Anna\’s is NOT a movement for change

Let\’s imagine for a moment that corruption vanishes – no one takes bribes any more. Which of the following do you think would now happen as a result?

Dalits will not face discrimination anywhere; people will stop believing in caste and elections will be around issues, not social groups. Unborn girls will not be killed, dowry will go, sexual harassment will vanish, the notion of \’minority\’ will not need to be discussed, equality and equity will be established.
People will start working harder, with greater commitment, be much more innovative, and therefore the economy will shoot up. Private enterprise will no more be required to shore up government efforts.
We will stop exploiting environmental resources in a dangerous manner, all power and energy related problems will be solved, petrol will become cheaper, our sources of water will not be polluted any more and global warming will come to a halt (at least in India).
All children will start attending school and learning well; teachers will transform into good teachers, all government schools will become great schools, and India\’s learning standards will be among the highest in the world. In sports too we will emerge as a world power.
Inflation will not affect us any more, the price of food and other essentials will come down, no matter what happens elsewhere in the world.
Health and nutrition levels will go up greatly, diseases of the poor (water-borne ones or those caused by malnutrition, for instance) will be vanquished.
Poor governance will vanish – in the absence of bribes, officials will become competent, start taking good decisions, stop representing power groups, start listening to people and actually working for their betterment.

I hope you were able to tick off quite a few!

Oscar Wild said: \’Stupidity is the only sin.\’ And in that sense, Anna&Co are great sinners. Unfortunately, those who continue to believe they\’re helping destroy the roots of our problems and bringing about real change – are even more so.

Anna\’s is NOT a movement for change

Let\’s imagine for a moment that corruption vanishes – no one takes bribes any more. Which of the following do you think would now happen as a result?

Dalits will not face discrimination anywhere; people will stop believing in caste and elections will be around issues, not social groups. Unborn girls will not be killed, dowry will go, sexual harassment will vanish, the notion of \’minority\’ will not need to be discussed, equality and equity will be established.
People will start working harder, with greater commitment, be much more innovative, and therefore the economy will shoot up. Private enterprise will no more be required to shore up government efforts.
We will stop exploiting environmental resources in a dangerous manner, all power and energy related problems will be solved, petrol will become cheaper, our sources of water will not be polluted any more and global warming will come to a halt (at least in India).
All children will start attending school and learning well; teachers will transform into good teachers, all government schools will become great schools, and India\’s learning standards will be among the highest in the world. In sports too we will emerge as a world power.
Inflation will not affect us any more, the price of food and other essentials will come down, no matter what happens elsewhere in the world.
Health and nutrition levels will go up greatly, diseases of the poor (water-borne ones or those caused by malnutrition, for instance) will be vanquished.
Poor governance will vanish – in the absence of bribes, officials will become competent, start taking good decisions, stop representing power groups, start listening to people and actually working for their betterment.

I hope you were able to tick off quite a few!

From Shirking To Working

One of the defining features of the government offices we visit is the number of people who seem to be comfortably sitting around doing nothing. Literally – nothing. You might find a chair occupier arrive, put away his lunch-box, arrange his things, have a drink of water and then sit down on his chair, make himself comfortable and then – simply sit there, look unseeingly in front. The more social / active among this population might move around talking with ‘friends’. The scholarly ones might unfurl a newspaper and go through it, all the while putting away files and documents absent-mindedly.

However, it would be really unfair to blame those in government service, for the desire to sit around and do nothing, especially if one is paid for it, may be found in almost as many places as you can imagine. The common view that ‘the moment a person becomes permanent he stops working’ does have plenty of reason to be so common! Those paid to do any work, if they do any work, often appear to be doing it under duress or at least clearly wishing they did not have to be doing it. So great is the aversion to actually working that it is common to hear people praise jobs where ‘pay is good but work is not hard.’

So why exactly is not working seen as better than working? Why would one deprive oneself of the satisfaction of becoming good at something, of being successful (and useful), of achieving results or a reputation? I think the reason is that these are precisely the things that most people in such positions can’t hope for. That is why for them, doing nothing is perhaps a better option.

