Maharashtra: Stress transference

Mumbai is still reeling from the shocking exam-stress related suicides of class V and VIII students Jitesh Chavan (12) and Divya Solanki (14) on May 1. The former had scored well in his exam, but was unhappy with his performance. The latter had failed to clear the class VIII annual examination and was detained. Ironically, these two children took their lives a day after state education minister Balasaheb Thorat declared that as per the provisions of the Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2009, no child between the ages six-14 will be detained in the same class or expelled from school for academic reasons.Speaking on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Maharashtra Day (May 1), when the erstwhile Bombay state was bifurcated into Maharashtra (current pop. 99 million) and Gujarat (55 million) with Bombay aka Mumbai, as the administrative capital of Maharashtra, Thorat exhorted the school education department to ensure that all children in primary schools are automatically promoted all the way up to class VIII. We will identify weak students and impart special training to teachers to mentor such students. Meanwhile, all students will have to write the unit test, quarterly and half-yearly examinations. We dont want students to be promoted automatically. Every student will be prepared for promotion, he said. Although some educationists and educators entertain doubts about the impact of s.16, which prohibits detention of children in classes I-VIII for academic under-performance, most educators in Mumbai are in favour of this provision which they believe will reduce childrens anxiety and academic stress in primary and upper primary education. Indeed, most private schools have been practising no-child-left-behind actively in recent years, because they have installed remedial education systems to tutor weak students. Promoting a child without training and bringing him to average level will harm a childs self esteem. So the state governments thrust on remedial action before promotion is an excellent initiative. We already have a continuous comprehensive evaluation system in place, in which weak students are identified, given project assignments, frequent testing and smaller portions of the syllabus, says Avnita Bir, principal of the Ram Niranjan Poddar School, Mumbai (estb.1998) which has 2,500 students instructed by 80 teachers on its muster roll. While welcoming the state governments sensitivity towards weak students, Sr. Beena C.J, principal of St. Josephs High, Juhu, warns that the impact of s.16 of the RTE Act is the transference of stress from students to teachers. Teachers will have to customise their pedagogies to focus on weak students. Ensuring timely completion of work, monitoring their progress, and building confidence in them is not easy for teachers, especially with a rise in student-teacher ratios and a dearth of good quality teachers, says Sr. Beena. With the RTE Act scheduled to become operational countrywide in the forthcoming academic year beginning June/July, schools as well as teachers are likely to experience implementation turbulence. The early determination exhibited by the Maharashtra govern-ment to enforce the Acts no-child-left-behind provisions will certainly impose some strain on the…