22 Extraordinary Education Innovators In scattered urban and rural habitats across the country, committed educationists in private education and voluntary organisations are ideating pedagogy and process innovations which could revive India’s moribund education system, and enable the nation to reap its much-trumpeted demographic dividend: Summiya Yasmeen The reality that contemporary India’s early childhood, primary, secondary and higher education institutions are completely unprepared to meet the rigours and challenges of the 21st century seems to be apparent to all right-thinking citizens, except politicians in Parliament and the state legislative assemblies. The authoritative Annual Status of Education Report 2014 published in January, indicates that over 50 percent of class V children in government rural primaries can’t read class II texts or do simple subtraction and division sums. Three years ago, 15-year-olds from India finished an embarrassing second last among student contingents who wrote PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) after which India withdrew from PISA. A Young Citizen National Survey 2015 reveals shocking ignorance and regressive mind-sets of class IX students and first year undergraduates countrywide. A 2013 report of the Delhi-based NGO Aspiring Minds says that only 47 percent of Indian graduates are employable in professionally-managed corporates. Yet despite the lamentable condition of Indian education, in the Union Budget 2015-16 the Central government has reduced its outlay for education, in the fanciful hope that state governments will fill the breach (see special report p.74). But wait, all is not lost. In scattered urban and rural habitats across the country, committed educationists in private education and the voluntary (NGO) sectors are ideating novel pedagogy and process innovations which if replicated en masse, could revive India’s moribund education system and enable it to reap its much-trumpeted demographic dividend. “India has a long tradition of education innovation. In the 1920s, Gijubhai Badheka did pioneering but forgotten work in early childhood education. Likewise, Mahatma Gandhi suggested a buniyadi talim (basic education) syllabus/curriculum, and seer-visionaries Sri Aurobindo and J. Krishnamurti devised holistic, nature-friendly school education systems which are being practised to this day. This spirit of innovation in education has persisted though the Indian eco-system doesn’t encourage it. More recently, innovations such as the activity-based learning lamentamodel in Tamil Nadu have been institutionalised at the policy level and scaled up. If the decline in Indian education — especially public education — is to be stemmed, it’s important for government and society to encourage, recognise and reward education innovators,” says Dr. Vijaya Sherry Chand, professor of the Ravi J. Matthai Centre for Educational Innovation (RJMCEI) at IIM-Ahmedabad. Established in the heart of India’s premier B-school in 1992 to suggest ways and means to encourage institution building in higher education, during the past decade RJMCEI has expanded the ambit of its purview to include primary and secondary education. In pursuit of this objective, two years ago in partnership with the state governments of Maharashtra and Gujarat, RJMCEI promoted a Educational Innovations Bank (EIB) to classify and document innovations designed and implemented by elementary school teachers working in government…
22 Extraordinary Education Innovators
EducationWorld April 15 | Cover Story EducationWorld