Maybe a whole sociological / psychological / some-other-cal inquiry is needed to find out the underlying causes of this massive phenomenon. My amateurish take is that these people are in jobs that do not require them to think, take initiative or be responsible in any serious way. Their role is merely to follow instructions or – more commonly – pass on those instructions. Their chance of ever getting credit – is zero. Because there are no standards as to what it means to be ‘good’ in their work, they can never be appreciated or recognized or gain a real reputation.

So how do they respond? We know the answer…

The question for us: Is there any way in which shirkers can become workers? It might be simplistic but if we want to convert shirkers into workers we have to create conditions for success, where doing nothing is definitely worse than not working because it so clearly deprives you of so much that is so much more valuable! We need to think on the following:

Clarify where professional decisions must be taken by each ‘level’ of person
Identify standards of doing any task/job ‘well’ – so that it becomes possible for people to take pride in doing something well
Instead of relationships based on instructions, how about developing partnerships?

This naturally seems idealistic, but one great thing is that this is one of those efforts that can begin at the top. Which means that instead of mobilizing masses, we need to convince a relatively smaller number of people. Once they do implement any of this, the results would speak for themselves.

Footnotes

1.Bush quotes can be found on the While House document “Backgrounder: The President’s Quotes On Islam“.
2. Bill Sammon, “Bush praises Islam for its ‘morality,’” Washington Times Dec. 6 2002
3. Scott Lindlaw, “Bush Marks End of Ramadan, Visits Mosque (Islam brings hope and comfort),” Associated Press Dec. 5 2002
4. Dana Milbank, “Conservatives Dispute Bush Portrayal of Islam as Peaceful,” Washington Post Nov. 29, 2002
5. Norman Podhoretz quoted in Dana Milbank’s article above
6. Paul Johnson, “Relentlessly and Thoroughly,” National Review Oct. 15, 2001
7. Frank J Gaffney Jr.,”A Troubling Influence,” Front Page Magazine, Dec 9 2003
8. A few notable books from the early 1940s warning of the global rise of collectivism and demise of liberal individualism are Freidrich A Hayak, “The Road to Serfdom” University of Chicago Press, 1944. Ayn Rand, “The Fountainhead,” Bobbs-Merrill, 1943. Rose Wilder Lane, “The Discovery of Freedom,” Fox & Wikes, 1943. Isabel Paterson, “The God of the Machine,” 1943. Classical liberal contemporaries include Ludwig von Mises, Henry Hazlett, Albert Jay Nock, and H.L.Mencken.
9. George H. Nash, “The Conservative Intellectual Movement in America Since 1945”, p. 256, Basic Books, Inc., New York, 1979
10. Nash, ibid p. 257
11. Nash, ibid p. 258
12. Frank S. Meyer, “A Rebel in Search of Tradition,” The Freeman (July 1955): 559-62 reprinted in Gregory L. Schneider’s “Conservatism in America since 1930”
13. Whittaker Chambers, “A Witness” reprinted in Gregory L. Schneider’s “Conservatism in America since 1930”
14. see Garrett Thomson, “On Locke,” Wadsworth, 2001
15. Paul Johnson, “A History of the American People”
16. Forrest McDonald, “A Founding Father’s Library”, Literature of Liberty (January/March 1978) Cato Institute, San Francisco
17. Robert Nisbet, “Conservatism: Dream and Reality,” University of Minnesota Press 1986 p. 1 link. Quotes are from the hardcover edition.
18. Nisbet, ibid
19. Nisbet, ibid
20. David N. Mayer, “The Forgotten Essentials of Jefferson” The Objectivist Center April 4 1997
21. Charles Murray, “Ideas & Trends; Well, It Seemed Like a Good Idea At the Time,” New York Times, Week in Review Nov. 30 2003
22. Russell Kirk, “Ten Conservative Principles” The Russell Kirk Center 1993
23. George W. Carey, “Freedom & Virtue: The Conservative Libertarian Debate,” Intercollegiate Studies Institute; Rev. and updated ed edition p. 101
24. Stanley Reed, “Inside Saudi Arabia,” Business Week, Nov. 26
25. Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon, “The Age of Sacred Terror,” Random House, New York 2002 p. 167

I should have the right to vote out Trump

I am an Indian citizen. I have no right to vote in the US elections. That\’s fine – US citizens can make their own choices on who to govern them. But when the US starts passing laws that affect the world, expects global compliance and which have global consequences, then I am not prepared to keep quiet.

