Teaching_Methodology

A legion of experts has concluded that children flower in a relaxed environment. Several months of patient, painstaking work by various subject committees who stepped into the shoes of children so as to estimate the perception and levels of learning has turned out some of the most imaginative learning material. The new texts as well as the revised teaching-learning processes are now matched by the re-designed examination. There was little logic in examining M.A./M.Sc. students for 120 to 180 minutes and school kids over similar duration! We have at last changed the persistent colonial mould and reduced the examination duration to 90 minutes.

While the ‘academic load’ is thus going to be appropriately reduced, the ‘physical load’ of children carrying heavy school bags is also effectively tackled for the first time. This is done in two different ways. First, the new Trimester system will also mean that the subjects studied in any three months alone will be included in one single textbook and the school level test/examination will also be confined to what has been learnt in that term. The child therefore carries one textbook with one or two note books. This calls for an integrated textbook approach and we have given ourselves one year’s time to work it out. The volume of homework will also be reduced as recommended by the Dr.Yashpal Committee in 1993, not so far considered.

A fundamental reform is the introduction, perhaps for the first time anywhere in the country, of Yoga, Music and Drama in the school syllabus. I believe that this decision represents true “Bharatiyata” rather than objectionable saffronisation and devisive slogans promoted by some political groups. Musicians and theatre personalities helped us draft the syllabus and have also offered to teach students on a voluntary basis!- Flying on a teacher’s wings, B.K. CHANDRASHEKAR, Indian Express, 17/07/2004, /eldoc/n21_/17jul04ie1.html

A survey of the impact of an NGO project to introduce an accelerated reading technique in schools in Maharashtra shows that if children are taught properly, their academic abilities can improve substantially. Intervention is also found to be more beneficial at the lower rather than higher levels of primary education, and the survey did not detect any gender bias in learning.- Interventions and Learning Abilities - 'Read India' Project in Maharashtra, DHANMANJIRI SATHE, Economic & Political Weekly, 08/01/2005, /eldoc/n21_/08jan05EPW103.pdf

THE design of school environments extensively relies on developmental theories that categorize childhood into predictable stages. Educators are familiar with the four stages of childhood development (sensorimotor, pre-operational, concrete operational, and formal operational) established through the work of Swiss philosopher and psychologist, Jean Piaget. Universal stage theories of child development, as these have come to be known, make it easy to predict age-specific typical behaviour. However, new sociological theories of childhood challenge the Piagetian notion of the naturally developing child where every child is believed to develop in predictable stages.

The sociological child, in contrast, is seen as a unique individual rooted in the family and cultural context, and possessing feelings and experiences that are different from every other child. Typically, designers use the Piagetian knowledge about age-specific motor skills, cognitive abilities and predictable behaviour of children to define spaces for educational settings. The new sociological perspective on childhood, however, allows for a different way of looking at the preschool environment.

Loris Malaguzzi, Italian educator and founder of the most celebrated preschools in the world today Reggio Emilia Municipal Preschools in Italy sincerely believes that since no two children or teacher in a preschool look alike or wear the same clothes, the environment of preschools should not be made to lose its personality and look like the next preschool. Each child and teacher brings a piece of his or her culture, history, family values and personal experience to the classroom everyday. These aid in the learning and teaching process despite what the curriculum prescribes.

This article is not a critique of rival educational philosophies. Rather, it is an attempt to review the design philosophy adopted by the two different educational traditions that have most commonly influenced design thinking about the preschool environment. I have broadly classified them as the universalist tradition after Piaget, and the child-centred tradition as reflected in the Reggio Emilia approach to early childhood education. Discussing the role of the environment in conjunction with these educational traditions is important as all of us deal with children and provide for them according to our own understanding and view of childhood. At the end, I leave it to the reader to decide which design ideas are more suitable for their particular philosophy of early childhood education.

The belief that the physical environment influences children’s behaviour has a long tradition in early childhood education. Froebel compared his kindergarden to a garden where children could bloom as naturally as flowers. The Montessori curriculum also emphasized the importance of an ordered environment to help children learn.

Carol Weinstein (1987), working within the Piagetian tradition of child development, strongly advocates viewing the built environment as a means of achieving desired outcomes. She notes several important outcomes, broadly categorized under socio-emotional and cognitive development, in designing the preschool classroom. Motor development also appears as an important category in her study of adequate preschool classrooms. The socio-emotional outcomes achievable through planning and design according to Weinstein include: (i) self-esteem, (ii) security and comfort, (iii) self-control, (iv) peer interaction and pro-social behaviour, and (v) sex role identification. Cognitive development outcomes include (a) symbolic expression, (b) logical thought, (c) creativity and problem-solving ability, and (d) attention span and task involvement.

To give some credit to the view of naturally developing childhood, there is empirical evidence particularly from the field of brain development, to show some correlation between the development of the human brain and maturation of the child through chronological age. However, much of that research has focused on animal brains, adult human brains and brains of children at developmental risks (Bergen & Coscia 2000). So any generalization from such models are within margins of error.

There does seem to be consensus on some facts among brain researchers as recorded by Bergen and Coscia:
(i) 25% of the brain development process is complete at birth;
(ii) though there are some designated major sites in the brain for particular functions such as sight, hearing, language, the brain actually functions in a very integrative and interactive manner;
(iii) as 75% of the brain develops after birth, childhood experiences profoundly affect the structure and performance of individual brains;
(iv) the brain’s intrinsic plasticity or resilience provides some protection against negative experiences and it is only in situations of extreme neglect, abuse, starvation, illness, or environmental toxins, that any long-term damage may be caused; and
(v) because the brain continues to have plasticity, experiences throughout life continue to affect its structure and functions.

This new brain research indicates the relevance and adequacy of the environmental context for the development of the human brain to its full capacity. Cognitive development which is not brain development but which develops abstract representations about the world through direct and indirect experiences of a person, is by definition much more context-specific. In fact, cognitive development in human infants is strongly dependent on the proximal environment or the space immediately surrounding children including physical space, people and their different activities (Graven 2004). The time an infant spends in different surroundings plays a role in shaping memories. No wonder recent research has shown midlife benefits of preschooling for poor children. The findings suggest that with quality preschool it is possible to work wonders for the overall development of the child starting at age three (Kirp 2004).

In a conference organized by the College of Public Health of the University of South Florida in January 2004, neuroscientists and architects came together to understand the processes involved in brain development in order to improve the proximal environment in child care settings. As an architect participant I learned that an infant starts with object memory followed by event memory, and then contextual memory. However, unlike Piaget’s ideas of development of thought and bodily skills, the development of these three forms of memory does not take discernible long stages, but in fact develops in the first year of the infant’s life.

From the perspective of environmental cognition in early childhood, the contextual memory allows the child to develop cues that permit or cause the recall of prior events and activities. Graven also made the distinction between contextual memory and source memory stating that ‘contextual memory goes on for years before the child has developed source memory and is able to separate implicit feelings from conscious feelings that colour events and activities’ (Graven 2004, p. 17). What this means is that sustained contact with living, playing and learning environments in childhood shape the way we understand the world and develop our identities in the world.

After World War II strong local initiatives throughout Italy gave birth to parent-run schools, which was the beginning of the Italian tradition of strong municipally funded preschools. Though similar preschools started in other provinces, the preschools in the town of Reggio Emilia remain the most innovative and noteworthy. The municipality of Reggio Emilia currently supports 22 preschools and 13 infant/toddler centres. The ever-evolving educational philosophy of these preschools soon came to be known as the ‘Reggio Emilia approach’ and generated tremendous interest among early childhood educators worldwide, particularly in the last decade.

This child-centred approach to early childhood education considers the environment as the third teacher after the family and the school. The overarching philosophy guiding the Reggio approach is the harmonious development of the whole child in communicative, social and affective domains. Families and other citizens are invited to participate in the school, small class sizes with two teachers looking after a class of twenty children are encouraged, and special and careful attention is given to the physical settings of the schools. Every corner of every space of the typical Reggio preschool has an identity and a purpose, with rich potential to engage and communicate with the child, and is in turn valued and cared for by children and adults.

The difference in approach toward the environment between the universalist tradition of education and the more child-centred tradition is best reflected in the words of Malaguzzi, the driving force behind the Reggio schools: ‘There is a difference between the environment that you are able to build based on a preconceived image of the child and the environment that you can build that is based on the child that you see in front of you – the relationship you build with the child, the games you play. An environment that grows out of your relationship with the child is unique and fluid’ (Malaguzzi 1994, p. 52).

Over the years the Reggio schools found that the physical environment becomes a valuable teacher if it is comfortable, pleasing, organized, clean, inviting and engaging. These characteristics of a learning environment are true for spaces of all scale whether big or small, open or furnished, public or private. Floor space, wall space and ceiling space are all subject to these rules (Caldwell 1997). The Reggio approach believes that the environment is best able to educate when it promotes complex, varied, sustained, and changing relationships between people, the world of first-hand experience, ideas and several different ways of expressing those ideas (Malaguzzi 1994).

The school is considered as a living organism and part of a shared world. Children feel connected to everything that goes on in the world by being in school. They are also encouraged to observe, reflect and create their own impressions of everything that goes on. Visitors to the Reggio schools are struck by the high quality and intelligence of the artwork produced by children. The stunning study of shadows and reflections by the Reggio children show how deeply they observe the everyday environment. The reflections of children in a pool of water were not connected at the feet but the shadows were. The Reggio schools embrace each child’s creations, collective projects of teachers and students, and the ongoing research, experimentation and documentation of the pedagogical teams to construct unique identities of the preschool environments.

Despite differences in their approach to early childhood education, many common design ideas are promoted by different camps to enrich childcare settings.Lobby and reception area: On entering a building we ask ourselves, ‘What kind of a place is this?’ In a preschool the entrance lobby has the added responsibility of assuring the child that this place is fun, interesting and will take care of him/her. On visiting two organizationally similar but physically very different preschools in the Research Triangle in North Carolina, I realized the difference a good lobby and reception area make to a centre. One of these schools had a reception tucked away in a corner and a long corridor, emanating from the entrance, abruptly ended in a windowless wall.

In the other, the reception formed a wide node connecting two wings of the school. As soon as one entered, one could see the receptionist right in front, and get glimpses of a play yard with lots of trees through the large French windows behind the reception. Light streamed in through large windows, skylights and created a warm ambience for the scattered comfortable sitting areas in the lobby. Addition of plants, an aquarium, upholstered couches, made the lobby a home-like place and an easy transition area from home to school for the young child. I came to the conclusion, and later found evidence to support my ideas (Olds 2001), that real things like comfortable seating, toys, plants, fish and birds all reflect the ‘aliveness’ of a centre and are much more convincing than a few scattered over-sized stuffed toys.

Indoor circulation: Honouring local safety codes, width of corridors can be varied especially in new constructions to generate activity nodes and areas of social contact. These areas can be adorned with children’s works, suitable furniture, plants, and indoor play structures to create distinct zones within the school. To vary the width of corridors in existing buildings, a few classroom walls can project out and create semi-private niches in the corridor (see figure 1). Seating and book shelves along well-lit corridors also cheer up the space. Try opening a few windows along the length of the corridor to bring in light and to establish contact with the outdoors.

Figure 1

Internal corridors

Adapted from Olds, Childcare Design Guide, 2001, p. 99.

Classrooms: Working within the universalist tradition, Weinstein advises creating a classroom that reflects the presence of the child. In other words, designing walls and bulletin boards that provide different opportunities for personalizing with artwork, photographs, projects, stories, height and weight charts, and birthday lists (see figure 2). This is not very different from the Reggio approach where ample spaces and surfaces are provided to incorporate the ongoing work of children. The classrooms with glass windows opening outside as well as in the centrally located, naturally top-lit covered piazza bring in ample light. Plenty of healthy plants add colour and life to the spaces everywhere. Collages and weavings of children on glass doors and windows take on a transparent quality as light shines through them.

Figure 2

Adapted from McGinty et al., Illustrations for Planning and Design of Environments for Child Care, 1982, p. 19.

Reggio schools do not believe in expensive furnishings or furniture. Rather the colour of walls, specially shaped furniture and the clever display of simplest of objects on shelves delights the visitor of the Reggio schools. For example, shelves have mirrors lining their backs to amplify the patterns of simple objects like found shells that children pick up on their walks outdoor. Art is to be found everywhere including storage areas and bathrooms.

Child-scaled fixtures can be designed for toilets, water fountains, doorknobs, lighting fixtures, to send the message that ‘I can handle myself and the environment with competence.’ The logical organization of items in a classroom enhances the child’s understanding of space. Even very young children are able to comprehend the rationale of logical planning as this four-year-old did in his classroom (Nash 1981): ‘Over here we make lots of things, and here, we find things out. This is where we pretend, and build, and be as grown-up as anything. And this is a nice quiet place where the puzzles and books are – you can’t ride a trike or play balls or bring sand in here. This is a good place to be’ (p. 155).

