Kishna Kumar, the present director of NCERT,has been crusading for neighbourhood schools for a long time where children from all classes come together to study. I had an opportunity to listen to him last year. But he admitted, in the talk, that it was a difficult proposition to put in place. Look at Kendriya Vidyalayas. Once upon a time every government official who had a transferrable job enrolled their child in this school. However, as private schools mushroomed it became socially fashionable to send the child to these schools. Now, as my colleagues tell me, how can my child study with the child of my servant. There is an underlying apprehension too: What if the servant's child turns out to be better than my child? So the Kendriya Vidyalaya on campus serves to the children of the economically weaker section whereas those with even little bit of money prefer to send their child to the private schools. It does not matter if the private schools do not teach anything-it is private. The name tag takes care of everything and for the things it does not, there are coaching classes.
The Government schools including Kendriya Vidyalaya have suffered from this apathy. The teachers have no motivation to teach- their own children attend private schools. So why should they bother. Anyway these children will never learn...
Today's interview with Krishna Kumar published in Hindu does not have to do with neighbourhood school. He tackles another of his favourite topic: pedagogy. How do you teach language and arithmatic skills to class I and II children?
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