Nowhere is the US effect more on other country citizens than in the area of finance. If it starts a war, as it did in Iraq, at least I am not affected too much and its unlikely that the US will start a war with India. But Trump, by the act of trying to roll back Dodd Frank, is directly affecting me and is therefore fair game in being virulently criticised.

Dodd Frank what ? Yes that\’s a fair question as unless you are a student of economics you may not have come across the Dodd Frank Act. Here\’s the context in layman terms

– Remember the financial crisis of a decade ago. It was caused by global financial behemoths (mainly US based) going crazy
– Post the crisis, the Obama administration enacted the Dodd Frank Act to govern the conduct of financial institutions. Massive compliance requirements were brought in and severe restrictions and policing was introduced on what they could and could not do.
– At the time, the Republican Party was in the phase of \”Hell No\”. Therefore the law was not passed on a bipartisan basis. It was mostly a Democratic Party legislation.
– Republicans hated it, largely because they hated anything Obama did. The big finance companies and banks absolutely loathed it.
– The law is complex, fiddly, adds huge costs of compliance and is an absolute nuisance for those in the finance business. All true. But we have seen what havoc they can wreck on the world if they are let loose. So their complaints should simply be met with a stonewall.
– This is one perfect example of a bad law being infinitely better than no law.
– The consequence of another financial meltdown is that I, an Indian citizen, will have to pay for it even though Indian financial institutions played absolutely no part in creating the mayhem. Like it or not there\’s no \”Buy American\” in finance. Finance is global.

Trump is now trying to loosen the provisions of the Dodd Frank Act. Thankfully he cannot repeal it as he needs 60 votes in the US Senate and he does not have them as the Democrats are now the party of \”Hell No\”. But he can dilute it considerably and that\’s what he is starting to do. An Executive Order came out on Friday. Thankfully for now, the Order is just asking somebody to do something , as most Executive Orders thus far have been. Nothing really has happened.

But it will happen. Trump\’s cabinet and advisers are full of Wall Street types. They have a vested interest in undoing the Act . They must be resisted with every force. And I\’ll loudly call for Trump to be resisted on this one. As should you, whatever nationality you are. It affects you and me.

Dodd Frank has lots of faults. It\’s 2300 pages long. That alone is enough to tell you that Ramamritham has run amok. BUT, before anybody tries to do anything with it, he has to prove that it will improve controls and not dilute it.

For, you see, if you want to be really scared, do not think of nuclear war with North Korea. Or Arctic melt down. Or an asteroid hitting the earth. Get mortally terrified with just this one statistic. The total value of financial derivatives in the world at this moment is some $1.5 quadrillion. By comparison the world\’s GDP is $80 trillion

Thus spake Gates

Regular leaders of the blog know that this blogger is an unabashed admirer of Bill & Melinda Gates. He is of the opinion that they must be sainted – for they have have done more good in the world than many, if not most, religious leaders.

They publish an annual letter which is like a \”State of the Union address\” in their field. This time they have answered in their letter, the ten toughest questions they get. And yes, Donald Trump is one of them, but if you expect an incendiary answer, well, you don\’t know the Gates.

I consider their Annual Letter as required reading for any human being with a heart. Here is this year\’s letter.

Its a bit different as it addresses questions, some of which are not developmental in nature – like Trump, or what do they do when they disagree. But it is , as always, an interesting and often motivating read.

May I exhort you to read this one, and then every one of their previous 10 letters. It is a far more productive use of your time, than reading you know what !