The classroom from the entrance should be inviting, familiar and friendly. It is important to assure children that good things happen in the room by giving them glimpses of interesting activity areas. Mixing a variety of spaces such as by varying floor texture, ceiling and boundary heights and types of lighting can enhance the sense of comfort. Different kinds of spaces – bright as well as dim, small and cozy as well as large and open, noisy as well as quiet – need to be available to children for sensory stimulation (Weinstein 1987). Environments that are soft and responsive to touch – such as containing elements like beanbags, stuffed couches, carpeting, sand, dirt, furry animals, sling swings, clay, paint and water – are considered by many to be comfortable and less stressful (Jones & Prescott 1978).

Imaginative play areas: The years from two to five according to Piaget are characterized by increase in representational thought particularly as children engage in pretend play and language acquisition. Evans, Shub and Weinstein (1971), suggest that preschools incorporate a special dramatic play area possibly containing a kitchen and a bedroom as these are the two areas of the house that are most familiar to children. However, others like McGinty have included dramatic play areas in the landscaped school-yards (see figure 3). To facilitate language acquisition and development in children, the natural environment plays a very important role. Designing natural schoolyards has been seen as a way to introduce nature in children’s lives.

Adapted from McGinty et al., Illustrations for Planning and Design of Environments for Child Play, 1982, p. 21.

Courtyards and gardens: Children love to run in and out, to see firsthand the first burst of rain, the first flower of the season. Scandinavian countries have mandatory year-round outdoor curriculum. In many other places such as the United States, 50 per cent of the programme occurs outside. In order for outdoor learning to happen in a delightful manner, and budget permitting, preschools should invest in creation of courtyards and gardens as an integral part of the physical environment.

Courtyards should be easily accessible from the building, and sheltered by the building while looking out into larger space. Courtyards can be of different scales; small niches in the external profile of buildings can be built up as storytelling courtyards. More central courtyards off several rooms work well for organized outdoor activities. Courtyards at the entrance of buildings need to be organized into different activity settings and seating areas.

Play yards need to cater to a range of activities and group sizes. More fine-grained yards with several different types of vegetation, species of trees, clearly defined pathways, different imaginative play settings, settings for sand and water play, private nooks that can be owned by a single child, places for small groups of 1-4, places for large muscle activities involving many children such as during ball play, places for organized games and sports, and plenty of free space for spontaneous play (see figure 4).

Adapted from McGinty et al., Illustrations for Planning and Design of Environments for Child Play, 1982, p. 52.

In the Reggio schools, the garden is a special place for children. It is a place for observing natural processes – germination of seeds, to maturation into plants, exploring the lives of creatures that live under the soil, and on the plants. The garden is also a place to seek refuge under leafy trees in the heat of summer, gather berries from vines and squeeze them for colour. Edith Cobb (1977) in her seminal work, The Ecology of Imagination in Childhood, posits that the innate connection with nature in childhood and the poetic voice within us provides the basis of our creativity as adults. Natural materials such as sand, twigs, and stones according to Cobb help children in understanding the world through their construction play efforts.

Later, Caldwell (1997), extending Cobb’s hypothesis, suggests that children’s need to develop a relationship with nature can happen through playing with natural materials and constructing imaginative structures. The long tradition of building dens, bush houses and forts out of found objects and naturally occurring features, show that children strive to make and shape their own worlds when opportunities present themselves.

The compatibility of the building and a well-designed landscape can help communicate the message ‘this is a place for children’ without adding superficial touches such as wall murals with Disney characters or giant stuffed toys. Olds (2001) in talking about settings for childcare wrote: ‘A greater sense of place and invitation exist where the childcare building is compatible with the natural terrain and the architecture of the surrounding neighborhood. Ideally, the building will be positioned to take maximum advantage of the existing site resources and amenities to create favourable microclimates for outdoor play’ (p. 84).

Olds further suggests placing the building in the least desirable part of the site to leave the more interesting areas for pathways, play yards, and settings to experience nature. A residential scale is desirable in the building of the preschool. The size and length of approach path, the size and height of roofs, front door, windows and the amount of uninterrupted wall surface needs to be carefully considered to make a centre recognizable as a place for children. All this needs to be achieved in a professional and competent manner without making the school clumsy and non-functional.

Materials such as bricks, wood, glass that can be laid by hand, lend a human scale. Such materials are also easy to grasp, reach, walk around and embrace than expansive sheets of metal or huge blocks of concrete. Exterior surfaces should display warm materials like bricks, stucco, adobe, wood, and rammed earth, as it is easier to connect children to the sources of these materials. Interior surfaces also should have warm, soft materials rather than metal and concrete to avoid an institutional image and bad acoustics. Needless to mention, easy to clean, non-abrasive materials are preferable over toxic, flammable or otherwise hazardous ones (Olds 2001).

‘Of course, many things that happen in school can be seen ahead and planned beforehand. But many things that happen cannot be known ahead of time…Schools can never be always predictable. We need to be open to what takes place and be able to change our plans and go with what might grow at that very moment both inside the child and inside ourselves’ (Malaguzzi 1994, p. 53).

The physical environment of schools similarly cannot be too predictable. The settings need to be diverse and flexible, easy to maintain, safe and friendly for the child. We have to keep in mind that diversity and richness of environmental settings for children have a direct influence on the rhythm of play and child-environment exchange. A large-scale physical environment with hard finishes and few large plastic play equipment produces a rougher rhythm of play and aggression as compared to
fine-grained, more comfortable home-like preschool settings that celebrate each child.

Bergen, D., and Coscia, J. (2000). Brain Research and Child Education. Olney, MD: Association for Childhood Education
International.

Caldwell, L.B. (1997). Bringing Reggio Emilia Home: An Innovative Approach to Early Childhood Education. New York:
Teacher’s College Press.

Cobb, E. (1977). The Ecology of Imagination in Childhood. New York: Columbia University Press.

Evans, E.B., Shubs, B. and Weinstein, M. (1971). Day Care: How to Plan, Develop, and Operate a Day Care Center. Boston:
Beacon Press.

Graven, S. (2004, January 25-27). The Proximal Environment of the Infant and Young Child: Role in Early Brain Development,
Learning and Memory. Paper presented at the Children’s Village: Designing Environments for Infants and Young Children,
Clearwater Beach, Florida.

Jones, E. and Prescott, E. (1978). Dimensions of Teaching Learning Environments II: Focus on Day Care. Pasadena, CA:
Pacific Oaks College.

Kirp, D.L. (2004, November 21). Life Way After Head Start. The New York Times Magazine, Section 6, 32-38.

Malaguzzi, L. (1994). Your Image of the Child: Where Teaching Begins. Child Care Information Exchange, 96, 52-56.

McGinty, T., Cohen, U. and Moore, G.T. (1982a). Illustrations for Planning and Design of Child Play (draft). Boulder, Co:
McGinty.

McGinty, T., Cohen, U., and Moore, G. T. (1982b). Illustrations for Planning and Design of Environments for Child Care (Draft).
Boulder, CO: McGinty.

Nash, B. C. (1981). The Effects of Classroom Spatial Organization on Four- and Five-year Old Children’s Learning. British
Journal of Educational Psychology, 51(2), 144-155.

Weinstein, C. S. (1987). Designing Preschool Classrooms that Support Development. In C. S. Weinstein and T. G. David (eds.),
Spaces for Children. New York: Plenum Press.

Scientific observation has established that education is not what the teacher gives; education is a natural process spontaneously carried out by the human individual, and is acquired not by listening to words but by experiences upon the environment. The task of the teacher becomes that of preparing a series of motives of cultural activity, spread over a specially prepared environment, and then refraining from obtrusive interference. Human teachers can only help the great work that is being done, as servants help the master. Doing so, they will be witnesses to the unfolding of the human soul and to the rising of a New Man who will not be a victim of events, but will have the clarity of vision to direct and shape the future of human society.

I AM the daughter of a Montessori directress and was a Montessori child myself, before I decided to train as a Montessorian after the birth of my first child. My first memories of pre-school was Shatrujit Montessori School (apt in the war years of the 1960s), a pre-school my mother started for the army kids while my father was fighting in the eastern sector. Sitting on the floor with chowkies, made out of crates (that had once carried ammunition), I remember learning with children of jawans and officers of all ranks, celebrating festivities of all religions, my favourite playmate Ritu who was blind teaching me the names of the continents since she was better at using her tactile sense than I was!

My training to be a Motessori teacher in London removed all previous myths surrounding my notions of what a teacher must be like. The first thing I learnt was that my success would be measured on the basis of how little the children needed me – a far cry from my own notions at that point! After 18 years of teaching, I still continue to refer to Maria Montessori’s writings and lectures in order to remind myself on how to learn from and serve the child.

Today many schools have mushroomed in India, a large number of them professing to be Montessori schools. Some of them truly reflect and follow the principles that are held sacred by all those following this pedagogy. Since the beginning Montessori pedagogy has been appropriated, interpreted, misinterpreted, exploited, propagated, torn to shreds and the shreds magnified into systems, reconstituted, used, abused and disabused, gone into oblivion and undergone multiple renaissances.

There are various reasons why this should be so. Perhaps the most important is that although Montessori pedagogy is known as the Montessori Method, it is not a method of education, in other words, it is not a programme for teachers to apply. Maria Montessori was not a teacher – the Alpha and Omega of her pedagogy lies with the children. This article is an attempt to put forward some of the underlying principles that Maria Montessori established as guidelines for all those involved in education of children.

Maria Montessori was a scientist, and as a good scientist, was earth-bound and highly spiritual in her pursuit of truth. She studied medicine, specializing in psychiatry and anthropology. She was also an outstanding mathematician. Although she would never have considered being a teacher, she studied educational methods for many years and found them wanting, possibly because none of them took into account the two seemingly paradoxical extremes which are at the centre of her pedagogy: the universal characteristics of the human child, and the child as a unique, unrepeatable, respectable and admirable individual to be unconditionally accepted as one of life’s most marvellous expressions.

Maria Montessori, born in 1870, was the first woman in Italy to receive a medical degree. She worked in the fields of psychiatry, education and anthropology. She believed that each child is born with a unique potential to be revealed, rather than as a ‘blank slate’ waiting to be written upon. Her main contributions to the work of those of us involved in educating children are in these areas:

* Continually adapting the environment in order that the child may fulfil his greatest potential – physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual.

Maria Montessori was always a little ahead of her time. At age 13, against the wishes of her father but with the support of her mother, she began to attend a boys technical school. After seven years of engineering, she began premed and earned her diploma in medicine and surgery in 1896 to become the first female doctor in Italy. Her initial work as a doctor was in the research field of psychiatry, and she spent much time visiting children’s asylums. In Rome during this time, children who were considered ‘mentally deficient’ or ‘feeble-minded’ were locked up in asylums.

One of Montessori’s early observations of these asylum children formed a crucial element of her theory that would later influence many people. She watched children who would crawl on the floor to grab crumbs of bread after mealtime and realized that ‘the children were starved not for food but for experience’ (Kramer, 1976:58). These acts of moving around the room, chasing other children and fighting for the crumbs were the only way of relieving their boredom, because for the rest of the day they were locked up in a bare room. Montessori believed that each child, even those classified as ‘feeble-minded’, was capable of learning to function in society, but each had his or her own way of discovery. In other words, she recognized that not all children developed through phases of life in the same way.

Montessori was much influenced by earlier works on child development and psychology, in particular research conducted by Jean-Marc-Gaspard Itard and Eduardo Seguin. Both worked with children who had some physical or mental disability. Whether they had true congenital defects, or whether they were classified as ‘retarded’ since they did not fit the pattern of development as displayed by the majority of children, is unknown. However, both attempted to teach basic skills such as reading and writing, using methods different from those being employed in the formal school settings. These experiments were a source of inspiration for Montessori who believed that ‘mental deficiency presented chiefly a pedagogical, rather than mainly a medical, problem’ (Montessori, 1964: 31). She laid in my opinion the foundation of what is considered today as the cornerstone of the movement towards inclusion of children with special needs.

In 1907 she was given the opportunity to study able-bodied children, taking charge of 50 poor children of the dirty, desolate streets of the San Lorenzo slum on the outskirts of Rome. The children entered her programme as ‘wild and unruly’. Based on countless hours of observing the children in asylums, Montessori gradually formed her philosophy on how children learn best. ‘I have studied the child. I have taken what the child has given me and expressed it and that is what is called the Montessori method.’

Much to her surprise the children began to respond to her teaching methods. She always held them in the highest regard and taught her teachers to do likewise. From the beginning amazing things happened. Children younger than three and four years old began to read, write, and initiate self-respect. The Montessori method encouraged what Maria saw as the children’s innate ability to ‘absorb’ culture. ‘And then we saw them "absorb" far more than reading and writing… it was botany, zoology, mathematics, geography, and all with the same ease, spontaneously, and with out getting tired’ (The Absorbent Mind).

