Over the years, you\’ve taken part in workshops, training programmes, meeting, on-site coaching – either as participant or as facilitator or trainer. Maybe you have even trained trainers or prepared them in different ways. So what\’s your favourite advice to anyone involved with training and facilitation?
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What\’s your favourite advice to facilitators/trainers of teachers?
Over the years, you\’ve taken part in workshops, training programmes, meeting, on-site coaching – either as participant or as facilitator or trainer. Maybe you have even trained trainers or prepared them in different ways. So what\’s your favourite advice to anyone involved with training and facilitation?
Politics and the average Chinese
The man in the street simply does not care ! At least politically !!
In a country of 1.2 billion, such a sweeping statement is an outrageous generalisation. But it is broadly true. The average Chinese does not care because (a) what is the real choice (b) she has very little access to information that is even remotely political in nature and (c) she doesn’t seem to be hugely interested anyway
And this is despite a startling fact; the country with the maximum number of protests from citizens is actually China ! On any given day, there are probably 800 odd protests happening throughout China. If there is such vigorous activity, how come the assertion that the average Joe (Mrs Li) doesn’t care ?
Two sweeping statements can be made about the average Chinese’s views (a) she believes (and it does not matter where or who she is) that the local government is utterly corrupt and inefficient
and (b) she believes that the central leaders in Beijing are extremely efficient, working hard for the country, are the best humans on earth and if only they knew of their specific problem, it would be instantly fixed.
All the protests are predominantly on local issues, and mostly against land grabs by local officials. It is therefore mainly economic in nature, not political. There are simply no political protests of any sort.
A major issue in China is that public opinion is greatly hampered because of virtually no access to true political information. The following is the information environment in which the average Chinese lives
– There are no independent newspapers at all. Foreign newspapers are mostly not available.
– There is only government TV . No foreign channels, except in top end hotels. Even those are censored – can you believe that CNN’s broadcast to China is routed through a Chinese government controlled satellite !
– All films are subject to censorship. Foreign films are severely limited in number and if you have anything remotely political in your film, fat chance of being cleared. Ditto books. Ditto music. Pirated DVDs are freely available but then the market is mostly for sexually explicit stuff rather than political content.
– The Great Firewall of China, behind which the internet sits in a parallel universe, is one of the most remarkable operations of all. The Hall of Fame of sites that are completely banned and inaccessible from China includes Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google plus, Maps, Docs, Picasa, Dropbox, Flickr, ….. I can keep going. Every one of these have local equivalents which are of course severely censored by the authorities
– The Chinese are avid users of social media, but only on domestic providers. These are hugely monitored by armies of machines, men and software. Every offending post is deleted . If you realise that there are half a billion internet users in China and they are as active as anybody in online activities, you can imagine the scale at which censorship takes place.
Consequently, the average Chinese is poorly informed on political matters and therefore has limited and not fully informed views. In any social gathering in the West (even more so in India), the conversation will turn political. Not so in China. Mao has been glorified as “70% right” – very few of the younger generation know anything about the horrors of the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. The Tiananmen incidents of 1989 have been airbrushed from history – when I lived in China I was amazed that my colleagues knew virtually nothing about what happened.
The sum total of all this is that public opinion in China is less intense and formed than in virtually any other country. Therefore the Party and the government are under less pressure than anywhere else. You see, the true check on any government in any country is not judiciary , or the constitutional checks and balances – it is really public opinion represented by the media. In China, that check does not exist. The Chinese have made a pact with the Party – give us continuous economic advancement and we won’t care about the politics. Thus far, that pact has held good.
We have to leave the teacher in the classroom, isn\’t it?
Parimal Patel, a CRC coordinator from Gujarat, faced the following difficulty. To which there are no easy answers, but here\’s an attempt. Feel free to add your views!
Parimal Patel
Two days ago, I had a discussion in my cluster to make school history and to make school bio-data (which was made by me for my school by spending extra time in the school). Teachers liked my idea but said that that in which time they would make it? They have had a lot of work since June. I\’m asking this question because this is only one example – but there are so many policy-makers and the worker is only one. If we want quality we have to leave teacher in the classroom, isn\’t it? Please think about it – this is a more difficult question in primary education than any other.
Subir\’s response
Parimal (and many other friends struggling with the same problem) – you are right that the worker is one and policy makers are many, and all of them are trying to get the worker to do something or the other! So what can be done? Here are a few points for you all to consider:
- The curriculum development process is one very important way to create a framework and common understanding so that the different decision-makers and policy-makers can think in a coordinated way. In the next few months this will be shared across the state and a process to coordinate accordingly will start. In the beginning, though, you can expect a lot of struggle, since everyone will not agree on what the SRG has developed! Be prepared for different ideas all trying to occupy the same place.
- When we work in the field, we do have to keep in mind specific actions. At the same time, don\’t worry if the teacher does not do what you are asking for – AS LONG AS HE/SHE IS WORKING TOWARDS THE SAME OBJECTIVE. The problem arises when the objectives themselves are different (as will happen this year in the Gunotsav).
