Ensuring Better Outcomes from Government Schools

There were more than 500 comments on Times of India webpage that described Allahabad High Court's verdict that forces government officials to send their children to government schools. Almost all comments welcomed this landmark judgement. And why not, this seems to be a quick way of improving the quality of education in government schools. This is an easy solution and most likely to result in exactly opposite outcome.

The decision is primarily meant to ensure that children, who are not able to afford private education and are studying in government schools, should get better education. I admire the intention, but I seriously question the verdict for its impact.

Let me back my opinion by some facts and clarifications. First, there is an inherent assumption that all the government schools are bad. We know that this is not true. Navodaya Schools, Sainik Schools and several other government run schools are imparting high quality education and these schools are primarily catering to poor, common middle-class households. The moment this verdict will be enforced, there would be a rush among the government officials to get their kids admitted in these schools. There will be less number of  seats available for the rural, middle-class students, as government officials will migrate their kids from the private schools to these better run government schools. So the expectation that the government officials kids studying in government schools will improve the quality of education is not going to be met. The government officials are not going to send their kids to the remote, rural schools which require the attention and quality enhancement measures.

Furthermore, it is a common fact that the most of the government officials are concentrated in district headquarters or urban/peri-urban areas. So this is not going to have much impact on the rural schools anyway.

I feel that instead of this poorly thought decision, High Court could have insisted on creating a mechanism that gives incentives (positive or negative) the teachers and education department officials on the basis of learning outcomes. A third party randomized assessment of learning outcomes of kids and teaching efforts put by the teachers can be the basis.

The Pain of Poverty

When my car stops at a railway signal, I often try to avoid making eye contacts to beggars who are knocking at my car window in expectation of a few rupees. Whenever I look into their eyes, I invariably reach out to my wallet and find out a 5,10 or 50 rupee note and give that to them. 

I know many of these beggars are not needy. They do it everyday and they may be part of an organised cartel but I don’t think too much about this. There might be one or two among them who have no other options but to beg. I don’t think anyone will willingly choose begging as profession. They might get sucked into begging and then find no way out. Most of the people who are begging are kids, women or old homeless people. 

Sometime I know very well that the money I give might be spend on buying a smoke, liquor or some sweets. But even we spend money on that. Our justification is that we earn that money. But we indulge in these things to get some happiness or satisfy our addiction. My contribution or not, these people will find a way to satisfy the addiction. Sometime, in absence of lack of money,  they will do something that might permanently (selling their body for money, doing illegal things for others etc..) harm them or others. 

I have often given people a 500 rupee note and walked away. Just to give them that unexpected happiness. I am not bothered what they spend the money on. But the look on their face is worth it. 

I wish we had a systematic and functioning beggar rehabilitation plan. Beggars do not have any place to get them treated for even the common of diseases. These disease prove fatal for them. They do not have schools where their kids can be accepted and given quality education. In fact, most to the kids are physically and mentally handicapped due to lack of nutrition and care in their early stages. Studies suggest that nutritious food and care in pregnancy decides the future development of the kid. If they do not get the required nutrition their brain is underdeveloped. 

If we want to get the beggars away from the streets we need to invest in resources and facilities that economically less fortunate people can avail. I know of many cases when many of my friends tried to get the beggar kids admitted into the schools but kids relapsed into begging. First, their parents were dependent on the money the kids were bringing once the kids started to go to school they started starve. Second, the school kids looked down upon them. Parents and kids both were not keen to continue. 

We cannot just do one thing and hope that everything will change. We have gradually eradicate this evil. Unfortunately, in the giddying growth of our urban centres and development focusing on the needs of the middle class, the pain of poor people is not felt by many who are in charge of making potent decisions.  

Free Writing: My Saviour

Photo Credit : https://www.flickr.com/photos/crdot/

For many years (I started blogging as early as 2004!) I have been trying to develop a habit of daily writing. When I started  blogging the goal was just to express myself,  but later on the goal transformed into something else. I started dreaming about writing that one novel, that one story, that many people dream of writing. Of-course, being the most severe critic of my own writing, I want to make sure that my writing does not suck. Professionally, I have been a stickler to rules when it came to producing any professional written documents. But professional writing or rather I should say business writing is all about providing some information to the reader, however, writing fiction is more about evoking emotions in the readers. In fact, those whose jobs require them to write business documents regularly, often develop a writing style that is too cold and mechanised. 

So, developing the habit of daily writing was my antidote to safeguard my writing style from being ‘cold and mechanised’. Unfortunately, developing this habit proved to be a rather tough task. First, I was not sure what I should be writing daily. Second, following a daily routine has never been my forte. 

I searched, inquired and read about other people’s experiences and it came out that daily journal writing is the way to go. So, I started a daily journal. Since, I spend most of my time in front of my computer, and physical journals are risk to one’s privacy, I decided that I would write on my laptop. My journal writing strategy was simple: I was writing about how my day went. In next few days, I realised that I am getting repetitive, as most of the day my routine was very similar. 

After trying out several other strategies such as using prompts, writing about past memories, to make myself write I found that most of these strategies did not work for me. Finally, I thought of trying out Free Writing. I was sceptical of this initially. But I found out that this really works. I never thought that this simple technique can be so effective. 

I started just writing whatever came to my mind and in some time I realised that I am able to incorporate more variation and scope in my writing. 

Free-writing was also instrumental in making me write daily. Earlier, the problem was that every time, I sat for writing, more than half an hour was spent on deciding what to write. And, that never helped me in getting consistent. Many times, I just wrote a line and then walked away. With free-writing I was able to get my thoughts flowing. 

It has worked for me, and I believe it can work for many. 

