past but be aware of what we are at present… and hence
not be afraid to face what is really wrong, accept it and work to changing it (e.g. recognize the \’ugly Indian\’ who jumps lines, is rude and selfish, flouts rules and grins when he gets away with it. Or, of course, the bigger issues of poverty, security, discrimination…)

So what does it mean for you, to be a \’proud Indian\’?

What does \’taking pride in being an Indian\’ mean?

celebrate the uniqueness and successes of those who are \’different\’ from us – whether belonging to different religion, ethnicity, language, region, profession…
not spit out in the open anywhere (surprised? well, this is a leading cause of diseases like TB still being active and killing people)
stop complaining about what is wrong (hoping someone else will do something about it) and start taking small steps to make things better, and also urging others to do the same (there\’s power in numbers!)
not restrict their sense of identity to a state or a region or a sub-set of India…
taking the responsibility of being at one\’s best (whether in health, or talent or work or socializing) so that one can ADD to what is already good in India
taking responsibility of keeping one\’s immediate surroundings at the best we can (in terms of things being well-organized and clean/hygienic as well as in an \’ecological\’ sense)
not simply keep harping on the \’golden days\’ of India\’s past but be aware of what we are at present… and hence
not be afraid to face what is really wrong, accept it and work to changing it (e.g. recognize the \’ugly Indian\’ who jumps lines, is rude and selfish, flouts rules and grins when he gets away with it. Or, of course, the bigger issues of poverty, security, discrimination…)

So what does it mean for you, to be a \’proud Indian\’?

What does \’taking pride in being an Indian\’ mean?

celebrate the uniqueness and successes of those who are \’different\’ from us – whether belonging to different religion, ethnicity, language, region, profession…
not spit out in the open anywhere (surprised? well, this is a leading cause of diseases like TB still being active and killing people)
stop complaining about what is wrong (hoping someone else will do something about it) and start taking small steps to make things better, and also urging others to do the same (there\’s power in numbers!)
not restrict their sense of identity to a state or a region or a sub-set of India…
taking the responsibility of being at one\’s best (whether in health, or talent or work or socializing) so that one can ADD to what is already good in India
taking responsibility of keeping one\’s immediate surroundings at the best we can (in terms of things being well-organized and clean/hygienic as well as in an \’ecological\’ sense)
not simply keep harping on the \’golden days\’ of India\’s past but be aware of what we are at present… and hence
not be afraid to face what is really wrong, accept it and work to changing it (e.g. recognize the \’ugly Indian\’ who jumps lines, is rude and selfish, flouts rules and grins when he gets away with it. Or, of course, the bigger issues of poverty, security, discrimination…)

So what does it mean for you, to be a \’proud Indian\’?

What does \’taking pride in being an Indian\’ mean?

celebrate the uniqueness and successes of those who are \’different\’ from us – whether belonging to different religion, ethnicity, language, region, profession…
not spit out in the open anywhere (surprised? well, this is a leading cause of diseases like TB still being active and killing people)
stop complaining about what is wrong (hoping someone else will do something about it) and start taking small steps to make things better, and also urging others to do the same (there\’s power in numbers!)
not restrict their sense of identity to a state or a region or a sub-set of India…
taking the responsibility of being at one\’s best (whether in health, or talent or work or socializing) so that one can ADD to what is already good in India
taking responsibility of keeping one\’s immediate surroundings at the best we can (in terms of things being well-organized and clean/hygienic as well as in an \’ecological\’ sense)
not simply keep harping on the \’golden days\’ of India\’s past but be aware of what we are at present… and hence
not be afraid to face what is really wrong, accept it and work to changing it (e.g. recognize the \’ugly Indian\’ who jumps lines, is rude and selfish, flouts rules and grins when he gets away with it. Or, of course, the bigger issues of poverty, security, discrimination…)

So what does it mean for you, to be a \’proud Indian\’?

How would YOU implement the RTE?

Here\’s an exchange that started in Facebook.
If YOU were in charge of implementing RTE in a district / block, exactly WHAT would you do? Could I have step by step suggestions please. That\’s because all of us have by now said all that is wrong with RTE implementation, but this is not equal to knowing what to do. I come across many district and block functionaries who are seriously looking for suggestions (they also welcome critique, but find that it doesn\’t help them decide what to do – at best they only see they\’re doing something wrong).

It would be a great contribution. I promise I\’ll share the suggestions with at least 10 \’serious\’ functionaries who have asked for support and will try to impact 300 to 3000 schools each. As they start implementing, we\’ll create a facebook page where they can record their progress and impact. But could we have specific suggestions please, maybe even a framework or a detailed note?