The news of the unprecedented success of her work in this Casa dei Bambini ‘House of Children’ soon spread around the world, people coming from far and wide to see the children for themselves. Dr. Montessori was as astonished as anyone at the realized potential of these children: ‘Supposing I said there was a planet without schools or teachers, study was unknown, and yet the inhabitants – doing nothing but living and walking about – came to know all things, to carry in their minds the whole of learning: would you not think I was romancing? Well, just this, which seems so fanciful as to be nothing but the invention of a fertile imagination, is a reality. It is the child’s way of learning. This is the path he follows. He learns everything without knowing he is learning it, and in doing so passes little from the unconscious to the conscious, treading always in the paths of joy and love’ (Maria Montessori, Education for a New World).

The Montessori approach offers a broad vision of education as an aid to life. It is designed to help children with their task of inner construction as they grow from childhood to maturity. It succeeds because it draws its principles from the natural development of the child. Its flexibility provides a matrix within which each individual child’s inner directives freely guide the child toward wholesome growth. Montessori classrooms provide a prepared environment where children are free to respond to their natural tendency to work. The children’s innate passion for learning is encouraged by giving them opportunities to engage in spontaneous, purposeful activities with the guidance of a trained adult.

Through their work the children develop concentration and joyful self-discipline. Within a framework of order, the children progress at their own pace and rhythm, according to their individual capabilities. There are prepared environments for children at each successive developmental plane. These environments allow them to take responsibility for their own education, giving them the opportunity to become human beings able to function independently and hence interdependently.

Montessori classrooms are designed for a three-year age mix (three to six, six to 12, 12 to 15), which allows for both individual and social development. ‘Beyond the more obvious reasons why it is sensible to group the ages three by three, such as the little ones learn from the older children and the older ones learn by teaching the younger, every child can work at his own pace and rhythm, eliminating the bane of competition, there is the matter of order and discipline easily maintained even in very large classes with only one adult in charge. This is due to the sophisticated balance between liberty and discipline prevalent in Montessori classrooms, established at the very inception of a class. Children who have acquired the fine art of working freely in a structured environment, joyfully assume responsibility for upholding this structure, contributing to the cohesion of their social unit.’

Children of ages three to six possess what Dr. Montessori called the Absorbent Mind. This type of mind has the unique and transitory ability to absorb all aspects physical, mental, spiritual of the environment, without effort or fatigue. As an aid to the child’s self-construction, individual work is encouraged. The following areas of activity cultivate the children’s ability to express themselves and think with clarity.

Practical life exercises instil care for themselves, for others, and for the environment. These ‘exercises in daily living’ include many of the tasks children see as part of the daily life in their home – washing and ironing, doing the dishes, arranging flowers, sweeping, polishing, dusting and so on. Elements of human conviviality are introduced with the exercises of grace and courtesy. Through these and other activities, children develop muscular coordination, enabling movement and the exploration of their surroundings.

They learn to work at a task from beginning to end, and develop their will (defined by Dr. Montessori as the intelligent direction of movement), self-discipline and capacity for total concentration. She even proposed a schedule for organizing the day’s events, including meal times and menus. Not only did such activities form good habits, they were also important for the development of self-discipline, responsibility, patience, and work orientation (Miezitis, 1971:125).

Sensorial materials are tools for development. Children build cognitive efficacy, and learn to order and classify impressions. They do this by touching, seeing, smelling, tasting, listening, and exploring the physical properties of their environment through the mediation of specially designed materials. As part of the programmes she developed for disabled children, Montessori focused on ‘first the education of the sense, then the education of the intellect’ (Kramer, 1976:76). Montessori was also aware of the need to stimulate all the senses by going out for walks to smell flowers, look at plants, hear the birds, and do physical exercises.

Her profession as a doctor no doubt influenced her decisions to concentrate on personal hygiene, nutrition and eating habits. ‘Education of the sense’ also included learning how to appreciate silence. Montessori introduced the ‘game of silence’ where all the children and the teacher would remain as quiet as possible to listen for ‘the lightest sounds like that of a drop of water falling in the distance and the far-off chirp of a bird’ (Montessori, 1936 quoted in Kramer, 1976:115). This activity eventually became part of the daily routines in Montessori schools. Montessori herself saw it as ‘a most efficacious preparation for the task of setting in order the whole personality, the motor forces and the psychical’ (ibid).

Language is vital to human existence. The Montessori environment provides rich and precise language. Books are an integral part of the environment and a carefully prepared environment provides opportunities for storytelling, phonemic discrimination, reading and writing.

Cultural extensions – geography, history, biology, botany, zoology, art and music are presented as extensions of the sensorial and language activities. Children learn about other cultures, past and present, and this allows their innate respect and love for their environment to flourish, creating a sense of solidarity with the global human family and its habitat. Experiences with nature in conjunction with the materials in the environment inspire a reverence for all life. History is presented to the children through art and an intelligent music programme.

The mathematics materials help the child learn and understand mathematical concepts by working with concrete materials. This work provides the child with solid underpinnings for traditional mathematical principles, providing a structured scope for abstract reasoning.

Rather than encouragement from someone else, Montessori believed that children themselves would have the initiative and
intrinsic motivation to learn more complex things. After mastering simple tasks of ‘few stimuli strongly contrasting’, a child would move ahead to more complex tasks with ‘many stimuli in gradual differentiation always more fine and imperceptible’ (Montessori, 1964: 184). Montessori stressed that a child needed to have freedom in his life to explore different avenues of learning. It is important to note that freedom was not equated with anarchy. Instead, freedom implied the possibility of taking certain types of action within defined limits. For example, as mentioned above, one of these boundaries revolved around cleanliness.

Montessori believed in taking the time to learn from the children, as she herself learned through her observations of the children in the asylums. She and her assistant (who had no prior official training in early childhood education and development) did not impose any limitations to the children’s freedom and allowed them to explore this new space. As Montessori herself wrote, ‘I merely wanted to study the children’s reactions. I asked [my assistant] not to interfere with them in any way as otherwise would not be able to observe them’ (Kramer, 1976:113). In over just a few weeks, Montessori noticed a great change in the behaviour of the children who had been left crying by their parents at the centre.

The children of Casa dei Bambini began to take interest in the didactic materials and they were no longer ‘the sullen, the disinterested and withdrawn, and the rebellious children’ (Kramer, 1976:113). It was uncommon to treat children with such a high level of respect. Back then society felt that children should be seen and not heard. ‘To deny them (the children) the right to learn because we, as adults think that they shouldn’t is illogical and typical of the way schools have been run,’ she said at one time.

Her methods completely contradicted the educational theories and practice popular during her day. On one occasion, ‘SI decided to give the children a slightly humorous lesson on how to blow their noses. After I had shown them different ways to use a handkerchief, I ended by indicating how it could be done as unobtrusively as possible. I took out my handkerchief in such a way that they could hardly see it and blew my nose as softly as I could. The children watched me in rapt attention, but failed to laugh. I wondered why, but I had hardly finished my demonstration when they broke out into applause that resembled a long repressed ovation in a theater. When I was on the point of leaving the school, the children began to shout, "Thank you, thank you for the lesson"!’

What surprised Montessori even more was the children’s lack of interest in the toys or the drawing materials and their keen interest in the didactic materials. Montessori concluded that ‘children soon tire of toys that have only one function, but they seek out, continue to work with and keep returning to materials that let them see their errors and correct them, that aid their understanding of the physical world and that develop their intellect’ (Spock and Hathaway, 1967). Montessori was critical of the system of schooling that forced a set curriculum as dictated by the teacher upon the child. She believed that ‘the child was master of his house’ and that there was no one cookie-cutter method of teaching children (Kramer, 1976: foreword by Anna Freud).

Montessori’s concept of the school was as a place to develop ‘cognitive skills and a self-reliant character,’ and that everything else would be taken care of by other spaces, such as the home or the church (Kramer, 1976: 253). Her system of education therefore focused on learning different skills and practices that were useful in life. She strongly believed in the notion of learning by doing and thought it important for each child to explore and create his or her own world. To facilitate this process, she created a child-friendly environment.

Thus, the ‘liberty of the pupil’ was fundamental to the Montessori method. This liberty should ‘permit a development of individual, spontaneous manifestations of the child’s nature’ (Montessori, 1964:28). Supporting the liberty of the child was based on Montessori’s conviction that a child was striving for order in his or her life to match the ‘inherent order and structure in nature’ (Spock and Hathaway, 1967:75). As her biographer adequately phrased it, ‘To be in control of one’s self was for her the ultimate end of the process of education. It was what she had achieved in her own life and what she wanted to make possible for the children in her schools’ (Kramer, 1976:139). In this way, Montessori made an assumption that all children were looking for organized structure or order, and the best way to attain it was to let children reach it in their own way, at their own time.

Embedded in this notion of liberty was Montessori’s discovery that children were not motivated by rewards. Rather, their motivation and persistence at a task were driven by their desire to work at the task itself. For example, she watched what happened when medals were given as a reward for good work and was surprised to see that the ‘children accepted them politely but with little interest; they were more interested in being allowed to get on with the work’ (Kramer, 1976:120). Montessori believed that each child was driven by intrinsic motivation and thus should not be forced to do anything. Instead, her didactic materials would encourage the child to learn, where the learning process meant repeating tasks for as long as the child wished.
Through this repetition, a task would eventually be considered completed and would enable the child to proceed to the next level. Montessori believed that the process of repetition was the most effective way of learning a task and of fully understanding its meaning. Repetition was necessary for mastery that took place in contextually meaningful ways.

Building upon these ideas, Montessori proposed to radically change the role of the traditional schoolteacher. The teacher would no longer command children forced to sit quietly in rows. Instead, she would be a facilitator, a directress who ‘teaches little and observes much’ (Montessori, 1964:173). Montessori’s success with ‘mentally deficient’ children stemmed from her belief that they were capable of learning, a belief which she only arrived at by taking time to observe and analyze them. Just as she tried to understand the world of the asylum children, she believed teachers should try to understand their children through observation and analysis.

Then they would facilitate or guide the learning process instead of directing the classroom and dictating what had to be learned at what pace. This more passive role of teachers is consistent with Montessori’s belief that ‘a man is not what he is because of the teachers he has had, but because of what he has done’ (Montessori, 1964:172).

The lessons Montessori incorporated into her pedagogy are those that we should incorporate at Montessori schools. A Montessori education not only presents children with the facts, but also examines issues from many viewpoints, allowing students to develop standards by which to live.

Invited to the USA by Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, and others, Montessori spoke at Carnegie Hall in 1915. It was during this year that Alexander Graham Bell and his wife, Mabel, founded the Montessori Educational Association in Washington D.C. She was invited to set up a classroom at the Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco, where spectators watched 21 children, all new to this Montessori method, behind a glass wall for four months. The only two gold medals awarded for education went to this class, and the education of young children was altered forever. Other American supporters were Thomas Edison and Helen Keller.

In 1929, she founded the Association Montessori International in Amsterdam, Netherlands. In 1938, she opened the Montessori Training Center in Laren, Netherlands. In 1947, she founded the Montessori Center in London and in 1949, 1950, and 1951 she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. In Switzerland, one of the most important 20th century theorists in child development, Jean Piaget (1896-1980), was heavily influenced by Montessori. Piaget was director of the modified Montessori school in Geneva, where he did some of the observations for his first book, Language and Thought of the Child, and served as head of the Swiss Montessori Society.

Montessori and Mahatma Gandhi met for the first time in London in 1931 when he said: ‘It was in 1915 when I reached India that I first became acquainted with your activities. It was in a place called Amreli that I found that there was a little school being conducted after the Montessori system. Your name had preceded that first acquaintance. I found no difficulty in finding out at once that this school was not carrying out the spirit of your teaching; the letter was there, but whilst there was an honest – more or less honest – effort being made, I saw too that there was a great deal of tinsel about it. I came in touch, then, with more such schools, and the more I came in touch, the more I began to understand that the foundation was good and splendid, if the children could be taught through the laws of nature – nature, consistent with human dignity, not nature that governs the beast. I felt instinctively from the way in which the children were being taught that, whilst they were being indifferently taught, the original teaching was conceived in obedience to this fundamental law.’