The Seven Myths That Make Education Difficult To Improve

Have you ever had the experience of failing to open a lock till you discovered that you were using the wrong key? That\’s a little like discovering after years or decades of work that perhaps some of the things we\’ve been taking for granted all along don\’t necessarily hold true. There are probably many such notions, but here are what seem to be the seven most crucial ones. Each one of these is elaborated upon in a separate post, and followed by a note on what we can do – all over the next eight days.

The Seven Myths:

1. Children are homogenous

· All must learn the same thing, in the same way, with the same material.
· All must learn the same amount

If someone falls behind, something must be wrong with them – they don’t conform to the norm!

2. All children must attend school every day

3. There is one form of knowledge and it belongs to the ‘educated classes’.

4. Students learn mainly by listening to the teacher.

5. Teachers can improve by following instructions given to them by their seniors.

6. Stakeholders are concerned about education (as educationists understand it)

7. The education system exists to improve education.

Myth # 1 – Children are homogenous

· All must learn the same thing, in the same way, with the same material.
· All must learn the same amount

It’s quite amazing, isn’t it? What daily observation and commonsense (backed by vast, vast amounts of in-depth research) tells us is that children are very different from each other. That it is indeed difficult to expect all of them to learn the same amount in a year, that all ‘averages’ are mere guess work, certainly in terms of subject-related expectations after the early years. In fact, even the idea of putting children into classes or grades may not have sufficient basis – it is more management friendly than learning friendly. The question is not ‘How can the teacher teach if all children have to learn differently?’ but ‘How can naturally diverse children learn if the teacher teaches the same thing and in the same way to all?’

As a result of all this, if some children fall behind, it is assumed something must be wrong with them – they don’t conform to the norm! The ones falling behind are actually often those from under-resourced backgrounds – because the ‘norm’ and design of education is such that you are likely to do better if you are from an economically better background. Which is why it is actually news if a child from a poor family does well in a board exam!

And of course if you happen not to be able to learn the way in which you are being taught (you might be from a privileged family) even then something is wrong with you (though less wrong than if you were poor). You may not like school, but you can be sure the school does not like you too.

This myth is so common, so prevalent that it’s hard to imagine there might be other ways… what do you think?

From Shirking To Working

So how do they respond? We know the answer…

Clarify where professional decisions must be taken by each ‘level’ of person
Identify standards of doing any task/job ‘well’ – so that it becomes possible for people to take pride in doing something well
Instead of relationships based on instructions, how about developing partnerships?

Sack all Fund Managers !

Here is uncontestable proof that all Fund Managers are a waste of time. They are (mostly) lavishly paid for nothing. If that sounds a radical statement, read on.

Its a well known saying in financial circles that you cannot beat the market in the long run. The sage of Omaha, Warren Buffett has been saying this for a long time. In 2007, he publicly laid a bet that the S&P 500 index would outperform hedge funds over a 10 year period. He wagered $500,000 on it to anybody who would take up the challenge, observing cheekily , ” “After all, these managers urged others to bet billions on their abilities. Why should they fear putting a little of their own money on the line?”

Surprisingly only one person took up the bet (shame on you hedge fund industry). Protege Partners handpicked a portfolio of hedge funds. And the wager was on – the S&P 500 against this handpicked pool of hedge funds.

Ten years ended on 31 Dec 2017. And guess who won ? The hedge fund pool gained 22% over 10 years. The S&P 500 rose 85%. No contest ! Buffet won a handsome amount and promptly donated it to the charity, Girls Inc of Omaha.

There’s a big lesson to everybody who is saving and investing. In the long run you cannot beat the market index. Repeat after me, In the long run you cannot beat the index. Repeat again, In the long run you cannot beat the index. Write it out 1000 times.

And yet, we listen to advice from friends. To tips. We hire investment managers. Fund Managers design all sort of esoteric funds and write research reports on how their funds are outperforming the market. A million online portals exist that cater to advice on investment. All of them charge a fee. All of them get handsomely paid.

Instead follow the advice of Warren Buffet (for free; no fees charged). Simply invest in an index fund – the S&P 500 if you are in the US, the Footsie if you are in the UK, the Nifty if you are in India. A fund that will charge minimum fees to simply hold the basket of securities exactly mimicking the index. And then forget about it. Come back after 10 or 20 or 30 years. You would have made more money than anybody else. It’s as simple as that.

