Author Archives: vidyut

Reactions by homeschoolers to article by Jandhyala Tilak opposing homeschooling

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“Right to homeschooling versus right to education” is an old article by Jandhyala Tilak, but worth responding to, because it reflects a lot of the prejudice against homeschooling that influences our government. It isn’t long after this article by Jandhyala Tilak was published in the Economic and Political Weekly that the government backtracked on their affidavit stating

“parents who voluntarily opt for systems of homeschooling and such alternative forms of schooling may continue to do so. The RTE Act does not come in the way of such alternative schooling methodologies or declare such form of education as illegal”

and

“the Act is with regard to the rights of children and does not compel children to go to a neighbourhood school…The compulsion therefore is not on the child but on
that Government”

In the absence of proper recognition of homeschooling, this was at least some reassurance (not unlike what is currently being assured to the LGBT community) that they would not be persecuted. I fail to see what is achieved by denying this to homeschoolers.

This article contains a strong bias against homeschooling, which I have come to see as education fascism, which essentially denies the rights of parents and children in favor of regimentation of children under specific influences that are crafted and controlled by a few. While a complete rebuttal of this article by Jandhyala Tilak will follow, this is a reaction by a homeschooling parent when the article was shared in our community.

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I came across that EPW article by Jandhyala Tilak as well.  I suspect on the whole that this a case of the left hand not quite being aware of what the right hand is doing.  An anti-homeschooling stand is also partly an anti-NIOS/anti-openschooling stand (though open schooling accompanied by certification and homeschooling are NOT the same thing). I think this can be a useful tool for us though. The NIOS is as official as you can get. Their   website clearly states that to apply for the 10th board exam, you need to submit EITHER a birth certificate OR a transfer certificate from the school you have studied in.  So far as you have attained the age of 14 and you have a birth certificate, you can take the exam. I spoke to the Chennai regional director of the NIOS recently and he told me that they never ask about the route taken by the candidate prior to approaching them.  He was very clear that it does not matter to them whether  you have taken the homeschooling route or the formal schooling one. But NIOS has discontinued their OBE exam (primary/middle school certification) for private candidates and I think this is thanks to the RTE regulation. Right now, you can only take their secondary (10th)  and senior secondary exams (12th).  It is homeschooled children between the ages of 8 and 14 who are stuck in this grey area.  Interestingly, NIOS has also launched a virtual open school for vocational training and so on. So we seem to be moving out of the brick and mortar school room building on the one hand and on the other, we are insisting on a formal school room setting.  There is an inherent idealism and open-mindedness to the NIOS which is admirable – even though it may have its own share of bureaucracy and issues.  

My feeling is that this being in the grey area will continue for some time to come. So far, homeschooling has been left alone but I think we are moving towards greater regimentation in all areas of our lives.  If it comes to it, we must use the argument that if we can have MOOCS and correspondence courses for university students (this implies that students are “studying” at home), there is no reason why students can’t study at home and eventually take the NIOS/IGCSE/some other exam whenever they are ready for it.  This is of course assuming that all homeschooled children and their parents want to take the formal certification route (and I know that this may not always be the case).  I feel we should really put our weight behind the NIOS which too, after all, is a government agency and is as valid a board as the CBSE and the ICSE.

The other issue is with children who have special needs.  The NIOS is a life-saver for all “special” and “non-formal” schools, not to mention homeschoolers. It may be useful for homeschoolers to have conversations  with other non-formal centres of education such as those for children with special needs and with alternate schools.  They share some of the same problems as us.

The Universal declaration of human rights clearly states that parents have the right to determine what their children should learn.  And what about the rights of children who find school difficult or unpleasant and who don’t wish to go for very good reasons (not because they are lazy or do not wish to learn or work or whatever)?  These, perhaps, are the best arguments to use but I am not sure they it will get through.