It was George Arundale and his wife who were instrumental in convincing Montessori to spend time in India. Arundale was President of the International Theosophical Society, which, under Annie Besant, had been influential in trying to revive traditional Indian cultures, educating the poor and the illiterate, and fighting for Home Rule. Rita Kramer (1976) makes the following links between Theosophy and the Montessori Method: ‘The core of Theosophy was the Indian doctrines of the union of the human soul with the divine consciousness, of reincarnation as a gradual unfolding of innate powers in successive lives, and of karma, the principle of self-realization leading to the liberation of the true self and to ultimate wisdom. There was some affinity between these beliefs and Montessori’s view of education as a process of liberating the spirit of the child, the increasingly vague and mystical language in which she spoke of her very practical classroom methods as she grew older. Many people who were drawn to Theosophy were attracted to the Montessori movement’ (p. 343).

In 1939, Montessori finally arrived in India and started the first official training centres for teachers in Madras, Kodaikanal, Ahmedabad, Bombay and Karachi (then still a part of India). As many of her students had read much about her theory and methods prior to her arrival, her work primarily involved implementing courses and schools rather than ‘selling’ her idea (Kramer, 1976). In the end, over 1000 teachers were trained.

During World War II, Montessori was forced into exile from Italy because of her anti-fascist views and lived and worked in India. Her concern with education for peace intensified and she was twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. She spent this time observing and researching infants. She had always wanted to focus on this younger age group but never had the opportunity before. She found it highly exciting and advantageous to study infants in Indian families since they were at the centre of attention. It is the time she spent in India that established the Montessori pedagogy in the subcontinent.

Many years ago, when Maria Montessori established the Casa dei Bambini, she created not simply a classroom where children would receive a rudimentary education, but a place that evolved into a social and emotional environment where children would be respected and empowered as individual human beings. To this day a Montessori school is more than a classroom; it is a society in a microcosm where children acquire the skills and life lessons that are very much needed to become successful human beings. As the following sentence illustrates, she always kept in mind the glory and grandeur of human development: ‘Humanity shows itself in all its intellectual splendor during this tender age as the sun shows itself at the dawn, and the flower in the first unfolding of the petals; and we must respect religiously, reverently, these first indications of individuality.’

Montessori schools send a message to children that they belong, and that their school community is like a second family. Montessori schools create a bond between parents, directresses and children, just as Montessori sought to create a place where children learn to be part of families, care for younger children, learn from older people, trust one another and appreciate the diversity that exists within our community.

Prejudice does exist in the world. There are major religious, cultural and political differences in the world. In order for our children to grow up emotionally and morally complete, they must learn how to think and judge for themselves. At Montessori schools, the focus is on education of the whole child – social, personal, emotional, physical, creativity and intellectual. In preparing our children for the future we must show them how to learn, think and communicate effectively and work cooperatively with others. Demonstrating to the children how to understand and accept cultural and ability differences is one aspect of their moral preparation for the world. By teaching children how to understand and accept very real differences among individuals, we are one stop closer to achieving peace in the world.

Montessori proposed that we could make peace on the planet by healing the wounds of the human heart and producing a secure child. The healing she hoped to instill in her students is the foundation of Montessori’s movement; a movement she believed would lead to the reconstruction of society.

‘Children, especially in their first years, have an intimate sensitiveness as a spiritual necessity. We ourselves have lost this deep and vital sensitiveness, and in the presence of children in whom we see it reviving, feel as if we were watching a mystery being unfolded. It shows itself in the delicate act of free choice which a teacher untrained in observation can trample on before she discerns it, much as the elephant tramples the budding blossoms in its path. This is a moment in which the delicacy of the teacher’s moral sensitiveness acquired during her training, comes into play’ (Maria Montessori, The Absorbent Mind, pp.272-273).

Perhaps it is time we adults recognize that the child is the saviour of the world and learn from them, instead of attempting to teach them!

M. Montessori (1965). Dr. Montessori’s Own Handbook: A Short Guide to Her Ideas and Materials. Schocken Books, New York.

B. Spock, and M.L. Hathaway (1967). ‘Montessori and Traditional American Nursery Schools – How They Are Different, How They Are
Alike.’ In Early Childhood Education Rediscovered: Readings edited by Joe L. Frost. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., New York.

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Like any reflexive writing this article too is autobiographical. I am a teacher and one question ask myself continually is what it means to be a teacher in the kind of society we are living in. While writing this article I am talking to myself, trying to explore the meaning of this vocation, its possibilities or the constraints it confronts. Yet, despite this autobiographical linkage and despite the fact that I teach social science and teach in an elitist university, my observations, hope, can be shared by many who too want this act— the act of teaching— to be conscious of itself. Why this enquiry into the mode of teaching as a participation, as an intervention into the world? Perhaps the simplest and obvious answer is that no society can do away with teaching because it is so closely linked with the reproduction of society— the learning of culture, tradition, knowledge and skill. As a result, it is important to know how teachers are seen and how they find themselves in a rapidly changing society. increasing irrelevance of degrees, the growing incompatibility between the class room and the larger world and a faulty education system leading to the culture of mass copying and note books— there is, in fact, nothing substantial to enhance the prestige of teaching as a vocation. No teacher can escape this social construction. In his everyday interaction with his students a teacher can feel how he is being perceived by the larger society. Although exceptions do exist even today, it would not be wrong to say that for students who internalize the dominant societal ethos their teachers symbolize failure. Because society tells them to believe that their teachers are engaged in an activity that has got nothing; neither money nor power. Again, for many, nobody chooses teaching voluntarily; one is forced into it because one has not been able to manage a better job!

NGO Initiatives Teaching Methodologyb Litercay
A survey of the impact of an NGO project to introduce an accelerated reading technique in schools in Maharashtra shows that if children are taught properly, their academic abilities can improve substantially. Intervention is also found to be more beneficial at the lower rather than higher levels of primary education, and the survey did not detect any gender bias in learning.

- Interventions and Learning Abilities - 'Read India' Project in Maharashtra, DHANMANJIRI SATHE, Economic & Political Weekly, 08/01/2005,

- Flying on a teacher’s wings, B.K. CHANDRASHEKAR, Indian Express, 17/07/2004, /eldoc/n21_/17jul04ie1.html

Volumes of wisdom
Starting young... children at the Sishya and Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan (Kilpauk) libraries.
READING IS acknowledged as one of the best ways of relaxing and rejuvenating the mind. And school libraries not only introduce children to the exciting world of books but also provide a wealth of information to the teacher and the taught. "I think school libraries are the best way of encouraging students to read books, other than textbooks. Here, students are free to browse any time. The library is open during holidays, especially for reference work and students make proper use of it," says Vijayalakshmi, librarian, S.B.O.A Matriculation and Higher Secondary School. With a collection of 18,000 books, journals and Is the reading habit among children on the wane? SANGEETH KURIAN and PRASSANA SRINIVASAN visited the libraries in several city schools to find out. Here are some interesting conclusions... magazines,the school has separate books for primary students kept in the classrooms and distributed to them during the library period. Each class is allotted a particular day, apart from the library hour, for borrowing and returning books. The online reference system makes it easy to locate books. "Of late, there is a great demand for Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings," says the librarian. The School, KFI, has a new perspective when it comes to libraries. It has built up a collection of over 6,000 books, journals and magazines. Here too, the concept of a library period applies. There is a separate library for primary students, who can borrow two books at a time. "But though the library has been equipped with computers, there is no access to the Internet. The facilities are upgraded periodically so that the children have access to the latest information," says Khanthi Phatak, librarian. "I go by the story line. I have to be choosy, as academic pressures pose a constraint on time," says Surya, a Class X student, who enjoys fiction. "Reading helps me learn new words," says Sudha, an ardent reader. "When my parents are away at work, books are my greatest companion, says Sabitha of Class IX.

Claire, the librarian at the Good Shepherd School, says a library hour is allotted for each class and students put the encyclopaedias and magazines to good use. "Although schools are trying to woo students to read books, parents should also be motivated," she feels. Radha Venugopal has helped children select reading material for the past 10 years. As the librarian of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan (BVB), she says she still sees a number of young readers visiting the library, despite distractions such as television, video games and the like. The school makes efforts to keep the reading habit from dying out. The library at BVB, with its trove of 10,000 books, ranging from encyclopaedias to fiction, boasts of the collection that belonged to former President V. V. Giri. It even includes a book that Neil Armstrong gifted to the former President. Besides there are books by stalwarts such as K. M. Munshi and C. Subramaniam. "All this talk about lack of time for reading and academic pressure is unfounded," says Radha Venugopal. "What you need is proper time management." However, she regrets that "students have become so grade-oriented that they work only when marks are an incentive." Thus, serious readers comprise only 10-15 per cent of the total strength of the school. Lulu Thampan, headmistress, Asan Memorial primary school, has introduced book corners to encourage children to take to reading even when they are very young. Here, shelves are built in a corner of the classroom, containing books on subjects as varied as general knowledge and fiction. "Children are free to browse during leisure," she says. "Teachers assist the students by reading out information, which they cannot comprehend," she adds. At the Senior Secondary level, students are asked to write their impressions of the book they have recently read. This exercise is done once a month. Though by and large, the response is lukewarm, the librarian, Shanta Mary Titus, says "There is a great demand for English fiction." Children these days have become more discerning when it comes to selecting books. "I check out the plot and characters first and only then decide whether to read a book or not.

Otherwise, it is a precious waste of time," says Pradeep Rajdas, a Class VIII student, who enjoys reading Agatha Christie, Enid Blyton and J. K. Rowling. Certainly, the avenues for adventure and information have diversified since the advent of technology. "Twenty-five years ago, we had only books. But today, television, VCDs and Internet offer more engaging and interesting ways of acquiring knowledge," says Michael Sundar, assistant headmaster, Don Bosco Higher Secondary School. Realising the changing trend, the school has started imparting knowledge through audiovisual media. However, reading, Sundar feels, is a pleasure in itself and helps enrich one's vocabulary and powers of concentration. Sishya, the school in Adyar, has perhaps the most excellent library facilities among the city schools. "The first step towards cultivating the reading habit among students is to provide them with a well-equipped library. The next step is to upgrade the facilities from time to time," says Elizabeth Abraham, librarian. "To accommodate more students, we have divided the library into various levels. There is a special study area for primary and higher secondary students. Books for the primary students are catalogued class-wise. This makes searching easier. Story-telling sessions are organised periodically for the kindergarten pupils." At the library at Sishya, there are 11 computers meant exclusively for library use and subject-oriented CD-ROMS are provided to the students. Photocopying facilities are also available.

Fiction, non-fiction, academic books, journals and magazines... over 10,000 books cover a wide range of subjects. Quite often, the teachers make use of the audio/visual room to complement classroom sessions. During examinations, when books are not issued, the room is used by students to play simple vocabulary games with the help of projectors. About the reading habit among students these days, Ms. Abraham disagrees with the "widespread notion that the habit is on the decline and feels that children who are inclined to read are fond of books, while others may be interested in sports or other extra-curricular activities. Neither has the invasion of television nor the Internet affected the reading habits of students," she feels. Psychologists too emphasise the relevance of reading. Says Priya Alencheril, a child psychologist, "Reading is fundamental to everything else that a child does. If a child lacks reading skills, he is going to have trouble reading textbooks." One of the best ways to improve reading skills in children is through parental involvement. "Children whose parents read aloud or encourage reading prove better students," she says. In fact, family reading is the best way to grow.
Remember those childhood days spent listening to grandma's tales?

Economic and Political Weekly January 8, 2005 103
DHANMANJIRI SATHE
One of the distressing paradoxes of the Indian education system has been that while the government-supported elitist centres of education (like the IITs and IIMs) have been able to reach international academics standards, the lower rungs of education, like primary education, have been grossly neglected. The lack of political will and apathy towards universal primary education has been studied and docu-mented by many scholars. According to the Constitution, primary education is a concurrent subject, and its execution lies with the state government. This has meant that there is a wide inter-state disparity in the primary education scenario. While some states such as Kerala, Mizoram and Himachal Pradesh have made universal primary education a reality, others like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh have lagged behind. Maharashtra, which is one of the more progressive states, has high primary school-level enrolment. More than 90 per cent of primary school age children are enrolled in school. Without taking a narrow, instrumenta-list approach towards education we can say that universal education is an end in itself. However, it also confers many benefits to society and the people themselves. It leads to better awareness of rights and duties, and strengthens democracy. It also improves employment opportunities.

In a caste-ridden society like India, it also raises the possibility of providing equal oppor-tunities to the downtrodden. However, mere physical attendance in school does not mean education. At a basic level, the raison d’etre of sending a child to school is to make her literate. If that objective, i e, the ability to read, write and do mathematics is not fulfilled, then it be-comes a totally meaningless activity for the child. It could also affect her willing-ness to attend school. The child may still want to go to school because of the opportunity of interacting with other children. However, non-learning could demotivate the parents, who may feel (quite correctly) that their child is just wasting time at school. It has been found that, at an all-India level, around 30 to 40 per cent of school-going children are unable to read simple text fluently. Therefore, the focus in recent years has shifted to the delivery systems and reasons why poor people get poor services. It has been found that the government has been spending substantial amounts on primary educa-tion, but services commensurate with the expenditure have not been provided to the poor.