There’s only one slight problem. Warren Buffet has beaten the S&P Index handsomely in the 50 odd years he has been at the helm of Berkshire Hathaway !

Has Anyone Asked Teachers This Yet?

Over the last two decades, as the number of teachers has grown, so too has a certain attitude towards them. This comes up in different ways in the various interactions we have – during school visits, meetings at cluster or block level, workshops and training programmes for different groups of personnel, and informal interaction at all levels. Somehow, the discussion ends up at the teacher\’s door. And the following statement springs forth: \’Teacher is at the heart of the matter sir; only when teacher improves can anything improve.\’

This is then followed by a long list of what teachers are not good at, including examples such as (this is a mild list!):

Teachers don\’t practice Quality Teaching
Are not able to \’go according to the level of children\’
Don\’t make use of psychology (I assume this means something called \’child psychology\’)
Application is missing – teachers are not linking concepts to practical life.
They show a lack of Social Awareness
Don\’t go for innovative activities
Don\’t do voluntary service
Don’t give examples while teaching
Don\’t pin accountability for the task given (i.e. don\’t take responsibility themselves)
Fail to develop or revive the interest to teach
Are not flexible to change their mentality
Don\’t give individual attention to children
Are not patient
Don’t make use of case study
Don\’t take a friendly approach
Are poor listeners
Have no tolerance
Are partial
Reluctant
Lazy
Lack in adaptation, and don\’t update their knowledge
Are in a hurry to get the product rather than being bothered about the process
Expect more with little effort!

Believe it or not, this is an actual list produced by participants in a workshop (which also included teachers!) and is also typical of most parts of the country.

But when asked to name any strengths that teachers have, what you usually get are blank stares or a scrawny, reluctant list of maybe four points, such as:

Covers syllabus in time
Preparing children for getting marks.
Good in lecturing (encouraging rote learning)
Conducting special coaching for those falling behind

As you can see, no shortage of left-handed compliments here!

Typically, when asked if they\’ve actually asked teachers what they\’re good at, or what they feel they\’re not good at, the people who make the above statements tend to draw a blank! However, when teachers themselves are asked what they\’re not good at, their statements include points such as these:

In trying to address the average student, I\’m unable to take care of those who are falling behind
I find it difficult to make the subject interesting for some students
If parents can\’t help children with their homework, I find it difficult to help the child in class

Clearly, there\’s a perception mismatch between teachers and those tasked with appointing, deploying, orienting, developing, mentoring and monitoring teachers. It might be a little too much to ask, but the following seem clearly required;

There\’s a need to listen to teachers before coming to the kind of conclusions we have come to
In order to go beyond impressions, systematic observation and research are required
How about finding out the strengths teachers have and how to build on them
Finally, what is the system doing to make some of its own dire predictions about teachers become true?

7 Ways to Retain Optimism (Even If You Work In Improving Elementary Education!)

Got you, didn\’t it! Sooner or later, you hit a wall. There\’s a feeling that nothing works. That the system is so overwhelming that hardly anything can be done. Eventually, if you\’re someone trying to improve elementary education – whether as a teacher or resource person or administrator – you find yourself unwillingly accepting that the poor quality of education will continue to prevail in hundreds of thousands of classrooms.

Ok, so that\’s stated a little too strongly. But there is grain of truth there! Which is why, in the interest of millions of children, we need to look at how to retain the enthusiasm and optimism we started out with. So here are some ways to preserve your cheer, mental health and youthful looks despite the years you\’ve put in.

1. Think \’how\’, not \’should\’

Much too often we find ourselves talking about what \’should\’ be happening. Slowly the discussion slides into a list of things we are dissatisfied with – teachers not working, infrastructure remaining poor, lack of leadership, absence of commitment…. You can hear the pitch rising, can\’t you? Keep the pitch raised and you\’re bound to have a stressed heart!

