Bangalore needs more new schools
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Written By kbsyed61 - 21 May, 2008
Bangalore
Bangalore
education
Schools
Everything else
Friends,
In the midst of high profile issues and subjects, it seems we as Bangaloreans and Indians in general have neglected the Primary and secondary level education. When I say education, it has to be affordable to 80-90% of the population. Not just 10%-20%.
This is not a point fingering at anybody but to oureslves starting with myself first. In the hustling and bustling of highh growth jargons like IT, BT, KT, METRO, Infrastructure etc., the primary education has got neglected. If we look around us we don't see many schools (ordinary) any more. Given the growth, number of schools should have increased. But looks like we have -ve growth.
From Praja platform I would like to initiate a discussion on augumenting the current state of primary education in Bangalore to start with.
Let the discussion be in terms of population, no of primary schools, no. of High schools, their distribution, availability of space, infrastructure, teachers, staff, management etc. The discussion should lead us to take up the small steps that could mitigate the sitution to certain extent on the ground.
Syed
The Parikrma schools, whose focus is on children from the slums, obviously cannot accept each and every kid who wants to join. So, they use this filter to select a child whose elders "take active interest in their children."
Does any body has any information on statisctics on Schools in Bangalore?
One of the reasons why new schools cannot be practically established in Bengaluru is the by-laws of BBMP which stipulate a lot of infrastructure for new schools. Every one knows how costly land in Bengaluru is.
And then there are restrictions as to how much you can build in a school (FSI / FAR) which affect the overall economics of building a school. Not everyone is into education for charity only. There has got to be some incentive for acting out of enlightened self-interest.
Getting permits of various sorts for establishing a school itself is a achievement.
cadambi,
what are the exact limitations in physically realizing a school?
cz. ayyo hangalla. since i started the discussion, i was cribbing about my failure to take the discussion where i wanted it to go. the issue i realize was that insead of starting from basics and the problem i jumped directly into the solution.
as far as i know, no self respecting country has outsourced basic education to private players. in the US there is now something called as a 'no child left behind' policy. which basically gives gives the parents freedom in choosing school districts and some financial incentives to private players to produce educational materials and parents to buy them. but that is about it.
in the US kids can _mostly_ only go to schools within the school district in which their house is in. This means that schools have some level of centrality in civic life. so areas in which better schools exist have higher real estate value!! now this on an average means that the best performing schools are in nice little predominently middle class white neighbourhoods. but that is a different issue.
i have visited some rural/inner city schools in the US, which are generally considered inferior. but, IMO they are pretty good. in the US, when they talk about badly performing schools, IMHO, it is not about facilities or teacher qualification or absenteeism. In the US the fundamental problems are attitudinal. The basic issue is, in social terms, the teacher does not hold the same position within the class and the kids donot have the same attitude askids in india.
yet we must be careful not to read too much into attitudes. this, for example, is a 'report' by what would be an equivalent of a Ist PUC kid.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1STFM39vJ4
that this report has conceptual flaws is secondary. but the basics are right there. i were to grade this report i would give 10/10.
a kid working with his mother tongue, in an accent and language natural to him and _meditating_ on a global idea.
the kid produced a complete and original critique that he thunk for himself. whether he is right or wrong is secondary. fundamental take home message is that the kid thought for himself and there was somebody in the school and the system who gave him the freedom to think for himself.
and yet this all not uniquely american. growing up we had three teachers for the entire period of high school, who encouraged all sorts of 'nonlinear' behaviour amongst the students. as far as i can count atleast 5 kids in my class out of 60, took these fundamental lessons seriously and turned out to be 'misfits'. these kids went to other schools and almost never fit in. and yet today, i keep talking to them and hence know what they are upto, they are doing some highly nonlinear and radical stuff in their lives. 1/12 is an awesome rate even by american standards, and it is phenomenal for kids in a traditional conservative south indian city that we grew up in.
IMO, primary education has nothing to do with computers and calculators. that is all nonsense and basically triumphalism of technology which diverts attention from the real issues. the fundamentals of education are very simple. they need no new technological and organizational wizardry. the fundas are not 2 and 2 is 4 but WHY 2 and 2 is 4.
there are some other fundamental disconnects in education. some of which shastri has mentioned.
and the fundamental questions are: irrespective of the gold medals in math & science olympiads, and cracking of the JEE, does our schooling even pretend to seed a healthy skepticism and rationality in the young minds? does it even pretend to provide the type of nurture that shastri is talking about?
the next question is, how do you instill all this when you have the made the person, the language and attitudes all problematic? what we are teaching is, unless you negate yourself completely and mimic some foriegn clone, including wearing a tie in the hot indian climate, you are worthless. this is the attitude that we are basing our education on and we expect great and unique contributions from kids?
i will give you an example. the only thing that differentiates man from the rest of the animals is his facility with language. and yet, in this brave new world of ours, a saleswoman in a prominent store in blr would rather say things like 'ladies can also be used' instead of an articulate and intelligent sales pitch in kannada.
i asked, hengasroo upyogsa bhudanedamma? and she would rather reply 'yes sir, ladies can also be used'.
this is the level of absurdity that our schools have seeded in.
what i want is, karnataka state schooling to be so good that ICSE, CBSE etc not to mention english medium state syllabus, to be inconsequential. karnaata families should not even get doubt about the quality of education.
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