Concerned with this situation, an NGO, Pratham, developed an accelerated reading technique, called ‘Vachan Prakalp’, which enables a child to read fluently in around 45 days. This project, called, ‘Read India’, was launched in January 2003 and has enrolled 2 lakh children in Pratham classes all over the country. Innovative learning techniques are being developed for writing and math-ematical abilities. In this study, we have made an attempt to examine the impact of Pratham interven-tion (or the ‘Vachan Prakalp’) on students in zilla parishad schools in Maharashtra. Methodology and Nature of Sample A survey of zilla parishad schools from 20 districts (out of 33 districts in Maharashtra) was carried out from June 1-6, 2004. The survey was carried out by two people, one, a Pratham employee and the other a masters degree student at the Department of Economics, University of Pune. A simple test of read-ing, writing and basic mathematics was developed and administered to a student. From the 20 districts, zilla parishad schools from 40 talukas were surveyed. The talukas can be divided into three types, namely, pilot, replicated and non-treated talukas.

In pilot talukas, Pratham’s own workers went and trained teachers in zilla parishad schools. The training given here was of the most intensive type. The workers interacted a lot with the teachers and the latter showed a lot of interest and willing-ness to carry out the programme. In rep-licated talukas, the workers from Pratham trained teachers to use the techniques of accelerated learning, but the monitoring of the project was not as intensive. Thus there is a possibility of some dilution in the application of the technique. In non-treated talukas the students were not given any additional inputs. The names of the 20 districts and 40 talukas are given in the Appendix. Tables 1 and 2 provide information regarding the basic parameters of the survey. Of the 40 talukas, almost half (19) were pilot talukas. The remaining half were randomly selected and we got nine talukas which were of the replicated type and 12 which were the non-treated type.

On the whole, 7,867 students were surveyed, of whom 48 per cent belonged to pilot talukas, 23 per cent to replicated talukas and 28 per cent to non-treated talukas. Reading, writing and mathematical ability was measured for students from standards 2 to 7. For simplicity of analysis, we divided the students into two groups the first, consisting of children belong-ing to standards 2,3 and 4 (henceforth to be called lower standards). The second group consists of children belonging to standards 5, 6 and 7 (henceforth to be called higher standards). Of the 7,867 students, 64 per cent belonged to the lower standards and 36 per cent to higher standards. Table 3 gives genderwise break-up of the students. Of the overall students surveyed, around 57 per cent were boys and the rest were girls. An almost similar pattern Interventions and Learning Abilities ‘Read India’ Project in Maharashtra A survey of the impact of an NGO project to introduce an accelerated reading technique in schools in Maharashtra shows that if children are taught properly, their academic abilities can improve substantially.

Intervention is also found to be more beneficial at the lower rather than higher levels of primary education, and the survey did not detect any gender bias in learning. Table 1: Sample Overview Total number of districts in Maharashtra 33 Districts surveyed 20 Talukas surveyed 40 of which Pilot talukas 19 Replicated talukas 9 Non-treated talukas 12 Economic and Political Weekly January 8, 2005 104 is seen for both lower and the higher standards. Table 4 gives us the break-up of the reading abilities of students. Reading abilities were measured on a scale of 0 to 4. If a student could not read anything, s/he was given a score of zero. If s/he could identify a letter, a score of 1 was given, identification of a word got a score of 2, reading a paragraph got 3, and reading a story got a score of 4. We find from Table 4 that for lower standards, there is a marked difference in the story-reading abilities of children be-longing to the pilot talukas and non-treated talukas. In the pilot talukas, 48 per cent could read a story, while only 32 per cent could do so from non-treated talukas. Among students belonging to higher stan-dards, we find that the story-reading ability is much higher among children belonging to pilot talukas (at 80 per cent) while only 66 per cent from non-treated talukas could read a story. Surprisingly, however, the reading abilities of children in the repli-cated talukas seem to be a bit higher than those in pilot talukas.

With this preliminary information, we wanted to see whether there is a statistically significant difference between the reading abilities of pilot taluka students and non-treated taluka students for the two separate categories of lower and higher standards. To test this we have applied the Z-test. Our null hypothesis is that there is no significant difference in the reading abilities of the children of pilot and non-treated talukas at lower or higher standards. For lower standards, the average score for pilot talukas is 3.12 and for non-treated talukas it is 2.59. It was found that the difference was statistically significant. Therefore, one can state that there is a significant difference between the reading abilities of students belonging to pilot talukas and non-treated talukas at lower standards, at 5 per cent level of significance.

Table 2: Number of Students Surveyed Type of Taluka Lower Higher Total Standards Standards Students II,III,IV V,VI,VII Pilot talukas 2438 1360 3798 (48) Replicated talukas 1208 617 1825 (23) Non-treated talukas 1389 855 2244 (28.5) Total students 5035 2832 7867 (64) (36) (100) Note: Figures in brackets indicate the percentages. Table 3: Genderwise Distribution of Students Type of Taluka Lower Higher Total Standards Standards Students II,III,IV V,VI,VII Pilot talukas 2438 1360 3798 of which Boys 1371 832 Girls 1067 528 Replicated talukas 1208 617 1825 of which Boys 653 376 Girls 555 241 Non-treated talukas 1389 855 2244 of which Boys 794 493 Girls 595 362 Total students 5035 2832 7867 of which (100) (100) (100) Boys 2818 1701 4519 (56) (60) (57) Girls 2217 1131 3348 (44) (40) (43) Note: Figures in brackets indicate percentages. Table 4: Reading Abilities of Students Reading Ability Lower Standards (II to IV ) Upper Standards(V to VII ) (Score) Pilot Replicated Non-treated Pilot Replicated Non-treated Talukas.

Story-level (4) 1180 (48) 532 (44) 438 (32) 1085 (80) 510 (83) 563 (66) Para (3) 652 ( 27) 359 (30) 312 (22) 173 (13) 75 (12) 198 (26) Word (2) 398 (16) 207 (17) 357 (26) 60 (4) 17 (3) 54 (6) Letter (1) 160 (7) 86 (7) 204 (15) 34 (3) 12 (2) 32 (4) None (0) 48 (2) 24 (2) 78 (6) 8 (1) 3 (0) 8 (1) Total 2438 (100) 1208 (100) 1389 (100) 1360 (100) 617 (100) 855 (100)
Note: Figures in brackets indicate percentages.
Table 5: Writing Abilities
Writing Ability Lower Standards (II to IV) Upper Standards (V to VII) (Score) Pilot Replicated Non-treated Pilot Replicated Non-treated Talukas.
Can (1) 1487 (61) 767 (63) 704 (51) 1199 (88) 540 (88) 707 (83) Can’t (0) 951 (39) 441 (37) 685 (49) 161 (12) 77 (12) 148 (17) Total 2438 (100) 1208 (100) 1389 (100) 1360 (100) 617 (100) 855 (100)
Note: Figures in brackets indicate percentages.
Table 6: Mathematical Abilities
Mathematical Lower Standards (II to IV) Upper Standards (V to VII) Ability Pilot Replicated Non-treated Pilot Replicated Non-treated (Score) Talukas Talukas Talukas Talukas Talukas Talukas Division (3) 300 (12) 168 (14) 149 (11) 622 (46) 280 (45) 362 (42) Subtraction (2) 638 (26) 313 (26) 239 (17) 268 (20) 127 (21) 200 (23) Can recog num (1) 887 (36) 464 (38) 525 (38) 346 (25) 155 (25) 217 (25) None (0) 613 (25) 263 (22) 476 (34) 124 (9) 55 (9) 76 (9) Total 2438 (100) 1208 (100) 1389 (100) 1360 (100) 617 (100) 855 (100)
Note: Figures in brackets indicate percentages.
Appendix Names of Districts and Talukas Where Survey Was Done Name of District Name of Taluka Pilot Replicated Non-Treated Jalna Jaffrabad Partur Jalgaon Bhadgaon, Amelner Parbhani Palam Parbhani Nanded Kinwat Kandhar Solapur Akkalkot Pandharpur Dhule Shirpur Dhule Aurangabad Sillod Gangapur Hingoli Kalamnuri Vasmat Latur Aousa Renapur Sindhudurg Kankavali Malvan Satara Jawali Patan Pune Baramati Khed Kolhapur Gadhingalaj Chandagad Ahmednagar Jamkhed Shegaon Nashik Igatpuri Chandwad Ratnagiri Sangmaner Lanja Sangli Walva Jat Raigad Pali Uran Nandurbar Shahada Navapur Thane Mokhada Taslari Economic and Political Weekly January 8, 2005 105 Since the average score of the pilot talukas is higher than that in the non-treated talukas, we can say that reading abilities are su-perior in the former. A similar test was applied to higher standards.

Here, the average score for pilot talukas was 3.68 and for non-treated talukas it was 3.49. Here too we found that there is a significant difference between the reading abilities of students belonging to the two groups, at 5 per cent level of significance and that reading abilities were superior in the pilot talukas. We have also compared the story-reading ability of students from all three types of talukas for lower and higher standards. We find that, generally speaking, story-reading ability improves as one moves from lower to higher standards. In case of non-treated talukas, the rise was the steepest, from 32 per cent in lower stan-dards to 66 per cent in higher standards, an increase of more than 100 per cent. In case of the replicated talukas, the per-centage of students who could read a story almost doubled from 44 per cent for lower standards to 83 per cent for higher stan-dards. For the pilot talukas the rise was from 48 per cent to 80 per cent. This result is an expected one because as students grow older and are in the school for more number of years, more of them will be able to read a complete story.

Writing Abilities
The next step is to examine the writing abilities of the talukas (Table 5). It needs to be mentioned here that the ‘Read India’ project concentrated only on improving the reading abilities and did not give any inputs as far as writing and mathematical abilities are concerned. However, we were interested in seeing if there was any impact of improved reading abilities on writing and mathe-matical skills. In the pilot talukas, 61 per cent of children in lower standards could write, as against 51 per cent in non-treated talukas. The difference between the two decreases as we look at the higher standards, where the corresponding figures are 88 and 83 per cent, respectively. The average score of pilot talukas was 0.63 and for non-treated talukas it was 0.50. Applying the Z test we found that there is a significant differ-ence between the writing abilities of pilot taluka students and non-treated taluka students. A similar significant difference in writing abilities was found between pilot taluka and non-treated taluka stu-dents for higher standards. Mathematical Abilities As far as mathematical abilities are concerned, we found that for the lower standards, 12 per cent from pilot talukas could do division as against 11 per cent from non-treated talukas. This difference is quite narrow compared with those for reading and writing skills. For lower standards, the average score of pilot talukas was 1.25 and for non-treated talukas it was 1.04. Applying the Z test, we found that there is a significant difference between the mathematical abili-ties of pilot taluka students and non-treated taluka students.

However, a similar signi-ficant difference in mathematical abilities was not found between pilot taluka and non-treated taluka students for higher standards. Genderwise Reading Abilities Next, we wanted to examine whether the Pratham programme showed any gender bias. To this end, we looked only at the pilot talukas. For the lower standards in the pilot talukas, the average score for reading ability for boys was 3.10 and for girls it was 3.16. The Z test showed that there was no significant difference be-tween the reading abilities of the two groups. For higher standards too, we noted that there was no significant difference between boys and girls. Thus, the Pratham ‘Read India’ programme does not have a gender bias. The Pratham intervention shows that if children are taught properly, their academic abilities can improve substantially. Thus children do respond to better delivery systems. It was found that the reading abilities of students belonging to pilot talukas are significantly better than those of students belonging to non-treated talukas for both lower and higher standards. Thus the Pratham intervention has had a positive impact on the reading abilities of students. Pratham workers did not have a special programme for improving writing and mathematical skills. However, our analy-sis shows that the writing abilities of students belonging to the pilot talukas were significantly better than those of students belonging to the non-treated talukas for both lower and higher grades. Therefore, there are externalities involved in learning. As far as mathematical abili-ties were concerned, we found that they were significantly better for pilot taluka students for lower standards, but not for higher ones. On the whole, the percentage of students able to do well in reading, writing and mathematics improves as we move from lower to higher standards. The difference between the abilities of pilot taluka stu-dents and non-treated taluka students also decreases as one moves from lower stan-dards to higher standards. In other words, the benefit to students from the Pratham programme is higher at lower levels than at higher levels of primary education. Therefore, improvement in teaching ser-vices brought about at a lower level will help students more. The Pratham pro-gramme does not have a gender bias. It is benefiting boys and girls equally.