- The need to leave the teacher to work in the classroom is really important. We have opposite views about what is happening: some claim the teacher has got too many non-teaching tasks, and some say that the teacher is simply not spending the time in the class. Which view is the correct one? I think both are. People like me will keep on working with policy makers to ensure that non-teaching tasks are reduced, and other colleagues at field level will have to keep on working to ensure that teachers do spend the time available in the classroom.
- I like the idea of the school bio-data. Maybe it does not have to be done in one go. How about putting up a chart or board, and letting teachers, children, even community members add things to it when they have the time. Then, perhaps after a month, in the morning assembly this can be shared (it is not necessary to keep doing the same things in morning assembly every day!). Different classes could be given the tasks in different subjects, related to the school bio-data (in language – do the writing work; in maths – make maps, tables with data; in social studies – trace the history; in drawing – make pictures of different aspects of the school, etc.). So making it a project, spreading it over time, and connecting it with ongoing processes might help. This has to do with how we imagine different things being done.
- Finally, pl also read the post on \’How Teachers Change\’, and also \’How Teachers Learn\’ in my blog.
We have to leave the teacher in the classroom, isn\’t it?
Parimal Patel, a CRC coordinator from Gujarat, faced the following difficulty. To which there are no easy answers, but here\’s an attempt. Feel free to add your views!
Parimal Patel
Two days ago, I had a discussion in my cluster to make school history and to make school bio-data (which was made by me for my school by spending extra time in the school). Teachers liked my idea but said that that in which time they would make it? They have had a lot of work since June. I\’m asking this question because this is only one example – but there are so many policy-makers and the worker is only one. If we want quality we have to leave teacher in the classroom, isn\’t it? Please think about it – this is a more difficult question in primary education than any other.
Subir\’s response
Parimal (and many other friends struggling with the same problem) – you are right that the worker is one and policy makers are many, and all of them are trying to get the worker to do something or the other! So what can be done? Here are a few points for you all to consider:
- The curriculum development process is one very important way to create a framework and common understanding so that the different decision-makers and policy-makers can think in a coordinated way. In the next few months this will be shared across the state and a process to coordinate accordingly will start. In the beginning, though, you can expect a lot of struggle, since everyone will not agree on what the SRG has developed! Be prepared for different ideas all trying to occupy the same place.
- When we work in the field, we do have to keep in mind specific actions. At the same time, don\’t worry if the teacher does not do what you are asking for – AS LONG AS HE/SHE IS WORKING TOWARDS THE SAME OBJECTIVE. The problem arises when the objectives themselves are different (as will happen this year in the Gunotsav).
- The need to leave the teacher to work in the classroom is really important. We have opposite views about what is happening: some claim the teacher has got too many non-teaching tasks, and some say that the teacher is simply not spending the time in the class. Which view is the correct one? I think both are. People like me will keep on working with policy makers to ensure that non-teaching tasks are reduced, and other colleagues at field level will have to keep on working to ensure that teachers do spend the time available in the classroom.
- I like the idea of the school bio-data. Maybe it does not have to be done in one go. How about putting up a chart or board, and letting teachers, children, even community members add things to it when they have the time. Then, perhaps after a month, in the morning assembly this can be shared (it is not necessary to keep doing the same things in morning assembly every day!). Different classes could be given the tasks in different subjects, related to the school bio-data (in language – do the writing work; in maths – make maps, tables with data; in social studies – trace the history; in drawing – make pictures of different aspects of the school, etc.). So making it a project, spreading it over time, and connecting it with ongoing processes might help. This has to do with how we imagine different things being done.
- Finally, pl also read the post on \’How Teachers Change\’, and also \’How Teachers Learn\’ in my blog.
We have to leave the teacher in the classroom, isn\’t it?
Parimal Patel, a CRC coordinator from Gujarat, faced the following difficulty. To which there are no easy answers, but here\’s an attempt. Feel free to add your views!
Parimal Patel
Two days ago, I had a discussion in my cluster to make school history and to make school bio-data (which was made by me for my school by spending extra time in the school). Teachers liked my idea but said that that in which time they would make it? They have had a lot of work since June. I\’m asking this question because this is only one example – but there are so many policy-makers and the worker is only one. If we want quality we have to leave teacher in the classroom, isn\’t it? Please think about it – this is a more difficult question in primary education than any other.
Subir\’s response
Parimal (and many other friends struggling with the same problem) – you are right that the worker is one and policy makers are many, and all of them are trying to get the worker to do something or the other! So what can be done? Here are a few points for you all to consider:
- The curriculum development process is one very important way to create a framework and common understanding so that the different decision-makers and policy-makers can think in a coordinated way. In the next few months this will be shared across the state and a process to coordinate accordingly will start. In the beginning, though, you can expect a lot of struggle, since everyone will not agree on what the SRG has developed! Be prepared for different ideas all trying to occupy the same place.
- When we work in the field, we do have to keep in mind specific actions. At the same time, don\’t worry if the teacher does not do what you are asking for – AS LONG AS HE/SHE IS WORKING TOWARDS THE SAME OBJECTIVE. The problem arises when the objectives themselves are different (as will happen this year in the Gunotsav).