One response I received was from Anjela Taneja:
Gave this some thought overnight. Basically, one immediate suggestion is to put this question onto a website (read you blog atleast) so you can get a larger pool of responses. Personally, I added the question onto the RTE India page I moderate as well. However, a more user friendly interface of responding would help instead of trying to type everything on FB. In response to the actual question, I see two sets of responses- universal recommendations (only a few), but a lot of questions related to specific geographies. The solutions need to emerge from the local problems, so it would help to know where the functionaries in question are actually stuck and atleast what states one is talking about.

In response, here are some details.
As for geographies… Specific ones include: the block of Fatehpur, near Kanpur; the training coordinator of Bareilly; an informal govt school teachers\’ collective (who want things to impove) in Varanasi; in terms of states, Bihar and Gujarat to start with.

Some of the comments received:

Naaz Khair
Where there is a will there is a way! Government is running the central schools par excellence. If it wants it can change things for its other set of schools as well. The RTE Act itself is very explicit in terms of who is supposed to do what i.e. the duties that need to be performed so that educational rights of children are upheld. The RTE Act almost reads like a program and contains step by step measures to taken at different levels to ensure its implementation. This forum, along-side raising its voice whenever RTE violations took place, has also been proposing possible solutions. It is more than time now for the people in the system to make decisions given the resources in hand.

Janmejoy Patel
Yes, it is basically a question of how serious the govts are regarding implementation of RTE. Do they have required amount of political will or commitment? Are they willing to allocate adequate funds & invest in education? Once these factors are settled, there is no private school good enough to rival our schools in quality. But will the politicos do so on their own? No hope since none of them has any stake involved. Unless forced to.

Anjela Taneja there are two levels of issues here- what should be done to improve the policy and practice, and another is what can a government official do immediately within the constraints of the system

Subir Shukla
‎@Janmejoy If you take a look at the amounts released, you will find that the country as a whole is not really able to use more than 70% of the funds made available…

There\’s a need to understand the nature of social \’filters\’ involved. Things such as buildings, textbooks – concrete things that can be touched, inaugurated or \’released\’ and credit taken for – tend to get done. But a child\’s right to learn is a lot more than that, and needs a new set of relationships and processes in order to be attained. It\’s common to have \’disco bhajans\’ (i.e. allowing a western \’pollution\’ of a cultural aspect) but more difficult to implement the notion that a child does not need to be beaten in order to learn (in fact, while teachers are responsible, many parents also insist that their children be kept in discipline through corporal punishment; similarly, look at the response to CCE…). It\’s like trying to ban spitting or dowry (for which a law exists…).

Similarly, the notion that you do not need to memorize or be given explanation – instead you should learn through activity, exploration and projects (which is what the RTE provides for) – is not the easiest to implement even for those who are seriously trying, including in the NGO sector, including in the organizations that are seen as the \’teerth sthal\’ of education. Another crisis – and this is a professional, considered opinion of a curriculum/textbook/materials developer after closely examining materials from all over the country for 20 years – is that the NGO \’products\’ in terms of curricula / materials / pedagogy / teacher development are also fairly weak when it comes to the kind of quality desired, the constructivism to be implemented, the kind of equity-oriented and diversity based classroom that is now needed. Indeed the textbooks of several states would rate much higher.

@Naaz, steps about how to make \’special training\’ or create a differential classroom which must necessarily result, are not really spelt out in RTE documents. (This is just an example, and there are several more such aspects, esp about how to help those in the system realize that post-RTE, it is THEY who are the \’beneficiaries\’ and children / parents / community are the REASON for the system to exist.)

I\’m afraid the real import of many of the RTE provisions have not really been understood and a whole lot of \”why aren\’t you doing your job\” kind of comments are being passed around. While these will help in situations such as getting children admitted, other aspects such as getting discrimination (subtle and overt) to reduce, community to be empowered, teachers to be enabled to create vibrant and equity-oriented classrooms, in 1500000+ schools, (including private schools), are something else altogether. \’Protesting\’ or \’raising\’ voice may curb something negative, but doesn\’t necessarily make something positive (e.g. teaching better) happen. I\’ve written about \’preventive power\’ vs \’generative power\’ elsewhere in this blog.