To retain your desire to make things better (and keep your heart healthy), it would be so much better to talk of the how. What ordinary things can a teacher do? E.g. smile at children, read the textbook before the class, solve a puzzle herself to find out how much fun it is, read aloud a book to children once in a while – nothing that requires an \’order\’ or funding or special mandate or skill or training. Similarly, what can a head teacher do, burdened as she is with administrative tasks made difficult by lack of support? Share and delegate (e.g. make it fun for other teachers to participate and work as a group), discuss some of the records maintained in the school (e.g. connect children\’s attendance rates and test performance), and so on.

As you can see, you would have something doable to share. Chances are, some of the ideas might actually get picked up – in which case don\’t forget to really appreciate the person implementing them.

2. Focus on outcomes, not inputs

This is much more if you\’re a planner, administrator, supervisor, programme leader. Very often we\’re so focused on the inputs flowing from our side that we ignore what these are for. Thus it seems important to see whether material is supplied or not, the number of days of in-service training covered, physical targets fulfilled – and then one day it suddenly turns out that all this has not had much impact. We\’re left feeling that all our effort didn\’t amount to much, and a sinking feeling starts to grow. Of course we don\’t tell anyone else about it but we\’re aware it\’s there, isn\’t it?

How to overcome this situation? After all, inputs have to be provided. Sure they have – but for a purpose. It might be more useful to take a look at what all this is meant to bring about. For instance, the issue is not whether material is supplied or not but whether it is used as intended by children. This suddenly makes us see that we need to focus on training, incorporate this into the monitoring and academic support, share examples with teachers, encourage children and parents to lose inhibitions and start using material in school and at home… All of which, if done even on a small scale and only partially successful, has the wonderful effect of making you feel giddy with success. Pessimism – gone!

3. Be incremental

This point is so commonsensical and obvious that it gets ignored. Don\’t try to do everything or too much in one go (especially if you are at the district / sub-district level). For instance, for any teacher to make a real change in the classroom processes, some 40 different practices are likely to change. Try doing a full \’training\’ and expect all these changes – there\’s only chaos. Teachers do try but fail – no one\’s sure what to start with, the sequence in which to implement these changes, the steps to be taken. All it takes is one or two failures for teachers and schools to feel that nothing much can be done, that it\’s all too difficult, and doesn\’t work and is therefore not worth the effort. Soon, you begin to feel the same and are a pale shadow of the enthusiastic person who set out on a journey of change.

To get back on track on this journey, scale things down a little. Expect only a few changes at a time. E.g.

Give teachers a list of 6-8 possible changes (ranging from calling each child by the name, to making use of activities given in the textbooks to encouraging children to ask questions).
Ask them to select only 3-4 from this list (making a choice generates ownership and commitment); discuss the steps they need to take in order to bring about these changes.
Encourage them to make a 2-3 month implementation plan around these steps and help them monitor themselves and each other to see if the changes are actually happening.
Extend this cycle at the end of each 2-3 month period. Over a year or two, a dramatic change would occur – only it would have been less noticed as it happened, more successful, and breeding optimism rather than pessimism.

For those in the know, this is precisely what ADEPTS is all about and has made a positive change happen in over 22,000 (that\’s right, 22 thousand) schools in Gujarat.

4. Enter with questions, leave with (people\’s) ideas

Trainers, facilitators and academics trying to communicate with teachers end up being frustrated very soon – \’they don\’t pay any attention to whatever we say\’ is a common complaint. To which the reply is – why should they? The days are over when someone followed your ideas / views / instructions simply because you came from a so-called \’superior\’ level such as a university or senior position in the hierarchy. No, people will do things differently only if they are convinced and feel like doing it from inside. Our role is to touch people\’s hearts and minds rather than trying to shape them or fill them with our views.

How can one do this? It\’s so simple that I\’m almost ashamed to mention it! Don\’t enter a training session or a meeting with a list of things to tell. Instead, concentrate on a few key questions to ask. Questions that will generate response, reflection, and provoke people into coming out with their own views and ideas. For instance, ask questions such as:

If material is so easy to generate, why should we supply anything? What do you think?
Suggest ways in which you can use a library along with the textbook?
Shouldn\’t we trust children and get them to mark their own attendance instead of the teacher spending time on it?
When children don\’t understand decimals, exactly where do you think the problem lies?

