Jobs in Education System
Side ad-01

Clarion call for educators

EducationWorld January 2023 | Books
SMALLER CITIZENS: WRITINGS ON THE MAKING OF INDIAN CITIZENS Krishna Kumar ORIENT BLACKSWAN Rs.395 Pages 149 The author’s insights help to locate the child within socio-political complexities while understanding education in India and its intersection with citizenship KRISHNA Kumar’s deep and critical engagement with education and its impact on the child is clearly re­flected in this slim volume of 18 collected essays, Smaller Citizens: Writings on the Making of Indian Citizens. Collating these essays in a single volume signifies the common theme that binds them together. The author — a highly respected former profes­sor of education at Delhi University — explores with a critical lens, themes of education and citizenship, marginalised childhoods and schooling. He exam­ines policy documents that focus on flexibility and contextualisation of curricula, standards, as­sessment as well as the manner in which discrimi­natory practices define Indian education, and how educationists and practitioners merely pay lip service to far-sighted policy documents. With a fine pencil, Kumar highlights systemic bias that makes institu­tions resistant to change. The insights developed help the reader in locating the child within socio-po­litical complexities while understanding education in India and its intersec­tion with citizenship. The year of publication of the book (2021) is sig­nificant from two perspec­tives. First, this is a period post the two tumultuous waves of the pandemic that has made pursuing life and education difficult for young citizens of India. Existing disparities have deepened as a large sec­tion of children have been pushed out of formal edu­cation. Many of them have been forced into labour and/or child marriage while others have become rudderless after the loss of family and livelihood. The pandemic has again highlighted the disparities that have always existed in Indian society. The essays throw light on the limita­tions and biases that are a hallmark of our society. Second, this is also the period when the process of translating the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 into reality has been initiated. This is a policy document that visualises massive reform of Indian education, bringing pre-primary to higher educa­tion within its ambit. In this context, the insights built through a perusal of the essays equip the read­er with the critical ability to review NEP 2020 from diverse perspectives. The prologue sets the tone of the book as the writer explores major paradoxes that lie at the heart of modern educa­tion — on the one hand, encouraging the young to think freely and apply their critical faculties to contemporary problems while on the other, educa­tional practices train them to become loyal citizens, obeying authorities repre­sentative of the state. The Right of Children to Free and Compul­sory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 and its narrow interpretation, is the focal point of some of the essays included in this compen­dium. The Act’s potential to reform elementary education making it more equitable through access, has been implemented. Yet another dimension to the legislation is accep­tance of the child’s agency and the need for teachers to appreciate and translate it in actuality remains an unfulfilled goal. The
Already a subscriber
Click here to log in and continue reading by entering your registered email address or subscribe now
Join with us in our mission to build the pressure of public opinion to make education the #1 item on the national agenda
Current Issue
EducationWorld September 2024
ParentsWorld July 2024

Access USA Alliance
Access USA
Xperimentor
WordPress Lightbox Plugin