- The need to leave the teacher to work in the classroom is really important. We have opposite views about what is happening: some claim the teacher has got too many non-teaching tasks, and some say that the teacher is simply not spending the time in the class. Which view is the correct one? I think both are. People like me will keep on working with policy makers to ensure that non-teaching tasks are reduced, and other colleagues at field level will have to keep on working to ensure that teachers do spend the time available in the classroom.
- I like the idea of the school bio-data. Maybe it does not have to be done in one go. How about putting up a chart or board, and letting teachers, children, even community members add things to it when they have the time. Then, perhaps after a month, in the morning assembly this can be shared (it is not necessary to keep doing the same things in morning assembly every day!). Different classes could be given the tasks in different subjects, related to the school bio-data (in language – do the writing work; in maths – make maps, tables with data; in social studies – trace the history; in drawing – make pictures of different aspects of the school, etc.). So making it a project, spreading it over time, and connecting it with ongoing processes might help. This has to do with how we imagine different things being done.
- Finally, pl also read the post on \’How Teachers Change\’, and also \’How Teachers Learn\’ in my blog.
AYUSH Ministry hosting WHO Meetings on developing Standardizeditional M Terminologies and Benchmarks documents of Practice for Tradedicine
Ministry of AYUSH is hosting two important WHO meetings during the last week of November and first week of December 2019 at the Institute of Prost Graduate Teaching and Research in Ayurveda (IPGT & RA), Jamnagar, Gujarat and another is Morarji Desai National Institute of Yoga & Naturopathy, New Delhi.
The WHO – International Experts Consultation Meeting (IECM), held from 26th to 29th November 2019, shall host 51 selected international experts (from all six WHO regions) of Ayurveda, Unani and Panchakarma, as well as Traditional Medicine practitioners, researchers, health policy makers, regulators and administrators.
The WHO Working Group Meeting (WGM), held from 2nd to 4th December 2019, shall host 42 selected international experts (from all six WHO regions) of Traditional Medicine literary research, and other related academics including different language experts (Sanskrit, Arabic, Persian, Urdu, and Tamil) with specific knowledge and considerable experience in working in the area of Traditional Medicine languages and scripts.
WHO is developing Benchmarks Document for Practice of Ayurveda, Panchakarma & Unani and International Terminologies Documents in Ayurveda, Siddha & Unani as part of its global strategy to strengthen the quality, safety and effectiveness of Traditional and Complementary Medicine (T&CM). Development of this benchmarks document is included in the Project Collaboration Agreement (PCA) signed between World Health Organization (WHO) and Ministry of AYUSH, Government of India on Cooperation in the field of Traditional and Complementary Medicine under WHO strategy on T&CM covering the period 2014-2023.
The consultation meeting of international experts (IECM) on the benchmarks for practice is a continuation of the Working Group Meeting (WGM) WHO organized on the same subject during the September of 2018 at National Institute of Ayurveda at Jaipur.
The practice benchmark documents are expected to serve as international benchmarks for qualified practice of Ayurveda, and Unani. They will frame the safety requirements for practicing Ayurveda, Panchakarma, and Unani and provide qualifying criteria for practitioners of Ayurveda and Unani among addressing other details and nuances of medical practice. These documents shall serve as reference to national authorities to establish/strengthen regulatory standards and ensure practice of Ayurveda, Panchakarma, and Unani, and assure patient safety.
The purpose of the WHO Working Group Meeting (WGM) is to review, comment and revise the draft documents prepared on the Standard Terminologies of Ayurveda, Unani and Siddha by a select group of nine experts. The WGM shall help in arriving at an international consensus regarding the structure and content of each of the documents, including on occasions, consensus on the meanings and definition of words used in these systems. The documents are expected to provide: list of terms in the respective systems, their definitions (short or explanatory descriptions as required) including contextual meanings of the terms, classical usage/ of the terms with references to the definitions, suggested English terms, synonyms, and even define exclusions to the meanings of the term in medical context. The documents shall cover terms related to basic principles, fundamental theories, human structure and function, diagnosis, pathologies, patterns, and body constitutions, pharmacognosy, pharmacology, preparation of food and medicines, therapeutics, and preventive and health promotion interventions, and miscellaneous terms in the respective medical systems.
The 93 International experts are being invited from nearly 30 different countries (Covering all six regions of WHO ) including Japan, New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, India, Mauritius, Ghana, South Africa, Tanzania, UAE, Iran, Italy, Switzerland, Spain, Germany, Latvia, Austria, Denmark, Russia, Hungary, USA, Canada, and Argentina.
***
\’What We Learn Cannot Be Burnt – \’An Afghan Neo-Literate Woman
As we work in education, it often tends to get too \’sanitized\’ – as if it is not about real people in real situations, where education has a meaning that\’s almost impossible to comprehend. Here\’s a story from Afghanistan, from a programme called Learning for Life that sought to provide initial literacy and health awareness to enable women to become CHWs (community health workers, sorely needed in the country). This story was documented in June 2005, by Judie Schiffbauer, and shared by Katy Anis.