- Interventions and Learning Abilities - 'Read India' Project in Maharashtra, DHANMANJIRI SATHE, Economic & Political Weekly, 08/01/2005, /eldoc/n21_/08jan05EPW103.pdf

ELEMENTARY EDUCATION
Learning to teach Pratham's path-breaking method of teaching children to read and write is making a positive difference in the lives of many children by Dr Madhav Chavan S avita is an eight-year-old girl who lives in a village called Pulachi Wadi ('hamlet at the bridge') in Mokhada tehsil of Thane district, one of the more backward regions in India. On 18 February 2003, Savita, together with many of her friends, was put in front of a camera and asked to read a simple paragraph in bold font. She tilted her head sideways and attempted to read. An incomprehensible string of syllables came out hesitantly...slowly....inaudibly... Savita was at the end of grade III and her school curriculum demanded learning of grammar, multiplication, division, environment sciences, and even English. But little Savita could not read. After 45 days, on 3 April 2003, the camera crew went back to Pulachi Wadi. This time Savita sat up straight and confident, held the paper with three unfamiliar sentences, again written in bold letters. She read in a clear voice, "My mother gave me a snack. Raju and I took the snack and went to school. Raju is my friend". Then she smiled. Savita's teacher had been helping her to 'learn to read' using a new technique introduced by Pratham. Savita was not alone.

The magic of the new technique touched nearly 20,000 other children in Mokhada and Igatpuri tehsils of Thane and Nasik districts between 15 February and 30 March 2003, at the very end of the school year. Of these children, 50 per cent could not read when the experiment began. At the end of it, more than 88 per cent were reading simple texts fluently. This year they will continue with 'reading to learn' to improve their comprehension and writing skills so that they understand what is in their school textbooks. They will learn to express themselves in writing. What happened in those forty-five days? Had that magic not happened, what chance would Savita have of completing her elementary education? The second question first.

The situation of Mokhada and Igatpuri is not unique, when it comes to lack of learning in schools. Pratham surveys show that in the slums of Mumbai, nearly 35 per cent The write thing: 'Out of 200 m children, 100 m cannot read' children in the six to 14 age group cannot read, leave alone write. In the rest of the districts of Maharashtra, the situation is not too different from these two tehsils. It would be reasonably correct to say that, across India, about 50 per cent or more children in grades II to V in government schools cannot read. In the north, where primary education has been deregulated, the children in the shanty private schools do not do much better. The number is quite shocking. Imagine, out of about 200 million children in the six to 14 age group, nearly 100 million cannot read! At the same time, it is a very interesting number. Government statistics tell us that 40 per cent of the children enrolled in grade I (and it is claimed that 96 per cent do enroll!) will drop out of school before completing grade V. Over 50 per cent will not make it beyond grade VII and about 66 per cent will not cross grade X. If 50 per cent of enrolled children cannot read by the time they are in grade IV, how can they continue to be in school? The correlation between not being able to read and dropping out is clear and simple. The daily humiliation in class leaves these children no option but to leave school. While there are other reasons that contribute to the process of dropping out, we at Pratham believe that not learning in school is a primary factor leading to 2 a chain reaction and triggering the other links associated with social and economic backwardness. These � children are not dropouts, but in fact, push-outs. Conventional wisdom has it that millions like Savita will dropout. Our Is? systems are planned around the assumption of a significant dropout rate. The number of schools in India catering to different levels present sufficient evidence of this: Primary schools 664,041 Upper Primary 219,626 High School+ 133,492 Improving quality of learning in government schools is an important strategy in putting pressure on a lethargic, demoralised and apathetic system. Individually, very few persons in the system are 'bad'.

Class act: Pratham's unique methodology has caught the imagination of the young ones the system itself that distorts the individual's perspective of things. The system has been teaching that Savita's learning is not important, that Savita will not make it past grade IV or V anyway, that it is enough if she can write a few words or just her own name. The experiment in Mokhada and Igatpuri did two things. The schoolteachers who are a key part of the system proved to themselves that they could teach Savita and others like her to read in a short span. Secondly, they proved that Savita can learn to read quickly and her life need not be wasted as an ' illiterate. As millions more learn to read and express the desire to continue to go to school, there would need to be a s u b s t a n t i al investment in school infrastructure to meet the demand. So why did Savita not learn all these years? And what made her learn so quickly?

The technique: understanding the roots of the problem It is a common observation in educated homes that children who are two to three years old sit down with books (mostly held the right way) and pretend to read. Grown-ups read out stories to them and this combined with their learning in pre-school or school leads to their reading skills. The combination of reading of stories and the learning of alphabets and vowel signs and their use is important. Consider Savita and millions like her whose parents are poorly educated and whose homes do not have a reading-writing culture. They never played 'pretend to read', no one read out to them and asked them to read. In school, they were immediately subjected to writing alphabets on the slate. Clearly, Savita and other children like her did not make the connection between thinking, speaking, and reading. The meaningless learning of alphabets had nothing to do with the joy of reading and understanding what is written. When children, seven and above, are asked to read, they do so with varying degrees of fluency. A child who can read words does so by slowly piecing together the consonants and the vowel signs and then saying the word aloud. In the bargain, the fact that the word is a part of a sentence is completely lost. Those who can read simple sentences have to grow in confidence to read more difficult words in sentences and understand complex sentences. Those who know only the alphabets have no clue that a collection of pictures representing sounds actually makes a word with some meaning. Those who can read nothing do not know that a certain picture or a collection of pictures stands for sounds and meaning. The Pratham technique is based on two main and some supportive activities.

All carried out from the very first day of the class and the teacher is asked not to TEACH but to observe, to ASK but not answer, and ENCOURAGE not discourage, to FACILITATE but not help. The first activity is reading. The teacher hands out one copy each of a simple paragraph in bold font. She reads the sentences slowly with her finger following under each word in a manner that all children can see where the finger is while they listen to the sound of words. They discuss what is read so that there is some recollection of the words. Now she asks, "Who wants to read like me?" Immediately all hands go up. Even those with no knowledge of alphabets would like to read. They 'pretend' to read. The fingers are all over the place, the words do not come in the correct sequence. Sentences are all wrong, but they are dead serious about 'reading'. This activity continues with more and more simple paragraphs. Children who can read words move very rapidly and attempt to read on their own. The alphabet and 'nothing' category children continue to play pretend and get better and better at it. No one stumbles. They learn to read sentences and do not halt at every letter or every word. The second activity is with the 'barahkhadV chart . Professor Jalaluddin, an internationally renowned literacy expert, has worked with the chart as a means of coding and decoding syllables. The individual forms of the consonants represent sounds. Since inception the goal of the Pratham team has been to ensure that "every child is in school and is learning well". Over a nine-year period, Pratham has reached out to a million children. An accelerated learning method, in which an unlettered child starts reading and computing basic mathematics in three weeks, has been in use since late 2002 and has taught over 160,000 children since then to become literate.

The child is familiarised with the way the chart is organised by reciting ka, ka, ki, kee, etc. and asked to do the same for other consonants. Exploration of more and more consonants begins. The children are then asked to say any word, find it in the barahkhadi like finding pieces of a puzzle, and then copy the letter shapes to code the sound into a word. The activity becomes immediately interesting. Homework is to say more words or sentences and find them in the chart. Homework and group work become a lot of fun. The supporting activities are to say and find rhyming words, and then to say anything and write anything with the help of the chart. Children who do not know alphabets learn with the help of flashcards and simple games, in groups. Different children learn different alphabets and together they learn many alphabets at a time. If the teacher sticks to not 'helping' or being overeager to correct mistakes, the children start taking initiative. They correct each other's mistakes, argue, and progress. This shift from 'nothing can change' to 'things can be made better' can make governmental efforts productive on all fronts.

The key to increased participation from parents also lies in visible changes in the way the school works. In the process, teachers are learning an important cultural lesson of allowing children to learn. This is the first step of making strides towards child-centric learning. The Education Department organises many training programmes. But the training is never linked with predictable results. Such training is rarely effective. On the other hand, we find that having achieved a predictable goal, teachers are now eager to try new ways, and are in a frame of mind to change many things to achieve concrete results in reading writing and arithmetic. We expect greater receptiveness with every success. A system that was apathetic and lethargic seems to be moving. Individuals in this system have begun to move. Insertion of a technique has caused this change. It is almost parallel to the impact of technology on human society. It changes the way people think. Much the same way that children learn games on the playground. It is this initiative that leads to rapid learning. One of the Pratham teachers observed that the children seemed to 'catch it' out of thin air. Suddenly, one day, the child is reading. In fact, unless the teacher observes carefully, she does not even realise that the child has progressed to the paragraph reading stage. In Jaipur we have observed that nine to ten-year-olds learn to read from nothing in about two weeks! In mass scale programmes where each teacher and each class cannot be monitored carefully, the children still learn in about four to six weeks.

The technique is very simple. If you read the above paragraphs carefully, you do not need training. You can get started! This simplicity makes transfer of the know-how much simpler and less prone to distortions, although they do happen with every ladder of transfer. The effect, even after distortions, is visible in a very short time because the children learn. Simplicity and quick, visible results add to the magic. Impact of the technique The success of the technique in the hands of the much-maligned government schoolteachers in two tehsils has resulted in the technique being tried out in other districts of Maharashtra. It is spreading very fast. The fact that children learn to read is, perhaps, enough of a success. But, more importantly, we find teachers now asking for more such simple and productive tools to alter the learning scenario. We are now transferring the know-how to teach basic arithmetic operations and moving to the 'reading to learn' part where higher levels of comprehension and writing are emphasised. The possibilities Pratham has tested the 'reading programme' in their classes, in eight different states, with over 170,000 children.

There is a growing predictability of success. Other non-government organisations and school systems outside Maharashtra, in Assam and Bihar have tried it. It seems immensely possible that the technique will be transferred to many more State-school systems, and along with it a cultural shift will happen in many regions. Of course, the years of resistance to change will not go away overnight, but the gradual seepage of success can break the apparently impregnable rock. This shift from 'nothing can change' to 'things can be made better' can make governmental efforts productive on all fronts. The key to increased participation from parents also lies in visible changes in the way the school works. The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan launched by the government of India is not yet an abhiyan, a movement. Plans have been prepared at district levels and funds have been sanctioned. If the plans have to deliver expected results, a new spirit, a new environment will have to be created. Typically, environment building is equated with putting up posters and taking out marches and such other activities. Instead, why not show how quickly a change can be brought about in the children's learning? This can be done at every district level and it will pay dividends. We believe that little Savita's learning has the power to appeal to the positive energies of individuals. They can, in turn, activate the strongly positive elements in the government to ensure that real universal elementary education can be achieved by 2010, as the government has declared. Savita has done her bit by learning to read. Now the rest of us have to do our bit. Dr Madhav Chavan is the director of Pratham Resource Center- Learning to teach, Dr Madhav Chavan, Humanscape, 01/12/2003, /eldoc/n00_/01dec03HUS.pdf

Bangalore-based Sutradhar as a resource centre for children's teaching aids, seeks to promote creative education. B angalore-based Sutradhar is a reg-istered non-profit organisation de-voted to providing enriched educa-tional experiences to children and prob-ably the only one of its kind for the di-verse range of services it offers. It is the brainchild of Mandira Kumar. In early October this year, Mandira was awarded the Rotary 'Quest For Vocational Excel-lence' award at a glittering function in Bangalore for her 'commitment to excel-lence, ethics and values and her outstand-ing contribution to her vocation and thus community'. "I have always been interested in children's education," she shares. "For about a decade or so, I have been travel-ling around the country. Occasionally on my own and occasionally as an educa-tional co-ordinator. I had been noticing that there are many grassroots organisations developing sets of text-books and other materials for children. I felt that there was a need to bring the spectrum of all these materials under one roof." So in November last, with financial support from the US-based Amar Foun-dation and CRY, Sutradhar opened shop, literally, in downtown Bangalore.

"We offer a variety of materials under one roof which otherwise are not available in the regular marketplace. Thus, we are not only providing a service to folk toy mak-ers, we are also providing a service to manufacturers and non-profit organisations who are developing teach-ing aids by providing for the end users— parents and educators," Mandira ex-plains. Thus, there is a wide range of (indig-enously made) toys available, attractively displayed on easy to access shelves and arranged according to age ranges and skills. Besides that, Sutradhar also offers a variety of low-cost books, teaching aids as well as story books. Having garnered a whole personal directory of contacts in her decade-long travels across the coun- try, Mandira sources all the materials herself. "New materials one gets to hear of," she adds. "We are also constantly looking at ways of using existing mate-rials differently.

Every state has a folk toy-making tradition. Many of these are made and used in a very transient way. As a central body, we are also trying to see how designs can be translated into wood and made more long lasting." She is convinced that children are the agenda of every parent. "In fact they are a mother's prime agenda," she feels. "There are a lot of mothers who want to be involved in their children's education but there is also a lack of awareness. Sutradhar is a kind of drop-in center where people not only buy a toy, but if they are looking for specific information, that is also available. It is also an occa-sion for us to build awareness. For in-stance, we talk to them about the impor-tance of reading with the child. A parent of a child with special needs or one with cerebral palsy may come by. Sometimes, the parents are at a bit of a loss as to what to pick up, so we help them out." Bangalore was chosen as home for Sutradhar, because Mandira feels that there is no such resource centre available in the city.