Don\’t believe me, try it out and see what happens. At any rate, the tired old complaint will not be heard any more.

5. Don\’t see people as they are but as they\’re going to be…

Anyone who\’s responsible for helping people be different usually ends up using phrases such as \’dog\’s tail that can never be straightened\’. But that\’s because they see people as they actually are rather than what they can be like. Try this out the next time you\’re in such a situation –

Look at your students / participants / team members and visualise them as being different.
What qualities can you visualise them as having?
What ways do you seem them adopting to make good use of the capabilities they already have?
And what do you see yourself learning from them?

Gives you a different perspective, doesn\’t it? Every time I\’ve worked with a group that has been called \’difficult\’, this is what has helped me make good friends with the participants and support them in changing themselves. Not exactly rocket science, and works very well too. End result? You can imagine…

6. The system is people too

When you work on an impersonal, solid thing called a \’system\’, it\’s hard to see it changing. Indeed, it has an inertia of its own because it has usually arrived at some degree of stability over the years – and here you are, trying to destabilise it for reasons of your own! Why on earth would it meekly go along?

But if you look upon a system as a number of people bound in a set of relationships, you have several entry points where there didn\’t seem to be any in the beginning. There are bound to be persons in the system trying to make good things happen (if nothing else, just the law of averages determines that there have to be at least a few of these). Can you locate such persons? Is there a way of interacting with them, perhaps even bringing together a few of them? Can you change a few persons at a time? Is there an activity that would support or recognize their efforts, and given them the feeling that they\’re not alone? And when success (even small success) happens and is recognized, the circle of those willing to engage and dialogue, grows. With it grows the possibility of real change happening, thus reducing the chances of your growing old before your time out of sheer frustration and pessimism.

7. This is where I need your help

Please be so kind as to let me know the 7^th (and 8^th, and 9^th) way…

GETTING THE ‘RIGHT’ BOOKS INTO CHILDREN’S HANDS

GETTING THE ‘RIGHT’ BOOKS INTO CHILDREN’S HANDS

What kind of books do children need? And what do we do to enable such books to be selected and included in the school libraries being introduced under RTE across the country?

I. What kind of books do children need?

The five questions that must be answered in ‘yes’ in order to qualify them as being ‘right’ for children.

1. Is it child oriented?

· Does it see from the child’s point of view?

· Does it take as its core what will be interesting / fun / engaging for children?

· Does it see children as having some intelligence and experience of their own, or as empty pots to be ‘filled’ or as passive beings to be ‘moulded’?

· Is it preachy or does it help children come to their own understanding, their own conclusions?

2. Is it age appropriate?

· In terms of subject matter, use of fantasy/imagination, treatment of the subject, references made to the child’s life and way of seeing, understanding what is difficult for a child at this age (and making it easy), use of language / vocabulary / structure of narrative or presentation, modes of communication used (e.g. text to picture ratio), designing, fonts, etc.?

3. Is it true to the genre and its requirements?

· If it is a story does it have a real conflict driving the plot?

· Does a poem have the kind of word play and imagery that children can relate with as well as take forward?

· Does non-fiction use entry points that draw children in, and relate with children’s day-to-day experiences while helping them understand something that lies beyond their environment?

4. Can it be re-visited?

· Does it have the emotional appeal that draws children to go through it again and again?

· Can they find new things in it, whether in the visuals or in the text?

· Can they do things with it differently, over different times?

· Are there ‘openings’ in it that children can fill in differently at different times?

5. Does it take the child beyond what she can usually pick up in textbooks or regular TV shows?

· A book is a take-off point where the action continues in the child’s mind. It can be inexpensive, easy to carry around and use….

· And it should enable exploration, sharing, further imagination…

6. Finally, is the overall package localizable?

Children who are deprived of such books are deprived. Period.

In fact, the absence of such materials reflects the true poverty of India…Do our children, everyday, spend hours engaging with such material?