Each morning, six days a week, 40 year old Zeba Gul wraps a light gray shawl around her head and shoulders and leaves her family’s mud-walled compound in the Afghan village of BegToot. She follows a path that winds through dusty alleyways and then along green fields to arrive at a two-story building constructed of unbaked brick made from mud and straw. Inside, a set of narrow stairs leads to the Learning for Life classroom, where other women are already gathered. Removing her shoes at the doorway, she enters and lowers herself to the mat-covered floor, tucking her long legs beneath her.
In December 2004, when the LfL health-based literacy program began in BegToot, wind whipped snow against the classroom windows, but on this fine summer day, the windows are open to admit a pleasant breeze. The room looks out over groves of mulberry trees, for which the village is named. Tall, creviced mountains rise high in the distance, still bearing traces of winter snow.
But the 26 women in the class are not admiring the view. Instead, each attends to Qotsia, their 21-year-old teacher, who stands beside a small blackboard at the front of the room. One of millions of Afghans who fled the war-torn country, Qotsia grew up as a refugee in Iran, where she received 12 years of formal education. Now she has returned to BegToot, and the women are grateful.
Dressed and coifed in black, Qotsia begins to write with a piece of chalk. Carefully demonstrating each stroke, she writes a word in Dari composed of several letters from the alphabet displayed on a poster on the wall. The dark black letters on the poster are easy to see, but six months ago, no woman in the class could have named or written a single one. Today, hands shoot up when Qotsea asks someone to spell out and then read what she has written. One woman rises and comes forward: k a r u m (worm). “Very good, Pashtoon Jan!” says Qotsia. Pashtoon Jan smiles as her fellow learners sound out the word, repeat it in unison, and write it in their notebooks: k a r u m. Worms are the topic of today’s lesson.
To the left of the blackboard, a series of drawings depicts women busy with women’s chores: one is cleaning vegetables; one is boiling water to be stored in an earthenware jar; another is feeding a sick baby; and one is washing a child’s dirty hands. Now the women in this Level One literacy class are going to learn how worms and a child’s dirty hands are related.
As one of six Community Health Workers enrolled in the class, Zeba Gul already knows a lot about worms. Their life cycle and method of transmission were explained to her when BRAC, a REACH NGO-grantee, trained her as a CHW. But until now, Zeba Gul has never known how to spell, read or write the names of the parasites– roundworm, tapeworm, and pinworm—that sicken so many children and adults in the village.
As Qotsia begins the lesson, Zeba Gul leans forward and points to a young woman sitting nearby: “That’s my daughter,” she whispers. “Because of this class, she is learning to read and write before her hair turns gray.”
Later, the class at an end and women lingering to talk, Zeba Gul told her story. She was born in Paghman, but she has not always lived there. When she was sixteen, she married and moved to Kabul with her husband to live with his family. Her daughter and several other children were born in the city.
“It was good,” says Zeba Gul. “My husband had a small shop. He worked hard. In the morning, he opened the shop. In the afternoon, he had a second job in a government building.”
Even during the dark days of war, the family chose not to leave Afghanistan for sanctuary in Pakistan or Iran. “We stayed,” she says, remembering their struggles with a hint of pride in her voice. “We were hard workers, and we stayed.”
For a time after the Russians left, Zeba Gul thought the worst was behind them. But peace did not last long. “After that,” she said, “I wasn’t sure what the fighting was about; I know only that it did not stop. So much fighting.”
When Zeba Gul explains that both the family’s shop and home were near Damazang in Karte Seh, the room grows very quiet. Everyone knows that Karte Seh was virtually destroyed during the civil war. “Ay, Khoda!” the women whisper, as Zeba Gul continues her story:
“One night, our shop was ablaze. How it burned! And our house burned too. Everything we had was swallowed in fire. Oh, God. What could we do? We had nothing left! So we returned to Paghman. It was more than ten years ago. Here, my husband is a farmer. Thanks to Allah, he is alive.”
Many of her listeners have been less fortunate, and the widows nod in agreement as Zeba Gul utters her prayer of gratitude. The women in the room have known great sorrows, but it is resilience that binds them.
“Now,” continues Zeba Gul, “I am a CHW. And I am learning to read and write in this class. See there: my daughter is also here! Faz l’Khoda–Give thanks to God. What we learn cannot be burned.”
\’What We Learn Cannot Be Burnt – \’An Afghan Neo-Literate Woman
As we work in education, it often tends to get too \’sanitized\’ – as if it is not about real people in real situations, where education has a meaning that\’s almost impossible to comprehend. Here\’s a story from Afghanistan, from a programme called Learning for Life that sought to provide initial literacy and health awareness to enable women to become CHWs (community health workers, sorely needed in the country). This story was documented in June 2005, by Judie Schiffbauer, and shared by Katy Anis.
