Day Two: On Policy Making, Education Policy, and Teachers as Transformers (Part I)
Winter School 2017 (Part 4)
It has been more than two months since Winter School 2017 and almost two months since the last article I wrote on the series. For the past several days, I have been meaning to come back to this series, and it excites me so much to be here again!
As I had mentioned in the first article, I have been rekindling that small glimmer of hope, and lo and behold! — it surely has grown much brighter than I would have thought it had the power to then. Maybe the society isn’t as bad, after all. (wink, wink)
Humor aside, I believe it is our level of enthusiasm that changes our outlook.
Yes, I have had people who have ignored my efforts. But then, there have been others who have replied weeks later to signal their willingness to help out. Dealing with others in return for almost zero progress can get frustrating, and I am sure we all have been through that at least once in our life. So, patience is key; and I am learning that to keep moving forward with a smiling face, a cool head, and the same amount of enthusiasm with which you started can do wonders to actually help you move closer to your goal.
Right. So, rewinding my memory to the second day of Winter School at IIM Ahmedabad (and consulting my notes!), what do I have in store for you?
Day Two of Winter School began with a surprise. I arrived a few minutes past 9:30am, and boy was I relieved! Anything past 9:30am meant late, so when I saw that there were barely a handful of participants in the class, I had to check myself.
Was I in the correct class? The venue hadn’t changed, had it?
It was already 9:34 (or so I recall)! Was that the day’s speaker standing over there? Where was everyone else?! But then I recognized a fellow participant from the previous day and relieved, I hurriedly occupied a seat.
Taking out my red notebook and pen, I sat in my seat, observing the ongoings around me. It appeared that the participants who had availed the on-campus accommodation had gotten a bit late while getting breakfast, and the student in-charge, Soumya, was running around, trying to get them to class and apologizing and requesting the speaker-for-the-day to wait for a few more minutes. The speaker, who happened to be Prof. Vijaya Sherry Chand (IIMA), stated that he would wait till 9:45am (if I remember correctly!) for the other participants to come, and then, he would begin. I thanked God under my breath.
So, that was the eventful beginning to the second day of Winter School.
- Day 2, Session 1: Discussion on Education Policy — Prof. Vijaya Sherry Chand (IIMA)
[Unfortunately, no photos from this session!]
It has been a while now, and things have become a bit hazy. The topic of the session, as mentioned, was “Discussion on Education Policy,” but the highlight of Prof. Sherry Chand’s session, as I remember it, was the project called “Teachers as Transformers.” Prof. Sherry Chand also gave a few awe-inspiring stories of innovative teachers doing remarkable things in their school such as those of Priti Gandhi, Dilip Bhalgamiya, and the teacher(s) who taught two visually impaired kids in a darkened room for eight years!
Takeaways:
What are policies? Policies are, essentially, decisions.
When decisions are taken, it means saying “yes” to one course of action and “no” to others. Why did we say “no” to them? We need to hence, learn from these other courses of action.
To analyze the effectiveness of any policy, we need to ask for what challenge a policy was created and whether it is addressing that challenge.
To get a bird eye’s view,
Decisions (hence, policies) are those taken by a few authorized people but which affect the entire society, though in different measures, i.e. they don’t equally affect everyone.
So, why do some policies not work? It is because certain conditions are not prevalent in specific regions or applicable for specific sections of the society, which leads to their exclusion. (I would give an example here, but I cannot seem to recall one!)
The Judiciary plays a dominant role in shaping the education policy in India.
There are many innovative teachers, in the nooks and crannies of India, who are playing a transformative role in the lives of their children but who are yet to be identified.
“Teachers as Transformers” is a project that aims at identifying such teachers across Gujarat through the 4 U’s — Utsukta (curiosity), Utsah (enthusiasm), Urja (positive energy and attitude), and Ulhas (joy of your work).
There are certain hurdles in identifying such teachers. These include the lack of a proper database, less awareness or media exposure about these teachers, and the fact that they are not getting awarded/recognized/appreciated.
There is a difference between recognition and appreciation. To recognize means to identify or acknowledge; to appreciate means to thank or reward.
These are the broad takeaways from the day’s first session.
We had one other session for the day by a politician who is recognized for transforming public education in Delhi, after which we were given the rest of the day for a field visit. More on that in the next part of the series!
Till then…
If you are in the field of education or, more specifically, teaching, then I would urge you to check out the webpage of Teachers as Transformers and go through their various innovation categories. You may find some inspiration there for innovative methods that you can bring into your own classroom and thereby, transform the lives of your students, as well! Alternatively, if you are one of these innovative teachers yourself, do share your story with us!
This is part of a series of articles documenting my experience as a participant of Winter School 2017 held by IIM Ahmedabad’s RTE Resource Centre on December 15–18, 2017.
