The Dussehra holidays are a thing of the past. Schools have re-opened and classes have begun in full earnest. On the outside, everything seems the same. But what is happening to our schools? In recent years we are regularly reading about tragic stories happening in schools. Teachers are pictured as villains and schools end up with a black face at the end of the day.

The teacher-student relation is not as harmonious as it was in the good old days. Ask teachers and they’ll tell you that today’s students are not as good as the earlier students. On the other hand, students and parents blame the teachers for not being honest and hard working enough as their pre-decessors.

What is going wrong here? Who is to be blamed?  Today, with both parents working it is important to accommodate the child in a safe place. Every parent’s choice is a school with a kindergarten section. The child is admitted to the school of the parent’s choice as soon as he reaches two years of age.

Once the child enters school he or she ceases to be a baby and is considered a student, no matter what his or her age. Every school boasts of a limited portion in it’s curriculum for the kindergarten section, but whatever may be the curriculum it no doubt includes writing work. Has anybody given a second thought to whether the tender fingers of these children, barely out of toddlerhood, are ready to hold a pencil? There is a particular position in which a pencil has to be held, to develop a very prominent technique of writing which influences the hand writing of the child in the future and there by the complete personality of the child. Imagine, a child of two and half years learning to write all the 26 letters of the English alphabet and making simple words, sentences etc. He has to learn all the 49 letters of the Kannada alphabet (in case of Karnataka), kagunitha, simple words etc. In Mathematics the syllabus includes numbers till hundred or some times five hundred, tables etc. Then there are rhymes, story narration, drawing and craft.

Is it not true that the child is made to do too many things for his tender age? Where is the time for the child to play, look around, observe and learn things on his own? Are we not taking away his childhood? Aren’t we depriving the child of getting exposed to childhood wonders? Everybody is in the race, nobody knows where they are heading. But they want to learn everything instantly. They don’t believe that success or excellence begins with small steps.

When the child comes to Standard I the syllabus includes two languages (English and Kannada), three core subjects (General Science, Social Studies and Mathematics). General Knowledge, Grammar and Computers are added as additional subjects. Games, PT, drawing, craft, music and dance are also there but not for the benefit of the child. This continues till Standard IV. Then in Standard V, the third language is added. Is it not true that the curriculum has too many subjects? The curriculum is neither student friendly nor teacher friendly.

It will not be clear what harm it makes to the development of the child when too many subjects are included in the curriculum, unless a picture of the school time table is explained.

The ideal time-table
The time-table is one of the most important factors which reflect the work quality of every school. There is a simple principle that the time table should include atleast two games periods, one class PT and a mass PT, a drawing and a craft period, and atleast two periods for co-curricular activities per week. These periods are considered as relaxing periods for the children. Moreover, the time table should be flexible, that means to say there should be provision to add more out-door activities without affecting the day-to-day functioning. This is the picture of an ideal time-table. How many of us follow this principle? Do the school authorities keep these things in mind while framing a time table?

Normally, the time-table of all the schools consists of eight periods per day. Saturday being a half-day will have four periods. That means there will be a total of 44 periods in a week (8x5=40 and 4x1=4). Six periods per week are allotted for each subject (6x6=36). Games, Physical Education, Drawing and Craft are distributed among eight periods. This is comfortable when there are six subjects (three languages and three core subjects).

Then they started adding General Knowledge and English Grammar as additional subjects, now Computer has also been added. How are these subjects added to the existing time-table? It’s very simple — periods allotted for games, drawing and PT are cut down and the additional subjects are accommodated there. What will be the fate of the child whose relaxing periods are cut down? Additional subjects mean more portions to be covered, more tests and extra load of correction work for the teachers,  extra home-work, assignments and tests for the child. This is what is creating unrest among the students and the teachers. This in turn is leading to disobedience and arrogance among the students which irritates the teacher, leads to meaningless punishments and the teacher ends up as the villain and schools with a black face.

Teaching methods
Today, a piece of chalk and the black board alone will not suffice as teaching tools. Even charts and story narration fail to interest the students if they are presented in the same old style. Teaching methods should change into something more novel. When we were young, hearing the story of Hanuman from the teacher was more interesting than reading it in books. But today’s child watches it on the television screen. If a teacher has to narrate the same story in class and keep the children’s interest she should be very creative indeed. Even while teaching a subject some new method or teaching aid should be used. Teachers need to be more creative and energetic but if they are over loaded with work will the creative mind of the teacher work? Will there be zeal among the teachers to go beyond the mundane and make learning more interesting for the child?

There is talk of new subjects like disaster management, resource management and waste management being added to the syllabus. This sounds good, but before adding this to the present curriculum a thorough study should be made to know in what way these subjects can be added. The need of the hour is the divine intervention of the syllabus makers. They need to revise the present curriculum to see what can be deleted in the existing syllabus.

We don’t need to lose hope. Schools and teachers of our country are not that bad. If only the number of subjects, tests and examinations are brought down, the   teachers can create future global citizens of their students. Let us make our schools student friendly, the curriculum learner friendly and class room teaching children friendly.