Each morning, six days a week, 40 year old Zeba Gul wraps a light gray shawl around her head and shoulders and leaves her family’s mud-walled compound in the Afghan village of BegToot. She follows a path that winds through dusty alleyways and then along green fields to arrive at a two-story building constructed of unbaked brick made from mud and straw. Inside, a set of narrow stairs leads to the Learning for Life classroom, where other women are already gathered. Removing her shoes at the doorway, she enters and lowers herself to the mat-covered floor, tucking her long legs beneath her.
In December 2004, when the LfL health-based literacy program began in BegToot, wind whipped snow against the classroom windows, but on this fine summer day, the windows are open to admit a pleasant breeze. The room looks out over groves of mulberry trees, for which the village is named. Tall, creviced mountains rise high in the distance, still bearing traces of winter snow.
But the 26 women in the class are not admiring the view. Instead, each attends to Qotsia, their 21-year-old teacher, who stands beside a small blackboard at the front of the room. One of millions of Afghans who fled the war-torn country, Qotsia grew up as a refugee in Iran, where she received 12 years of formal education. Now she has returned to BegToot, and the women are grateful.
Dressed and coifed in black, Qotsia begins to write with a piece of chalk. Carefully demonstrating each stroke, she writes a word in Dari composed of several letters from the alphabet displayed on a poster on the wall. The dark black letters on the poster are easy to see, but six months ago, no woman in the class could have named or written a single one. Today, hands shoot up when Qotsea asks someone to spell out and then read what she has written. One woman rises and comes forward: k a r u m (worm). “Very good, Pashtoon Jan!” says Qotsia. Pashtoon Jan smiles as her fellow learners sound out the word, repeat it in unison, and write it in their notebooks: k a r u m. Worms are the topic of today’s lesson.
To the left of the blackboard, a series of drawings depicts women busy with women’s chores: one is cleaning vegetables; one is boiling water to be stored in an earthenware jar; another is feeding a sick baby; and one is washing a child’s dirty hands. Now the women in this Level One literacy class are going to learn how worms and a child’s dirty hands are related.
As one of six Community Health Workers enrolled in the class, Zeba Gul already knows a lot about worms. Their life cycle and method of transmission were explained to her when BRAC, a REACH NGO-grantee, trained her as a CHW. But until now, Zeba Gul has never known how to spell, read or write the names of the parasites– roundworm, tapeworm, and pinworm—that sicken so many children and adults in the village.
As Qotsia begins the lesson, Zeba Gul leans forward and points to a young woman sitting nearby: “That’s my daughter,” she whispers. “Because of this class, she is learning to read and write before her hair turns gray.”
Later, the class at an end and women lingering to talk, Zeba Gul told her story. She was born in Paghman, but she has not always lived there. When she was sixteen, she married and moved to Kabul with her husband to live with his family. Her daughter and several other children were born in the city.
“It was good,” says Zeba Gul. “My husband had a small shop. He worked hard. In the morning, he opened the shop. In the afternoon, he had a second job in a government building.”
Even during the dark days of war, the family chose not to leave Afghanistan for sanctuary in Pakistan or Iran. “We stayed,” she says, remembering their struggles with a hint of pride in her voice. “We were hard workers, and we stayed.”
For a time after the Russians left, Zeba Gul thought the worst was behind them. But peace did not last long. “After that,” she said, “I wasn’t sure what the fighting was about; I know only that it did not stop. So much fighting.”
When Zeba Gul explains that both the family’s shop and home were near Damazang in Karte Seh, the room grows very quiet. Everyone knows that Karte Seh was virtually destroyed during the civil war. “Ay, Khoda!” the women whisper, as Zeba Gul continues her story:
“One night, our shop was ablaze. How it burned! And our house burned too. Everything we had was swallowed in fire. Oh, God. What could we do? We had nothing left! So we returned to Paghman. It was more than ten years ago. Here, my husband is a farmer. Thanks to Allah, he is alive.”
Many of her listeners have been less fortunate, and the widows nod in agreement as Zeba Gul utters her prayer of gratitude. The women in the room have known great sorrows, but it is resilience that binds them.
“Now,” continues Zeba Gul, “I am a CHW. And I am learning to read and write in this class. See there: my daughter is also here! Faz l’Khoda–Give thanks to God. What we learn cannot be burned.”
\’What We Learn Cannot Be Burnt – \’An Afghan Neo-Literate Woman
As we work in education, it often tends to get too \’sanitized\’ – as if it is not about real people in real situations, where education has a meaning that\’s almost impossible to comprehend. Here\’s a story from Afghanistan, from a programme called Learning for Life that sought to provide initial literacy and health awareness to enable women to become CHWs (community health workers, sorely needed in the country). This story was documented in June 2005, by Judie Schiffbauer, and shared by Katy Anis.
Each morning, six days a week, 40 year old Zeba Gul wraps a light gray shawl around her head and shoulders and leaves her family’s mud-walled compound in the Afghan village of BegToot. She follows a path that winds through dusty alleyways and then along green fields to arrive at a two-story building constructed of unbaked brick made from mud and straw. Inside, a set of narrow stairs leads to the Learning for Life classroom, where other women are already gathered. Removing her shoes at the doorway, she enters and lowers herself to the mat-covered floor, tucking her long legs beneath her.