 

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Another homeschooling parent had this to add:

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Vidyut, I feel Any right given to citizens needs to be decided by the citizen, how he or she wants to use it or not. If I have a fundamental right to education, then I also have the fundamental right to choose the way I wish to educate myself and my children. Talking down to citizens as to ‘how children should be educated’ is fundamentally flawed as a citizen here is counted only as above 14 years it seems. below that it seems the RTE does not consider children to have any intelligence or feelings or choices of their own. So is RTE contesting the fact that children are not citizen with cognitive wisdom? If we were to argue that children have a right to go to school, then that itself is flawed, as who decides that the child should go to school. The child or the parent. It is based on the premise that children have no intelligence or wisdom to choose what is good or bad for them…Are we allowing our children to decide for themselves what they want, are we willing to wait till a certain time so that children can be given the choice of school or no school, and see what they choose?
I have the fundamental right to follow and practice any religion, but whether I choose to follow any or none is my freedom of choice..No one can force me. Which is the fundamental basis of the Constitution of India? Freedom of Choice.
I do not think RTE is about forcing anyone to go to school. It is really about ensuring that anyone who wishes to get a school education is not denied..That I feel is the spirit, as far as I have read the Act and interpreted it.
But NIOS has to stay, learning center of all kinds need to stay, schools cannot be defined by the act to fit into ONE MONO CATEGORY…Diversity has to be included, of need, demand, choices of all individuals by honoring each and every human being..One cannot be a teacher only on the basis of B. Ed..or M. Ed…It is for the student/disciple to choose and decide who he or she wants for a teacher…
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painting of Indians at a stretched buckskin with a story in images

Indian Homeschoolers Conference announced for February 2014

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Swashikshan, the Indian Association of Homeschoolers has announced a five day homeschooling conference from the 21st of February 2014 to the 25th at Khandala. The Indian Homeschoolers Conference 2014 is a great opportunity for Indian homeschooling families to connect and network.

Fee: INR. 2500 for five days (or one day or whatever – regardless of how long you are present)

It is also a good opportunity for new homeschoolers and those planning to homeschool children in India to interact with the community and observe how homeschooling works for different people as well as get their questions answered by more experienced homeschoolers.

There are also discussions planned for formulating a plan of action with regard to the RTE and getting recognition for homeschooling children, which is important for children who may wish to pursue scholarships, competitions, competitive examinations and more. It is also important in terms of a safeguard from any potential action that the government may take against parents who don’t send their children to school.

The structure of the event is expected to be free flowing and spontaneous, though there are these few things on the agenda which will be addressed at some point. This is an event not to be missed for free learning families.

An additional bonus is the enriching experience of an inclusive gathering for mavericks who make choices off the beaten track for their values – perhaps the common thread running through parents who choose to protect their children from school at great personal cost and effort.

Read the Indian Homeschoolers Conference 2014 announcement and payment information at the Swashikshan website.

Register here.

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Will Somnath Bharti and AAP bring new hope to Delhi’s homeschoolers?

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The Indian Homeschooling community seems to be pinning their hopes on the Aam Aadmi Party, that they may lend their voice to the aid of aam aadmi parents and children who are scattered across the country with no large numbers enough to be a vote bank, nor the ability (or inclination) to gather in large mobs for their rights.

The one thing homeschoolers have in common with the LGBT community in India is the illegitimacy of a very personal, enriching lifestyle. A lifestyle that harms none. A lifestyle that cherishes those living it.

In the farcical Right To Education Act, with its sanctimonious imposition of school on all children, the Nation has done homeschoolers a grave injustice. Parents who have made conscious choices and sacrifices to throw open the horizon for their children instead of an education system that barely scratches the potential of learning are now on the wrong side of law.

The “Free and Compulsory” education paradox may seem like a minor thing to parents who send their children to school, but for homeschooling parents, it has resulted in deep soul searching and a determined decision that they will court being on the wrong side of the law in order to nurture their child’s learning. In a democracy, this ought not to be happening. Yet, it is.

The “Free” is a lie, because children who really are FREE to choose their learnings are not recognized as learning unless they land up at the same place, sitting in one place, enclosed by walls and obeying rules written by someone else daily in some of the most vibrant years of their life. There isn’t one community on the face of the earth that could be forced in such a manner without activist outrage, and yet our children, those we claim are fragile and must be nurtured must suffer this for years on end, or they are in violation of the nation’s law. Surely this travesty of personal liberty cannot be allowed just because the subjects are too young to vote or raise serious objection?

