Today I went to a regular Science Toys workshop
in Airoli, Navi Mumbai. It was a community center. There were around 40 children from 8 to 14 years of age
packed in a room with little space of free movement. I had always found a tough
time managing such a large group and keep their attention towards me. But I
always try my best. Through the activities that I show them i.e. the very
simple but attractive toys made by waste materials, I believe that we can have
a nice enjoying and learningful time. I believe that even if my voice
isn’t enough to grab their attention, at least the activities can do that job.
But that doesn’t happen every time.
I along with my friend Sunil tried to do some
interaction before starting our activity. We asked them to guess our names by
asking five different questions to us that will give them clues of what is the
name (of course not asking the actual name). We spent almost 15 minutes in
explaining what we want them to do. We gave them examples how they can do it.
With a lot of chaos running side by side, they managed to ask us different
questions and were able to guess Sunil’s name.
Generally when my friend Vinayak takes this
activity, it is quite an organized and enjoying one, but this time I thought I
couldn’t create that excitement for this activity. And while some were
listening to what was happening, some others were not attentive in the group. However then I thought let’s take out my
precious toys from the box which will pull everyone’s attention and get some
discipline.
Indeed there were excited to see what I have when
I told them that I have toys made by me through waste materials and that each
toy has a science behind it. I took the first toy of ‘Changu Mangu’ based on
the centrifugal force. I put a story behind the toy and tried to make it as
attractive as possible. It is a toy where two table tennis balls are packed
between two transparent plastic cups. I gave them the challenge that they
have to separate Changu Mangu into two opposite corners. They were all excited
for this. Many of them tried their hands on it but no one could do it. Finally
I decided to jump in and reveal the secret which was by spinning the bottles
after which the balls are thrown in two opposite directions. Up till this it
was quite a good engaging activity. However, when I tried to hold a discussion
on this, by asking why this is happening it went messy. Though many of them
were listening and trying to think and answer on my question, others still were
not interested and started chatting between themselves. It disturbed the class.
I wasn’t in a position to guide the discussion in an ordered way.
After that I took many other toys. As long as I
showed them the toy, it was good. But as soon as I decided to hold a
discussion, it didn’t go well. My lack of skills in guiding the discussion came
in the way. At the end, it became so chaotic that we had to close the session
for the day. I had similar sessions before when handling children is no easier
than flying an airplane.
We can look at this scenario through a number of perspectives.
First of all, there is no doubt that a teacher (or a facilitator) should have
the skills in guiding a class in an ordered manner. My friend is able to hold
the same activities and discussion quite orderly and with a lot of enthusiasm
than myself and he has some necessary skills that I don’t have, even though I
am doing such kind of activities for almost five years. When thinking at a
larger scale of application, let’s accept that many teachers won’t have the
skill of keeping the attention and interest of children. And when they are not
able to do it, they have to get harsh on them and force them to keep quite. But
that is not the solution of course.
Our education methods are teacher-centered or
teacher-directed, meaning that a teacher decides what will happen in the class
and if the teacher isn’t good enough, the children won’t learn much. The
teacher is the director of whatever learning happens in the class. We have to
accept it no matter how much we talk about child-centered ways of learning. All
child-centered ways ultimately depend on the skills of the teacher. What do we
do then if we don’t have a skilled teacher? And to talk statistically, I don’t
think that we can find more than 50% of teacher who can be termed ‘good’
keeping certain parameters in mind, especially if we include the
government schools. That’s why our reports show that even after five years of
schooling 52% of children cannot read a class 2 text.
I believe in the importance of the teacher, no
doubt. A teacher is the one who has received a lot of respect since ages. But I
question such a system where lack of skilled teacher spoils the learning
outcome and we are failing in skilling at such a huge scale even at the level of
providing basic literacy skills to a child. I am not talking about the real
education that goes beyond literacy.
What do we do if we don’t have a skilled teacher and we have to accept that we won’t always find one or make one? Can a good education happen without the teacher becoming the sole initiator and director of learning? Indeed we require the teacher. No doubt. But if the equation is: good teacher = good learning, bad teacher = poor learning, I doubt if we could ever achieve a universal ‘Quality’ education. Can we create a system where learning is not dependent on the teacher or directed by teacher? Instead the teacher may have much different role to play in an entirely different learning system.