"There may be pockets of edu-cational groups who have a knowledge of what is available locally. But our cen-tre has a wider range of activities than that. We basically promote creative edu-cation." Besides the sale of toys and ma-terials, Sutradhar organises workshops, seminars and exhibitions. In January this year, there was a workshop on making and using folk toys in classrooms. The main faculty person was Sudarshan Khanna from the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad. In July, Sutradhar organised a three-day Bal Mela for chil-dren, exposing them to a variety of cre-ative ideas and experiences. As part of their open fora programme, a first session for educators from Madhya Pradesh was organised on Teachers' Day this year. "This group is very strong at micro-level work as well as thinking of it as systemic change. We screened two films and had an interaction with about a 100 people," says Mandira.

In October, another seminar on the arts and education has been organised. "We are trying to bring together a commu-nity of like-minded people who use art Sushama Nagarkar is a Bangalore-based freelance journalist. Toys and materials for a range of ages and skills are effectively displayed.

38 HUMANSCAPE • NOVEMBER 1996
and creative mediums with children in a reflective way, and thus have common interests. We will discuss what it is like to work with different groups of children in different set-tings. Again media and the art are our particular focus." Of all the hurdles that Sutradhar has faced along the way, the most ironic, perhaps, have been the con-cepts about education amongst edu-cators themselves. 'Toys and litera-ture are not meted importance by educators," Mandira laments. "For instance, people tend to think of edu-cation of the underprivileged as con-cerned with reading, writing and starting of a balwadi. That's it. It is imperative that young children have play materials, books and literature. Language is contextual and literature is exceedingly important for that.

Very often persons considered senior in the field of education would look at my little bag of toys and ask what they had to do with education..." But rather than look at it nega-tively, Mandira has taken it as an op-portunity for creating awareness. As for future plans, Mandira hopes and is working towards having a permanent open access centre for children. "Such cen-tres already exist for womens' studies, health and environment issues. But for Children craft coir and rags into a tree of life. children and education, there are no such accesses where one can go for material and information." She visualises ongoing processes occurring in the living store-house where a synergy could take place. Where there could be collaborative work between traditional craftsmen, where one could infuse new life into traditional crafts.

At Sutradhar, Mandira consciously works at cre-ating a via media for successful ideas transfer. "People need to share good ideas. Educators who work with slum children say we can't use these materials, but our idea of keeping these materials on the shelves here is to show that they serve as a sym-bol of a learning concept and can be adapted using local materials. We not only keep books which tell you how to adapt the materials. We also serve to be a mini museum." Mandira acknowledges that the reach of the Barbie (read multina-tionals) is farther and has a stron-ger imagery than most Indian flavoured toys. And according to her, schools are microcosms of society, thus they also reflect what popular culture is. Perhaps where Sutradhar does yeoman service is in propagat-ing the Indian ethos and tradition in learning. Mandira first went to the Rotary Club in search of a van to take her learn-ing materials out to people in a travelling exhibition. She ended up with an award instead. It is hoped that the van is still on the Rotary agenda.

EDUCATION AND SOCIETY Viewpoint / Mala Pandurang
Does The Buck Stop Here? Accountability, for lacunae in the teaching/learning process on the campus, is an issue that gets everybody in a furore. Calling for help are students and faculty members.... "The teacher threw up her hands in exasperation. This was the umpteenth time that this student was making the same grammatical error with the past tense of the verb 'to write'. "Stay back after class," she ordered, "and write out the imposition on the blackboard 250 times." So the little girl stayed back and kept repeating the lines "I wrote....I wrote...' until her hand ached and the board was full. When she had finished, the teacher was nowhere in sight. She waited a while and then decided to leave because it was quite late. Making out a little space at the corner of the blackboard, she then wrote out a message to her teacher, "Dear Miss, I writted 'I wrote' and now I goned." In the present climate of criticism and counter-criticism of the numerous lapses within our system of education, which party is accountable? The teacher who failed to communicate the child's error properly, the student who just could not comprehend it, or an entire process de-signed to saturate the learner's mind with so much factual information that the mind ultimately cannot grasp, under-stand and assimilate even the most basic of ideas and concepts?

The primary role of the teacher is, un-doubtedly, to facilitate the learning pro-cess. In the context of colleges in a city like Mumbai, the relationship between students and the teacher is largely based on 40-50 minutes of interaction within a lecture period. At the first and second year undergraduate level, there are on an av-erage, 100 students in a class. When criticised for not delivering qualitative re-sults in terms of human resources, one of the most common reactions is to level charges against the student groups. "Stu-dents today are indifferent, restless and arrogant. They hardly attend lectures regularly. Their first priority to life is to make, and spend, money.
How can we reverse the damage done at the school level?" Here are some reactions, from both sides of the fence:
• Chitra ft, third-year B Com student, S1ES College: "Give us lecturers who are sincere and dedicated. And you'll most certainly find us present in their classes, But such 'honest' lecturers make up for hardly 30 per cent of the staff members. How is it that the same lecturers who do not finish their portions are so efficient in coaching classes? In fact, I know of friends in 'prestigious' colleges that 'produce' state rank holders who boast that they rarely see their college classrooms. They are all being drilled by their own lecturers in ' well-known' coaching classes. If lecturers want our respect, then they should earn it, shouldn't they?"
• Karthik Balakrishnan, SSLC student, Goregaon: ''Education, to me, means con-stantly getting new and useful infor-mation. I get this information from sources outside, and not from within the classroom-from the media, the Internet, books and my parents. In fact, I wonder as to how many of the teachers are as well informed as we students are."
• Ramesh Vyas, BSc student, Somaiya College: "There is very little spillover of classroom learning into our daily lives. Ninety per cent of the teaching is just giving out of information, and only 10 per cent of the effort goes into making us think for ourselves. Can you blame us for being restless?"
• Vivek, ESc student, also at Somaiya College: "Everybody says teachers are meant to be our 'mentors' and role models. But what we see around us is favouritism, corruption and bribery. Admission procedures are so com-plicated and chaotic. Students are blamed for copying but what about invigilators who turn a blind eye, which demoralises sincere students.? We've even been watching on televi-sion how disciplined our 'honourable' members of Parliament are, and the code of conduct of the highest offi-cials of our Government!" * Geeta Raheja, MA (English) student, Bombay University: "Each generation evolves its own code of conduct. The older generation has to accept that with so much of media exposure, we can no longer re-main 'a silent generation' who tradi-tionally were taught to be non-ques-tioning. In today's world we need to be taught how to ask questions, and that's where the system fails us.

'The greatest obstacle is not the at-titude of the lecturers but the exami-nation system. Having to prepare for annual exams not only makes learn-ing monotonous but it means that what we have learnt in an entire year is evaluated on the basis of a three-hour examination paper Besides, once an academic year is completed, we forget almost 60 per cent of what we have learnt!''

• Nadia Pinto, first year B Com student, Narsee Monjee College: "Often, we fail to see the relevance and application possibilities of what we're studying. Our choice of subjects is re-stricted. It would better if we can opt for combina-tions of our choice."
• Anuradha Shekhar, head, Food Science or Nutrition 0ept, Dr B M B college of Home Science, Matunga: "It is frustrating when students who have gradu-ated return to me and tell me that despite three years of practicals in the college, those who join the food in-dustry are retrained by their respective companies as per requirements of the industry. It would be a vi-able idea to have represen-tatives from the industry when syllabi of vocational courses are being planned, for students to benefit from the efforts they put in."
• Geeta Balakrishnan, lecturer, Nirmala Niketan College of Social Work: "We have a lecturer-student ratio of 1:18. Working with a smaller group brings about closer interaction which in turn gives qualitative re-sults. To know one's student's on a one to one basis is enough motiva-tion to inspire a lecturer to give her best. So, such genuine attempts to bring about closer interaction be-tween the teaching faculty and the students can yield effective change."
• Sejal Jhaveri, principal, Dr B M B College of Home Science: 'The government has to work out measures to reduce the number of students in the larger classes from the present 100-120 to about 70-80. Col-leges have to make lecturers account-able for their performance, this could be done through regular student-teacher evaluation procedures. Lec-turers have to be put on a pay scale on par with other professions. And most important, we have to some-how de-evaluate the immense impor-tance given to the 'basic' degree as a passport to a career, which often in the case of girl students, is treated as a stopgap until marriage." PAVAN
• Simesh Gupta, HT, Powai: "One's overall personality under-goes a remarkable change through participation in extra-curricular ac-tivities. A good college is one that takes an active interest in developing co-curricular activities that help stu-dents learn interpersonal skills and how to relate to the world about them. Unfortunately in most col-leges, such activities are totally handled by student bodies. An excel-lent opportunity to promote lecturer-student bonding is lost out". • Vasanthi P, student, Borivali: 'The lifestyle of the students' com-munity projected in the media is al-ways one of the upper-middle class, or of an elitist city college where stu-dents have a lot of pocket money, are Westernised and have ambitions to go abroad. My father is a clerk with three children to educate. Do you know how much fees and travel ex-penses work out to? How about the cost of books? And the membership fees of a good public library like the British Council or the USIS? How many of the feature writers bother to go to a college in Malad or Dahisar or Ulhasanagar and look into basic facilities like fans, toilets, or even classrooms?"
• Niddi Vyas, Archarya College, Chembur: ''Under peer pressure, everybody wants to do computers. I paid Rs 8,000 for a short-term course in an institute in Chembur that stretched to six months what 1 could have learnt in two months. What we have today is an emerging 'technological elite', compris-ing of those students from families who can afford the best computer in-stitutes. The rest of us lag behind. Moreover, our greatest drawback is that we can understand what we're being taught but we just don't have the skills to process this communica-tion. Everybody is writing about the vital role English plays in the informa-tion explosion. What is being done to give us language skills apart from one paper at the first year undergraduate level? Does one realise how the inabil-ity to converse in English affects stu-dents psychologically?"
• Suddha Raman, SNDT, Churchgate: "Except for a few students who have made some sort of impression, either positive or negative, our teach-ers, don't even know our names at the end of the year. Brilliant students can shine anywhere, 'useless' stu-dents are beyond help, but 90 per cent us have the potential for devel-opment. We need to be given a sense of direction. But the only 'guides' to-day are the notes available in the market that help us pass our exams." -
•- Mala Pandurang is a lecturer in English literature and cultural heritage at SNDT, Wadala, Mumbai.- Does The Buck Stop Here?, Mala Pandurang, Humanscape, 01/07/1996, /eldoc/n00_/01jul96HUS3.pdf

DISCERNING parents and citizens in India today recognize the importance of well-rounded education for schoolchildren. It would be safe to assume that this is the motive behind plans for a swimming pool, activity room and other facilities for co-curricular activities besides an excellent academic pro gramme in every school. In this article I put certain issues for English-medium schools to consider. The subject of school educa tion is a very wide one, espe cially in the Indian context, where even today, universal primary education remains a dream. This note does not in clude those situations where the option for the family is one of education or no education An Open Letter To Schools your medium of instruction is English, points to a select and smaller segment of Indian society.

It is also parents and teachers in this segment who can, in my view, make an im pact on the quality of learning that takes place in the school, 'and, consequently, the quality of many of the leaders and doers of the next generation. * Teach by example — i.e. teachers must practise what they ask their students to do. Today, teachers leading children by setting an example is rare. For instance, children must, for "decorum", remain thirsty during an outdoor assembly, while teachers are served cold drinks. What happens is, "do as I say, not as I do". It leads to resentment and lack of respect for teachers among students. * Teach discipline through example and explain why a child is being asked to do something, e.g., not running in the school corridors. Discipline is instilled mostly through fear; the child would learn better if he knew why he had to do something, or why he was being punished.

Usually a child is slapped and left to igure out why! Schools can foster balance in Children must be taught to have a healthy respect for au thority, not to blindly follo someone in a position of au thority. There is a significant differ ence between respecting au thority and blindly following instructions from someone in authority. The former allows for a dialogue and informed learning by the child, the latter generates passive followers who find it hard to take a rational decision subsequently In most schools today, a heal thy, polite exchange of ideas is never encouraged. If a child wants to know why he must do something, he is "disciplined" naturally. * Teachers must prepare well for class, and then show the maturity to admit a mis take or ignorance of some fact that a child may point out. * Teachers in India are of ten reluctant to admit their mistake or their ignorance if a child asks a question to which they do not know the answer. The strength of character is re flected in being able to stand up and say to the class, "I don't know, or I made a mis take, but let us together find out the answer", or "I'll find out and tell you tomorrow".

