On the face of it, Section 12 of the landmark Right to Education Act of 2009 gives children of economically weak sections, EWS for short, a big leg-up. The section mandates that all private unaided schools reserve at least 25% of their entry-level classes for such children.
In reality, however, the section is turning out to be rather traumatising and humiliating for EWS children. It’s not surprising that private schools are unenthusiastic about the section. Most have thrown around words like ‘psychological trauma’, ‘infrastructure constraints’, ‘unconstitutionality of Section 12′ to justify their reluctance to adopt the section. One rather cruel school in Bangalore even went to the extent of cutting off tufts of the hair of EWS children to distinguish them from the other kids!
While it’s a fair ask to give EWS children education, you also need to look at the issue from such a child’s point of view. It’s easy for this child’s cry to be drowned amid the noise.
Let us assume all schools implement Section 12 of the Right to Education Act. When an EWS child enters a private school, he or she will be battling not just unfamiliar surroundings but also children who are very different from himself or herself on the socio-economic scale. Children can be cruel, even if unintentionally.
For the EWS child, the transition will be easier if he or she is given the same respect that the well-off kid is. At such impressionable ages, disrespect or condescension from peers and teachers can leave an EWS child with psychological scars for the rest of his or her life.
We all know that teachers play a key role in the development of a child. While the onus of integration of an EWS child is not solely on the teacher, he or she can help a lot through involvement and interaction.
Remember the Hollywood film ‘Freedom Writers’? Based on a true story, the Hilary Swank-starrer told the tale of a teacher who helped non-white students battle their travails in a school that voluntarily adopted an integration project. Swank played a newbie teacher Erin Gruwell, who taught a class of students that were from African-American, Hispanic, Korean and other such economically weak communities.
The children, who came from disturbed homes, were tagged ‘unteachable’, ‘below average’ and ‘delinquents’. Exposed to gangs, drugs, violence, death, and multiple forms of abuse very early in life, these children were wary of everyone, and were well aware of the fact that everybody from teachers to the school board shunned them. Gruwell believed that everybody deserves quality education irrespective of class or ethnicity, and struggled to give her ‘delinquent’ students just that.
Don’t our children deserve equality too? There may be lessons to learn from Gruwell’s experience and those of other many other teachers across the world who take their roles as educators seriously.
Some such teachers can be found in our government schools too. They teach despite infrastructural constraints such as open classrooms, ill-kept playgrounds, alphabet and counting charts that have seen better days, among many others. They educate and nurture their students, no matter what the odds.
Of course, the government school basket has some rotten apples as well. The kind that sleep during work hours and keep a teacher at the staff room door for warnings on unexpected visits by seniors.
Returning to Erin Gruwell, she did not see the situation she was in as ‘Me vs Them’. She tried to understand the problems of her students and to help them unlearn the bad and learn the good.
To eliminate their own racist beliefs, she told them about the Holocaust and how racial hatred could wreak havoc. She got them books on Holocaust – including ‘Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl’ – and introduced them to Holocaust survivors. These lessons took the learnings of her students beyond textbooks, out into the real world. She encouraged them to write in their diaries daily on any aspect of their lives. Through these diaries, the students found a way to battle their inner demons and express their negative feelings.
Some Erin Gruwells exist in India too, and they are the real educators.
I always seek innovation in pedagogy and ways of promoting inclusion in education. ‘Freedom Writers’ is a good example of how integration of children from different backgrounds is very much possible. The US may be struggling with its integration project but at least it has understood how this can promote the whole country’s development.
Every child, whatever his or her background, socio-economic status and skin colour, deserves a good education. Teachers with their power to influence young minds can help them deviate from boundaries of social class and help them in growing up with a wide exposure and view of the world. The first step towards ensuring social equality in society is demonstrating the same at integration in schools. Calling on all teachers for help!
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