In December 2004, when the LfL health-based literacy program began in BegToot, wind whipped snow against the classroom windows, but on this fine summer day, the windows are open to admit a pleasant breeze. The room looks out over groves of mulberry trees, for which the village is named. Tall, creviced mountains rise high in the distance, still bearing traces of winter snow.
But the 26 women in the class are not admiring the view. Instead, each attends to Qotsia, their 21-year-old teacher, who stands beside a small blackboard at the front of the room. One of millions of Afghans who fled the war-torn country, Qotsia grew up as a refugee in Iran, where she received 12 years of formal education. Now she has returned to BegToot, and the women are grateful.
Dressed and coifed in black, Qotsia begins to write with a piece of chalk. Carefully demonstrating each stroke, she writes a word in Dari composed of several letters from the alphabet displayed on a poster on the wall. The dark black letters on the poster are easy to see, but six months ago, no woman in the class could have named or written a single one. Today, hands shoot up when Qotsea asks someone to spell out and then read what she has written. One woman rises and comes forward: k a r u m (worm). “Very good, Pashtoon Jan!” says Qotsia. Pashtoon Jan smiles as her fellow learners sound out the word, repeat it in unison, and write it in their notebooks: k a r u m. Worms are the topic of today’s lesson.
To the left of the blackboard, a series of drawings depicts women busy with women’s chores: one is cleaning vegetables; one is boiling water to be stored in an earthenware jar; another is feeding a sick baby; and one is washing a child’s dirty hands. Now the women in this Level One literacy class are going to learn how worms and a child’s dirty hands are related.
As one of six Community Health Workers enrolled in the class, Zeba Gul already knows a lot about worms. Their life cycle and method of transmission were explained to her when BRAC, a REACH NGO-grantee, trained her as a CHW. But until now, Zeba Gul has never known how to spell, read or write the names of the parasites– roundworm, tapeworm, and pinworm—that sicken so many children and adults in the village.
As Qotsia begins the lesson, Zeba Gul leans forward and points to a young woman sitting nearby: “That’s my daughter,” she whispers. “Because of this class, she is learning to read and write before her hair turns gray.”
Later, the class at an end and women lingering to talk, Zeba Gul told her story. She was born in Paghman, but she has not always lived there. When she was sixteen, she married and moved to Kabul with her husband to live with his family. Her daughter and several other children were born in the city.
“It was good,” says Zeba Gul. “My husband had a small shop. He worked hard. In the morning, he opened the shop. In the afternoon, he had a second job in a government building.”
Even during the dark days of war, the family chose not to leave Afghanistan for sanctuary in Pakistan or Iran. “We stayed,” she says, remembering their struggles with a hint of pride in her voice. “We were hard workers, and we stayed.”
For a time after the Russians left, Zeba Gul thought the worst was behind them. But peace did not last long. “After that,” she said, “I wasn’t sure what the fighting was about; I know only that it did not stop. So much fighting.”
When Zeba Gul explains that both the family’s shop and home were near Damazang in Karte Seh, the room grows very quiet. Everyone knows that Karte Seh was virtually destroyed during the civil war. “Ay, Khoda!” the women whisper, as Zeba Gul continues her story:
“One night, our shop was ablaze. How it burned! And our house burned too. Everything we had was swallowed in fire. Oh, God. What could we do? We had nothing left! So we returned to Paghman. It was more than ten years ago. Here, my husband is a farmer. Thanks to Allah, he is alive.”
Many of her listeners have been less fortunate, and the widows nod in agreement as Zeba Gul utters her prayer of gratitude. The women in the room have known great sorrows, but it is resilience that binds them.
“Now,” continues Zeba Gul, “I am a CHW. And I am learning to read and write in this class. See there: my daughter is also here! Faz l’Khoda–Give thanks to God. What we learn cannot be burned.”
Politics and the average Chinese
The man in the street simply does not care ! At least politically !!
In a country of 1.2 billion, such a sweeping statement is an outrageous generalisation. But it is broadly true. The average Chinese does not care because (a) what is the real choice (b) she has very little access to information that is even remotely political in nature and (c) she doesn\’t seem to be hugely interested anyway
And this is despite a startling fact; the country with the maximum number of protests from citizens is actually China ! On any given day, there are probably 800 odd protests happening throughout China. If there is such vigorous activity, how come the assertion that the average Joe (Mrs Li) doesn\’t care ?
Two sweeping statements can be made about the average Chinese\’s views (a) she believes (and it does not matter where or who she is) that the local government is utterly corrupt and inefficient
and (b) she believes that the central leaders in Beijing are extremely efficient, working hard for the country, are the best humans on earth and if only they knew of their specific problem, it would be instantly fixed.
All the protests are predominantly on local issues, and mostly against land grabs by local officials. It is therefore mainly economic in nature, not political. There are simply no political protests of any sort.