(I am going to write about my experiments with writing in my future posts. I would love to know more about your experiences on the same.)

Changing Lives

I tried my best to balance myself on the bricks that were strategically placed in the annoying puddle of sewage that was coming out from the nearby households. The bricks were there to help us cross the puddle without getting our feet dirty.  Every morning I had to cross the puddle, whose size grew randomly, in order to go to my school. There were not many student keen on doing this, they had several excuses to not go to the school. And, not many people were bothered. School for many parents was the place to park their kids when the kids were being a nuisance at home and/or they were not old enough to contribute in the agriculture or household work. My family and I both were exceptional. My family sent me school for studying and I never tried to find excuses, like many other kids, to not go to school.
Our village was fortunate  to have a primary school as there were no schools in the surrounding five-six villages. Students from those villages walked, with a home-made bag and a old grain/fertiliser sack, 4-5 kms every day to attend our village school. The sack was filling in for lack of desk and bench.
Our school three teachers, two rooms and zero toilets. But we never needed a ‘toilet’, there were many options. But anyway, for us learning was always dependent on teachers and not on the infrastructure.
Our teachers used the school time to pursue their many hobbies (such as reading Gulshan Nanda and Kushwaha Kant novels) and occupations (scouting for good buffalos for their business) but still they found sometime to teach us. All the five classes were held together, as there was only one room that was functional. It was not a big issue as there were no syllabus or routine to be followed.
Surprisingly, amidst all of this we learnt a few things. Of course, not all the students benefitted equally. But some really did well. I am one of those. I look back and find that most of my classmates never studied beyond class ten. A lack of resources, family pressure and lack of understanding of impact of education frittered away all the possibilities of developing the future potential.
Today, in hindsight I understand that a better education system, better teachers and a better pedagogy would be have done wonders to many human lives. And, there can never be a more noble profession than being a teacher. I would surely like to be a teacher. 

Let's buy air-purifiers!

Air Pollution in Delhi - (image from Huffington Post)

“People with young children are reluctant to move to Delhi.”  - my European colleague confessed.
“Delhi is now one of the most polluted cities in the world and everybody is concerned about the impact of pollution on health.”

I nodded in agreement. The word is out. Almost all expats working in Delhi, especially those with foreign missions and embassies are asking for their office and residences to be fitted with air purifiers. Many organisations and governments have already have agreed to their demands.

We have done the assessment of air quality in our offices and outside and it is confirmed that the air contains several times more than the permissible quantity of PM2.5 and other harmful gases. Air purifiers for our office are on their way.

In our growing years, we never realised the need of water purifiers. We grew up in small towns never bothered about the quality of the water that we drank. The water tasted great, and, even if, we fell ill sometimes, the doctor did not force us to install a water purifier. Our water was clean and potable. Today, water purifiers are in every household that can afford them. The air-purifiers may be soon be ubiquitous in Delhi households.

Rich people have several options to deal with the hazard that they have created. But those with poor income have no option other than to suffer from havoc caused by luxuries and greed of rich people.

Protecting common people’s interest is government’s responsibility. However, day by day deteriorating quality of air and water is not yet seen as a challenge that need comprehensive intervention by our government. 

Sad, Unfortunate and Foolish

Gajendra Singh committed suicide in AAP rally today. The news hit reflect the sorry state of affairs in our today's politics. Is it politics at its new low? Was this a political drama gone wrong? Or was this a genuine hopelessness and frustration of a farmer forcing him to end his life?
I hope that we come to know the truth soon. This is was a sad, horrible unfortunate and foolish act. Suicide is not an option. I am also surprised at the insensitivity of the people in that rally. How can a farmer attempts  suicide in a rally in a full public view and nobody stopped him.
If this was a staged drama gone wrong then Kejriwal or whoever is responsible should be given harshest punishment for this. This is politics at its nadir. 

Craving for Clean Air in Delhi

Most men racing towards 40s spend a lot of time thinking about the increasing waist size and receding hairlines. One cannot do much (yes, wigs and hair transplants are always considered) about the receding hairline but there are a few things that they can do about the increasing waist size. jogging and running are supposed to the most popular and easy options. 

Every day, at the time of getting dressed for office, my waist reminds me of the promises that I have made to myself. The promise to run or jog to burn the fat that make me look like a python that swallowed a goat. I want to be honest to myself but there are several challenges. 

In Delhi, there are not many places where you can run or jog without consistent threats of a rich kid with big car and tiny civic sense running over you. The public parks and running tracks are luxury for most common men. Luckily, I live close to (close enough to reach there with a 10 minutes walk) a public park. But, for that one needs to get up by 6 pm. There is no shame in accepting that I am not one of those morning persons. Getting up at 6 pm does not come naturally to me. It is a rather forced and unpleasant thing. Post 6 pm, I do not want to take that 10 minute walk to the park; the smoke and the traffic threaten me to a level that I would prefer dying as fatso than walking. 

So far, I have not been able to jog or run for more than once or twice in a month. Recently, I did all the hacking of mind and motivational nudges to make myself up for the challenge of morning jog. I have started jogging.. well.. I have done it for a couple of times to be exact. But I might be switching to running on a treadmill in gym. Delhi air quality is getting worse and worse every day. I was under the impression that I am running in clean air but that was just an illusion in absence of information. 

I hate running indoors. Nothing can compare running with trees by your side and morning wind hitting your face. Sadly, it seems that if I want to run in not so polluted environment I have to switch to gyms fitted with air purification systems and use a treadmill. 

We need to be more conscious of our lifestyle and economic growth. We are paying a horribly high price for our luxuries, egos and greed.