Since we all learn from our mistakes, such an attitude by teachers would help create a better learning environment for the children. (Note: it is not humanly possible to know air the answers!) * Have realistic expecta tions from children. Apply the principles of modern child psychology that must have been (or should be) taught to teachers in their B.Ed, course. There is an absurd expecta tion from children, for inst ance, three-year-olds are ex pected to enjoy handwriting, when it is a well-known fact that their fine motor skills, re quired for writing, are not fully developed at that stage! At that age children learn better through play, creative activity, songs and dramatics. I hardly see puzzles being used by schools in India for this age-group. * Insist on children doing their own work at home, with guidance only from parents or tutors, if required. Disqualify work that is obviously done by a grown-up person! While teachers may private ly recognize that some pare do the homework for tr. children (especially projec hardly any teacher avoids c playing the neatest and m adult-looking projects, as 1 "best". There are two issi here: # The child is being taught to be dishonest passing the parent's work as his OH

The child's opportunity to be creative in doing his pr ject or homework himself being lost may be it is collective result of schooling that product bureaucrats rather tha world-class scientists an thinkers! There has to be an emphasi on creativity and individual] ty, within the broade framework of the school, am its guiding principles. Are w really interested in developinj a generation of bureaucrats, a this stage of our history? * Many schools that have various co-curricular facilities seem to be unable to optimize the use of these so as to benefit the largest number of students. Games and teams are not al ways organized well, and attention is paid only to the out the answer", or 'Til find out and tell you tomorrow". Since we all learn from our mistakes, such an attitude by teachers would help create a better learning environment for the children. (Note: it is not humanly possible to know all the answers!) * Have realistic expecta tions from children.

Apply the principles of modern child psychology that must have been (or should be) taught to teachers in their B.Ed, course. There is an absurd expecta tion from children, for inst-I ance, three-year-olds are ex pected to enjoy handwriting, when it is a well-known fact that their fine motor skills, re-I quired for writing, are not fully developed at that stage! At that [age children learn better (through play, creative activity, I songs and dramatics. I hardly see puzzles being used by (schools in India for this age-group. * Insist on children doing Itheir own work at home, with guidance only from parents or [tutors, if required. Disqualify [work that is obviously done by [a grown-up person! While teachers may private ly recognize that some parents do the homework for their children (especially projects], hardly any teacher avoids dis playing the neatest and most adult-looking projects, as the best". There are two issues Here: # The child is being taught to be dishonest — passing on the parent's work as his own.

•The child's opportunity to be creative in doing his pro ject or homework himself is being lost — may be it is a collective result of such schooling that produces bureaucrats rather than world-class scientists and thinkers! There has to be an emphasis on creativity and individuali ty, within the broader framework of the school, and its guiding principles. Are we really interested in developing a generation of bureaucrats, at this stage of our history? * Many schools that have various co-curricular facilities seem to be unable to optimize the use of these so as to benefit the largest number of students. Games and teams are not al ways organized well, and attention is paid only to the competitive teams that bring a good name to the school. The issue is: team spirit, sports manship and the ability' to lose gracefully are learnt well on the sports field, if properly encouraged. Aren't these de sirable qualities for our chil dren to have, along with a de sire to compete?
• The CBSE syllabus is quite unwieldy and somewhat irrelevant in places, and prog ressive schools must take lead ership in moving the bureauc rats in the relevant depart ments to redesign the syllabus based on clear learning objec tives for the students. NCERT books are poorly edited, and written in the most unimagina tive fashion — there is a crying need for improvement. The standard of English could be higher. * The school must foster a cooperative and open rela tionship with parents, and av oid taking advantage of the pa rents' situation by offering a T.C., if parents make a reason able complaint or demand. In fact, parents would be very willing to help out in innumer able and valuable ways, if en- couaged and treated with genuine respect and profes sionalism * Recent reports in news papers suggest that many more children are facing psychological problems than ever before. Modern society, with all its pressures, weighs heavily on the child. Small liv ing "'spaces, busy parents and the absence of several siblings put pressure on the child.

The intensely competitive environ-ment and the relatively few opportunities for the next gen eration (mainly because of population growth) force the school and home to put undue pressure on the child. But, do we really want a generation of what the experts call, "normal deviates"? Should we not help the child to learn to establish a balance in life — a balance between studies, sports, hobbies, controlled TV-watch ing and just plain day-dream ing? How many of us can afford to be single-minded about anything in our adult lives? Such a balanced person would be able to fit into the challenges of modern life with more confidence and poise. - An Open Letter To Schools, Neeru M Biswas, /eldoc/n00_/27oct94std1.pdf ACKWARD" is a familiar term in the Indian social context. The Constitu-tion makes frequent references under various Articles to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, other Backward Classes, Socially and Educationally Backward Classes and the Weaker Sections of the Society. One might wish to avoid such unpleasant descriptions of people, but the sad fact remains that the people so described form not less than 75 per cent of the country's population! In educational circles, discussions are often held about the backward child, the under-achiever, the low achiever and the slow learner. Research has established the existence of a close relationship between the personal and social background of the learner and his educational attainments. Experience shows that the average Indian classroom is so full of under-achievers, low achievers and the slow learners.

A recent study undertaken showed that a large number of such learners came from socially and educationally backward classes, and that their poor attain-ment in English was closely related to their so-cio- familial background. More than 600 college-students and nearly 100 teachers from different parts of Kerala were involved in the study. Investigating the attainment of students, in the given test and employing a discovery pro-cedure, it was found that most of the candidates who performed badly belonged to the socially and educationally backward sections of the community. The data collected further showed that their performance had more of a social and psychological bias than a linguistic one. Such students, according to the familial data fur-nished during the survey, revealed the presence of the serious impediments relating to their home environment, parental care, emotional factors, influence of peer group, exposure to mass media, etc. which interfered with their stu-dies, especially in the learning of a second lan-guage like English. Their difficulties related to all language skills alike. It was felt that the teach- ing in schools and colleges was often directed towards the "average" or "above average" groups without paying much attention to the needs of the under-achiever and the slow lear-ner who formed the majority in most classes.

When texts were prescribed, the average student alone was kept in mind. As a result, others found them too difficult. Special coaching classes for SC/STs were not properly made use of by the intended categories as they thought such ar-rangements almost "segregated" them. Above all, these students were not properly motivated to learn a second language like English. At schools and colleges, they found English classes as a "ritual." What message does this general, total situa-tion convey to the educational planner, the teacher and the student? True, the attainment of the student in the class room has a significant bearing on his background and personal situa-tion. But to what extent can the teacher or the educational institution modify this factor? Very little indeed.

What can best be done is for the teacher to realise this and manipulate the var-iants under his control as best as he can. In matters relating to basic social and cultural changes, it is of course, true that quick results are hard to come by through the manipulation of educational processes only. Action on a long term basis has to be taken to improve the socio-economic status of the classes in question, to effect satisfactory changes in their attitudes to English and to create conditions for desirable personal and social adjustments in the lives of students. This is all the more important in the context of learning a second language. In view of the wider implications of large-scale social reform measures involving huge fi-nances, the legislative measures that may be needed and co-ordination of work to be effected between the Governmental and voluntary agen-cies, meaningful socio-economic reforms can be introduced only with the active involvement of the Central and State Governments in the pro-cess.

The implementation of the steps outlined in the National Policy on Education (1986) and NPE-Programme of Action 1986 and 1992 can go a long way towards improving the present situation. Steps are also needed to implement the recommendations of Backward Classes Com-missions as accepted by the Central and State Governments from time to time. Meanwhile, as a short term measure, teachers of English can be given orientation by experts at suitable centres in the teaching of their subject in the existing situation with a special focus on the problems of under-achievers and slow lear-ners among the socially and educationally back-ward classes in society. The practice of conducting special classes exclusively for the students of SC/ST and other backward classes outside normal working hours has not gained much acceptance either among the authorities or the students. Instead, a new experiment of dividing the class to carefully selected mixed ability groups of both backward and forward community students for co-operative study has been found more useful and practical. A non-formal approach of teaching and a set of teach-ing materials with novel and interesting ingre-dients of local colour has to be evolved in the case of slow-learners among socially and educa-tionally backward classes.

The present practice of imposing the same set of teaching materials for all irrespective of their background and standard, needs review in the interest of the backward children who predom-inate the average Indian class-room. Teaching methods should also shift their emphasis from teaching contents, and trying to teach everyth-ing possible within a limited time to teaching 'how to learn'. A good teacher is only a guide who makes himself progressively unnecessary to his students, and not one who is absolutely in-dispensable in all situations. In short, the teach-er's approach, methods and techniques in the class room and outside need a total change in the present situation. His teaching and dealings with the students have to come down from an official, technical level to an unofficial and per-sonal level. In the case of every teacher, a pro-gramme of teaching has thus to be evolved in accordance with the felt needs of the students' growth preparing him to watch the students with deep sympathy, understanding and pa-tience, ready to intervene and guide when ne-cessary, to stimulate the students with striking words, ideas, questions, stories, projects and programmes. Unless the teacher fully appre-ciates this basic point and willingly modifies his strategies and mechanisms accordingly, no amount of repetition of the present approaches and methods is going to produce the desired results in the teaching-learning situations.

U. Mohammed EDUCATlON New teaching strategies "B ED1 EDUCATION OF SC TEACHING METHODOLOGY THE HINDU (MADRAS) 3 JAN 1995 N20

- The Delhi State Textbook Initiative, Rajan, Bhog, Singh, Learning conference 2004, MHRD and Azim Premji foundation- Text book teaching methodology- R.N21.24

- Catalyzing change towards quality education through rapid, stepwise, short duration programs in ‘leraning to read’, Pratham, Learning conference 2004, MHRD and Azim Premji foundation- Teaching Methodology - R.N21.24

- Innovative Practices in Mathematics Education: An Overview, K Subramanian, Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education, Learning conference 2004, MHRD and Azim Premji foundation- Math education Teaching Methodology - R.N21.24

- Language Learning in Rishivalley Multigrade schools, Y Padmanabha Rao, Learning conference 2004, MHRD and Azim Premji foundation- Teaching Methodology Alternative Curriculum Schools, R.N21.24

- Module II Innovations in Education, Module IV, Teaching Methodologies, Vol II, Report of Training Course in Integrated Education Vol I, II, III, May 1999-October 2001, Sir Shapurji Billimoria Foundation R. N24 (put CED code)

- Teaching Of Science: Report & Recommendations Of The National Seminar On Science Teaching, Eklavya, Govt. Of India, 01/11/1985, R.N20a.4

- Looking back To the Future - A Triannual Report of the Eklavya Foundation for the years 1998-2001, Eklavya Foundation, 01/12/2001, R.N20.5

- Designing Learning Material, World Education Reports, 01/09/1979, R.N20a.2
- Handbook on Training Methods, 01/02/2001, R.N31.12

- School That I'd Like, The, Blishen, Edward (Ed), Penguin Books, 01/01/1969, B.N00.B14

- How Children Fail, Holt, John, Penguin Books, 01/01/1965, B.N00.H11
- Learning all the time, John Holt, Holt Associates, B.N20a.H60
- Teacher - The Testament of an Inspired Teacher, Ashton-Warner, Sylvia, 01/01/1963, B.N00.A5

- Process of Education, The, Bruner, Jerome S., Harvard University Press, 01/01/1960, B.N00.B2

- Secret of Childhood, The, Montessori, Maria, Orient Longman Ltd. 01/01/1995, B.N21.M2

Literacy in Development: People, Language and Power, Street, Brian (Ed), Education for Development, 01/01/1990, R.N30.2, 6. Tecahing Methodology- Ch3 Appropriate Methods and Materials in Literacy Teaching- LS Saraswathi, pg 60-71

- Divasvapna: An Educator's Reverie, Badheka, Gijubhai, National Book Trust, 01/01/1995, B.N00.B13

- Education for Creative Living - Ideas and Proposals of Tsunesaburo Makiguchi, Bethel, Dayle M, National Book Trust, 01/01/2005, B.N00.B17, Ch 4 Educational Methodology pg. 190
Ch 5 Teaching Materials pg. 219

- Maths: A way of life, Suvidya, 2003, R.N24.8
- Nali Kali: The Joy of Learning, Ms. Anita Kaul, Administrative Training Institute, Mysore, Learning conference 2004, MHRD and Azim Premji foundation- teaching methodology - R.N21.24
A Fate Worse Than Communalism, Jain, Shilpa, Shikshantar, 01/12/2001, R.N00.38 (link with NCF )
1. Teaching Methodology and Education Philosophy- 1-18 and 42-50

Audiotapes:
1. Indigenous Games, nature’s way to sensitize the senses, KB Jinan, International Democratic Education Conference, 4-13 December 2005, Bhubaneswar, Orissa, Tape 3 (4), N24