A major issue in China is that public opinion is greatly hampered because of virtually no access to true political information. The following is the information environment in which the average Chinese lives
– There are no independent newspapers at all. Foreign newspapers are mostly not available.
– There is only government TV . No foreign channels, except in top end hotels. Even those are censored – can you believe that CNN\’s broadcast to China is routed through a Chinese government controlled satellite !
– All films are subject to censorship. Foreign films are severely limited in number and if you have anything remotely political in your film, fat chance of being cleared. Ditto books. Ditto music. Pirated DVDs are freely available but then the market is mostly for sexually explicit stuff rather than political content.
– The Great Firewall of China, behind which the internet sits in a parallel universe, is one of the most remarkable operations of all. The Hall of Fame of sites that are completely banned and inaccessible from China includes Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google plus, Maps, Docs, Picasa, Dropbox, Flickr, ….. I can keep going. Every one of these have local equivalents which are of course severely censored by the authorities
– The Chinese are avid users of social media, but only on domestic providers. These are hugely monitored by armies of machines, men and software. Every offending post is deleted . If you realise that there are half a billion internet users in China and they are as active as anybody in online activities, you can imagine the scale at which censorship takes place.
Consequently, the average Chinese is poorly informed on political matters and therefore has limited and not fully informed views. In any social gathering in the West (even more so in India), the conversation will turn political. Not so in China. Mao has been glorified as \”70% right\” – very few of the younger generation know anything about the horrors of the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. The Tiananmen incidents of 1989 have been airbrushed from history – when I lived in China I was amazed that my colleagues knew virtually nothing about what happened.
The sum total of all this is that public opinion in China is less intense and formed than in virtually any other country. Therefore the Party and the government are under less pressure than anywhere else. You see, the true check on any government in any country is not judiciary , or the constitutional checks and balances – it is really public opinion represented by the media. In China, that check does not exist. The Chinese have made a pact with the Party – give us continuous economic advancement and we won\’t care about the politics. Thus far, that pact has held good.
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.
Practicing righteousness
“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 6:1).
To this point, Jesus has discussed prohibitions found in God’s Law: do not murder, or even surrender to anger; do not commit adultery, or even surrender to lust; do not resist an evil person. Even the positive commandment, love your enemies, is largely a prohibition against treating people in response to what they have done in the past or what they might do in the future. Each of these commandments relates to our neighbors, the people we encounter in this world.
Jesus now speaks of positive things and of things pertaining to our relationship with God. He describes three things God expects us to do: giving to the needy, praying, and fasting. Jesus does not question whether we will do these things—he firmly says, “When you give… when you pray… when you fast….” These are positive actions, but Jesus adds one prohibition: we are not to do these things in a way that calls attention to ourselves from other people.
In this tightly-knit set of teachings, Jesus repeats a refrain. He says that what we do to impress people here on earth will be ignored by our Father in heaven. Only the things we do secretly, thinking about God and not about other people, are seen and rewarded by God. Our relationship with him is an inner relationship, a matter of the heart. When we start trying to impress people—when we want to be recognized on earth as holy, religious, spiritual, or good-hearted—we omit God from our spiritual life.
Other religions know this as well. What matters most in many religions is a relationship with the divine. Things done for attention here on earth are ignored in heaven. God is our first priority; everything else is forgotten as we draw near to God.
Many teachers would frown even at Jesus’ mention of a reward from our Father in heaven. If we do holy things to earn a reward, we are not really doing them for God. What sounds like a paradox is actually sensible: Whatever we do on earth to earn a reward earns no reward; whatever we do to serve God without seeking a reward will be rewarded.
Jesus plainly says that God rewards those who seek him. His reward is not measured in worldly ways—in money or influence or even good feelings. We are not invited to tell God what reward he should give us. God chooses the rewards he gives. He has already given us gifts and blessings, including the forgiveness of our sins and eternal life in the new creation. We have the kingdom of heaven. We will be comforted. We will inherit the earth. We will be satisfied. We will be shown mercy. We will see God. We will be called sons of God. What reward do we need or want beyond these gifts? God chooses fitting rewards for those who seek him. He has selected rewards for all those who set aside the things of this world because their hearts already are in the kingdom of heaven. J.
China’s Issues
Every country faces challenges and China is no exception. But by global yardsticks, China’s issues are less critical than what most other countries face. It is after all the one country in the world which does not face a serious growth challenge (at least as of now). China is however such a large country that even a seemingly minor issue is of gigantic scale and one that will affect the whole world. This is why everybody in the world ought to take a much greater interest in this country.
This post is a compendium of social, political, economic and moral issues that China faces at this point of time, in no particular order
Maintaining GDP Growth : The “contract” between the Communist Party and the people is a simple one – Economic growth for political control. When economic growth falters, this contract will be put under strain. There are a number of challenges to maintaining economic growth and some of them are articulated below. You can’t grow endlessly at 8%+. The inflexion point has come.
Quantum of Debt : China’s debt to GDP ratio is galloping and is now above 300%. Much of the growth over the last decade has been debt fuelled. Growth will seriously falter if debt is cut. That’s why the elusive “soft landing” is proving so difficult for China. Just for comparison, India’s debt to GDP %, which I often cry about is “only” 130%. The United States, of course is a leader at 350% !