And what do we do so that this happens?

II. Getting the right books into children’s hands

All children will come across textbooks… we need to influence these, but that is another story…

Under the RTE, libraries are being established in each of the 13.5 lakh+ government schools. You already know how books get selected, and why the ‘wrong’ books are so prevalent ‘out there’.

What do we do?

Some suggestions:

1. Establish standards and disseminate them

· Agree on a reasonably clear set of criteria of what kind of books are desirable in our context. (The context bit is critical!)

· Convert this into the kind of language that a lay person can understand (accompanied by a set of objectively chosen exemplars to illustrate these if needed).

· Ensure that you actually develop and publish such material at an affordable price.

· Organize widespread dissemination of this set of criteria (or standards). In the media there are talk shows, columns, TV programmes on topics such as fashion (what your child should wear), the latest gadgets, preparing your children for admissions or examinations – but not on what your child should be reading. We are at fault, and we deserve what we face…

· Use the weekend supplements of newspapers to showcase good material, actually give exemplars.

· Have regular reviews brought out (like the film reviews that give ratings on a 5 star systems!) – while spelling out why something is rated well.

2. Develop and disseminate procurement guidelines

· Develop what you think should be model guidelines for procurement of good children’s books. Make the process of developing these guidelines itself a participatory and transparent one, involve government representatives.

· Once you have such guidelines available, ask the ministries / departments to consider using them, make them available in the internet, and in the hands of decision-makers who are required to use such guidelines.

· Identify good practices (related to large-scale book procurement) and disseminate them. Institute a system of objectively recognizing good governance with regard to procurement and use of books and libraries. Have a credible system of doing this (if our process is in doubt, once again, we would deserve what we get!).

3. Reach out to parents

· Take the parent and SMCs into confidence. Have a communication strategy wherein they learn about the importance of god books and also realize that it is their children’s right to get them under the RTE. A large-scale parental education programme is called for.

· This is one area where a large number of NGOs could also contribute.

4. Provide exposure where required

· Organize a buyers’ book fair specifically for state officials from across the country or at least make better use of the existing book fairs. Maybe you can convince NBT/MHRD to support the organization of a business / buyers’ fair’ of this kind.

May the best books be bought and reach children’s hands!

From Shirking To Working

So how do they respond? We know the answer…

Clarify where professional decisions must be taken by each ‘level’ of person
Identify standards of doing any task/job ‘well’ – so that it becomes possible for people to take pride in doing something well
Instead of relationships based on instructions, how about developing partnerships?

From \’Teacher Condemnation\’ to \’System Condemnation\’?

Years ago, it was felt that the root of all problems in education is the teacher. In fact, the MLLs (Minimum Levels of Learning, which served as the de fact national curriculum framework) in the late 80s and early 90s were designed to ensure \’teacher accountability\’ in terms of the minimum that would be achieved. A popular programme, Rishi Valley\’s multi-grade teaching (adopted/adapted as \’activity based learning\’ in many states) actually originated from the desire to get children to be able to learn without needing the teacher (which is why there is so much of self learning in it).

People still continue to condemn the teacher and hold him responsible for all the ills in education. However, with the proliferation of so many \’reports\’ on education all around, there is now a great sense of intolerance towards the education system itself. The belief seems to be that not only government teachers and schools but the government education system itself is condemnable. Among NGOs, academics, commentators, researchers and intellectuals the general notion seems to be gathering steam that everything and everyone in the government system is the problem!

But what is a system if not the people in it, the way they work and the frame within which they work? From that point of view, I have to say that some of the finest people I\’ve come across are \’system\’ people. Every year I get the chance to work with thousands of teachers who I see putting in 12-14 hour days when others from outside the system (e.g. NGOs) fade away after only 8 hrs of input. This is not to say everything is OK with the system or the policies or the people – it\’s just point out that a black and white view doesn\’t help. And that just as it is not possible to change a teacher while condemning him, it is not likely to be possible to improve a system while condemning it!

From \’Teacher Condemnation\’ to \’System Condemnation\’?

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