The perspective changes when you\’re someone who has to actually deliver the RTE, and I haven\’t found much in the various fora that is dramatically helpful, or not known or not being tried out. A lot of the suggestions are very vague (ideas such as \’involve the community\’, \’empower the teacher\’ are outcomes of steps, which themselves are not always spelt out, or examples given of a very preliminary level..). Many of the issues (such as teacher attendance and accountability) are larger governance issues and need a larger strategy, some of which is indeed being thought about at different levels. I still believe that people thinking and working on these issues have a great deal to contribute – both within the government set up and outside. Hence my request for the kind of engagement that foregrounds concrete actions.

What does \’taking pride in being an Indian\’ mean?

celebrate the uniqueness and successes of those who are \’different\’ from us – whether belonging to different religion, ethnicity, language, region, profession…
not spit out in the open anywhere (surprised? well, this is a leading cause of diseases like TB still being active and killing people)
stop complaining about what is wrong (hoping someone else will do something about it) and start taking small steps to make things better, and also urging others to do the same (there\’s power in numbers!)
not restrict their sense of identity to a state or a region or a sub-set of India…
taking the responsibility of being at one\’s best (whether in health, or talent or work or socializing) so that one can ADD to what is already good in India
taking responsibility of keeping one\’s immediate surroundings at the best we can (in terms of things being well-organized and clean/hygienic as well as in an \’ecological\’ sense)
not simply keep harping on the \’golden days\’ of India\’s past but be aware of what we are at present… and hence
not be afraid to face what is really wrong, accept it and work to changing it (e.g. recognize the \’ugly Indian\’ who jumps lines, is rude and selfish, flouts rules and grins when he gets away with it. Or, of course, the bigger issues of poverty, security, discrimination…)

So what does it mean for you, to be a \’proud Indian\’?

Five Ideas for Teachers\’ Day

Teachers\’ Day is round the corner. Once again, we\’ll have the same old speeches, boring comments and everyone showing so-called \’respect\’ for teachers for one day – then it will all be forgotten till the next year comes around again!

For those of us who feel we need to go beyond the usual platitudes, here are a few straightforward suggestions. As always, your responses and further suggestions would be very welcome indeed!

1. Prepare a \’Teacher Strength Chart\’

On a chart, put a photo of the teacher (could even be children\’s drawing) and write down 5 things that you like about the teacher or 5 good qualities the teacher has. (Every teacher has these, just that some of them may not know they have them.) Who should do this? Students / SMC or parents / CRCC or fellow teachers. Keep the chart up for as long as you want.

2. Invite the teachers\’ families and honour them

Host a function where teachers\’ parents / spouses / children are invited and honour them along with the teacher. Why? Firstly because if a teacher teaches well, gives a lot of time, and lives up to professional standards, the family has to support the teacher and sometimes even make sacrifices. On the other hand if a teacher doesn\’t live up to professional standards, the family will… you get the picture! The SMC or the CRCC would obviously have to take the lead in organizing this, with students\’ help.

3. A special \’sports\’ session for teachers

Teachers have to be so responsible that they sometimes forget what it is to be a teacher. So how about something that helps them recall the time when they themselves were young. So you could organise a kabaddi or cricket match for teachers, or even races. Other possibilities include a Talent Show (whether teachers get to display their skills such as singing or mimicry) or even a picnic. Once again, the SMC with the students\’ help and the CRCC\’s support can easily organize this.

4. Stock the school library with books bought especially for teachers

Ask the teachers what they would like to read – and buy as many of those books for your school library as the budget permits. The CRCC would need to take active lead in this, with guidance from BRC and DIETs/

5. Launch a year-long \’Search for Greatness\’

This is a difficult idea, so read carefully! Every teacher and every school can improve and reach a level far better than what it is today. In honour of teachers on Teachers\’ Day, the SMC and students as well as the CRCC can get together, promise their support and work out how they will improve the school in the year ahead. Together they will discuss what it means for their school to be \’great\’ (and will not focus on infrastructure but learning processes), identify concrete steps to attain this greatness (see suggestions separately in my blog), and work out a phased implementation plan (see ADEPTS). Teachers will naturally be part of this discussion.

You can build on the School Development Plan and dedicate the effort to teachers (of course, they too would take active part in implementing the plan). Inform the teachers that the successes will be because of them, and shortcomings because they would not have got enough support from us (that is our Teachers\’ Day gift to teachers). So this would be a year long effort to show our respect to teachers while also working with them to bring about actual improvement. Neat, no?

With some days to go, you can still plan and implement some of these ideas. In the meantime, let me have more suggestions please!

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