Income inequality : Every country faces this problem, but China faces it as bad as the US. The Gini coefficient, a measure of income inequality is 0.42 (higher the number, greater the inequality). The US is 0.46. India is 0.35. China is starting to have first world problems
Ageing population : Because of the one child policy that was rigidly enforced until recently, China is rapidly ageing. It will be the first country in history to have an ageing problem before it got rich (remember, on a per capita basis, China is still middling). With a poor social security network, who is going to pay for the aged and take care of them in a decade or two. China has the peculiar problem of one grandchild for four grandparents.
Corruption : We have spoken of it in previous posts. It is a serious problem.
Environment : China faces an acute environmental problem. The government is actively tackling it, but the problem is a huge one and one that was allowed to build up to crisis levels over decades. China also faces an acute water problem (worse than India’s). There aren’t easy solutions. Much of the north is virtually a desert, but with teeming populations.
Restive provinces : The one thing China is absolutely terrible at is integrating people who are culturally different. 93% of China is a homogeneous Han (those who talk about diversity in China have no clue what diversity really means – come to India). The two largest provinces Tibet and Xinjiang are restive and brutally suppressed
Rising nationalism : Very few Chinese would recognise this as an issue, but it really is. Anti foreigner sentiment is high – its easy for a large number of Chinese to be fanatically against a nation if whipped into a frenzy of perceived slights. The Chinese government is increasingly bullying in its approach – Japan (Senkaku), entire East Asia (Nine dash line), India (Doklam and Arunachal). The average citizen who only has access to government propaganda gets whipped into dangerous nationalism. The Chinese would do well to ponder over this – why do they have so few friends ?
A moral vacuum : To an outsider, this might seem to be a strange issue, but many Chinese would immediately relate to it. Firstly during the Cultural Revolution and then in the breakneck speed of economic growth, its ancient culture, beliefs and traditions have gone. Today money is the predominant (only) religion. In other countries, religious and social organisations provide a balance to the materialism. In China they do not exist, or if they rise, are brutally exterminated by the government (see what happened to Falun Gong). So many Chinese wonder – after money what? And they may then turn their attention to demanding a level of freedom not in consonance with what the party is comfortable with.
And so this is the real major issue that China has faced since the mid 1980s and continues to face now. What is the balance between economic freedom and growth and political and other freedoms. The first flare up came when Zhou Enlai died in 1976. The second major flare up came during the Tiananmen incident in 1989. Since then there has been an uneasy truce, but one which has never gone away. Some day it will rear its head again. How China confronts it, and who is in power in China to confront it, will have tremendous consequences for the world.
An emerging mystery in education reform
Over the last two decades, the number of professionals / resource persons / researchers / academics has dramatically grown in two areas related to educational improvement / reform — planning and evaluation — but not so much in the part that comes in between: IMPLEMENTATION! We have more and more data on learning outcomes, provisioning or the lack of it, \’non-performance\’ of personnel, expenditure incurred and the like, but comparatively very little on, say, emotional incentives that help teachers change, or practices that enable diversity to become a resource rather than constraint, or ways in which debilitating hierarchies and lack of equity can be addressed in large scale, or how systems learn to be more responsive…
In particular, the ability to evaluate children\’s learning as well as programme \’outcomes\’ has seen the greatest degree of rigour and academic/professional depth. Suddenly, there is a large number of agencies undertaking research, assessment and evaluation, and \’data\’ related activities such as monitoring / tracking. And we have people who have studied in places such as Harvard / Cambridge etc. evaluating the work of those who went to somewhat less distinguished schools/universities, studied courses that didn\’t really prepare them to design or execute brilliant programmes…. And who, of course, are not really able to get teachers to be more committed or display innovation or even basic professional capabilities. Interestingly though, the various studies / data bases + analyses by the highly qualified minds come up with results that their less qualified counterparts can quite accurately predict beforehand!
So why are the highly qualified academics/professionals so involved with evaluation and planning rather than actually getting things done? I believe because it is EASIER – easier to point out what is going wrong than actually make it better, easier to give \’recommendations\’ than nitty-gritty details that might lead to improvement (and which you can learn only if you really dirty your hands and undergo the deep frustration that teaches you what works or doesn\’t).
Perhaps all this is doing a disservice – certainly more and more people in the system are coming to believe that whatever they do is not going to work, and will probably not stand up to the \’scrutiny\’ of these \’intelligent and knowledgeable\’ people. There is also a tendency to focus on what will \’please the researchers\’ – hence some states devalue all-round education to emphasize only reading and writing and numeracy; or are forever \’piloting\’ aspects that should be well-known after so many decades and therefore diverting energy from larger systemic reform that is required post-RTE. Looks like the law of unintended consequences is beginning to operate…
[At a later date I hope to write a more \’researched\’ and \’data/evidence-backed\’ piece elaborating on this – in the meantime, comments really welcome!]
Eduindex 
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