MCD schools sensitize its syllabus, get rid of colonial baggage

The idea, according to SCERT (State Council of Education Research and Training) director Janki Rajan, was to rid off the colonial baggage that comes with a foreign language. “Words like `servants’ came with the British and it doesn’t go well with our students who come from the lower-economic strata,” she said. “We have got rid of those chapters called “People Like Us” featuring gardeners and carpenters as they gave a feeling of us as the employers — its a more “we” approach,” she said.

The movement, a joint effort of the SCERT and District Institute of Education and Training (DIET), has predominantly been passed on by word of mouth to the first batch of teachers. A teacher from each of the 1,800 MCD schools were selected for the programme, their training extending to over three months. There was no manual or guidebook. At best, there were some photocopied sheets which are being fine-tuned to become text-books or teacher guides in the future. And there are the think-tanks.

Like Dr Rajesh Kumar of DIET who was a resource person for the training programme. Rajesh’s use of activities like puppet-making, story-telling and other games were a great hit with both the teachers and the students.

“I took a game like kabaddi and asked the children to use instead of the refrain of `tu-tu-tu’ or `kabaddi-kabaddi-kabaddi’, the various alphabets,” he said.

The idea was fine but then Rajesh found that the girls were not playing. “Girls don’t play kabaddi”, both boys and girls said. “I asked them for one good reason, and when they could not come up with anything, I think that the idea got across.”

Similarly, when Rajesh talked about climbing trees as an activity, it was instantly accepted as a boys’ activity. “These ideas have become so ingrained in them, that they accept it unquestioningly,” he said.

In fact, Janki Rajan says, that explaining many of the gender issues are comprehended easily by these children.

“When we show a picture of mother and father working together or a mother returning home late from work, it is actually the norm with them,” said Rajan. So the poem goes: Dear Papa, Dear Papa,/ Where are you?/ In the kitchen,/ Cooking for you.

They have been careful to not go overboard, for instance, by depicting a father slogging away while the mother sits around.

That’s not all. Poems and stories which revolved about good ol’ english country-life have been localised. The teachers and trainers have not just indigenised the common rhymes but have made up a whole collection of their own stories and poems.

“Most of our students are first-generation learners, so its important for them to relate to their study material,” says Shefali Ray, a lecturer in SCERT and a writer of children’s literature. The teachers have written rhymes ranging from household chores like making chapatis to even the pollution in the Yamuna. “What do these children know about the London Bridge?”said Ray.

The SCERT suggests that the teachers should initially not insist on correctness of English words. “It’s okay, we’re saying, to say imli instead of tamarind but we will also put a footnote in the textbook for their knowledge,” said Ray.

And how has this idea worked till now? According to Indu Batra, who teaches in the Lajpat Nagar primary school, it has been received very well. “Our children don’t even speak Hindi very well, so this is quite a unique experience,” she said. However, she added, that many of them had already been exposed to English thanks to the cable TV invasion.