The realization that Somnath Bharti has helped homeschoolers find voice through the case of Sandeep Srivastava in the Delhi High Court and he is now on Delhi’s cabinet has led many homeschoolers to hope that if the capital can pave the way for recognition of homeschooling and appropriate provisions in the Right To Education Act, it may result in homeschooling eventually being recognized nationwide.

Somnath Bharti as a lawyer presented the interests of homeschoolers where they mattered. Will Somnath Bharti MLA convince the Aam Aadmi Party to take this revolutionary step?

Will it happen? We don’t know. We don’t have the numbers to be an electoral threat.

But surely some things must be done because they are right and because we have a duty toward nurturing the best possible choices for our young ones?

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Shock at NIOS Exam

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Mathew Peedikayil, a member in our homeschooling email list reported an alarming experience her son had during his Maths exam with the National Institute of Open Schooling. Here is a copy of the email:

Hi Mathew and all Homeschool parents,

Thought Max and I (Gillian) would just update you on the Math exam that Jeremy (our son aged 15 yrs) sat for on October 29, 2013. Mathew, you are aware of a few details but thought I would record the entire happening for the information and awareness of all parents whose children may sit for the NIOS examinations, henceforth.

Our son Jeremy sat for his 10th Math paper on Oct 29 2013 after much preparation because the portion is quite vast and not very easy. The paper was from 2 to 5 pm. He began well and after completing about 60 % of his paper, he asked the Supervisor for an extra answer supplement. The first supplement had apparently 28 pages. The Supervisor, however, refused to give him an extra supplement to complete his paper. Shocked and taken aback Jeremy asked if he could use the extra paper he had in his bag. Obviously, the request was turned down. So Jeremy came away with an incomplete paper having finished only around 65% of his paper.

This was really upsetting for us since Math was to be his main subject when he enrolled in college. The next day, I tried to get through to some official in the NIOS Regional Office to no avail. While browsing through the net, I spotted a web page which said CONTROL ROOM. So I called again to no avail. It is generally difficult to get through to any NIOS office on telephone. However, this time about an hour later, we received a call from one of the numbers I tried calling and it happened to be a director of NIOS. He asked us to write a letter to the office stating whatever happened. Which we did.

A week or two later we received a reply from them stating that what the Supervisor did was in line with a clause in chapter 7 of the Guidelines for Centre Superintendents.

Being people who believe in Jesus and the power of prayer, we prayed and asked God to show us what step we should take for the good of our son and for as many children who will benefit from this experience, Max and I felt we should take this forward and challenge this clause as it is illogical and unfair to students. We were lead to take legal action through a group of young lawyers who willingly took up our case. We are hoping for either of these two outcomes: 1) The clause would be more apparent and observable on all literature being sent to students sitting for the NIOS exam in order to prepare them adequately to complete their paper in the supplement provided and 2) this clause could be scrapped all together.

Though this will not benefit Jeremy much, since there is an option of a re-exam, we are hoping and trusting that God will do what is best for all. A writ petition will be filed this week in the form of a PIL (Public Interest Litigation).

We seek your support for the same and trust that in Christ we have the victory! We would also like to know if any of your kids have had a similar experience with the NIOS examinations, since this will strengthen our case and would benefit all.

With kind regards,

Max and Gillian Fernand

Priya Desikan, one of the members of our homeschooling group connected with Mr. Anil Nair, Coordinator- NIOS, Trivandrum (voluntary post).

Dear All,

The shocking experience elaborated here needs a soothing answer. Eeventhough I am not a paid official of NIOS, I am coordinating some activities of NIOS at local level.

I share the agony of the parent as I myself a parent of an NIOSian. First of all this being a Open Learner, you must keep in regular touch with your co-ordinator (normally Head of the School). People often do Online Registration and just go for the examination.

Fixing the rules and Regulation is essential for World’s largest examination. It should be tamper proof and trustworthy.

Before playing any game, knowing the rules is the player’s duty and not only of Referee’s. The parent should have spent a little more time on this as 48 pages is fixed not for the particular student but for the learners world over for three hours.

I suggest him to appear for ODES (On Demand Examination) at your Regional Centre without wasting any time and personally contact Regional Director as Regional Directors are to extent local support to redress such grievances.( Remember, on ODES also you get same answer book)

Simultaneously legal action may be initiated but that wont give any relief to the learner.

I am very happy to reply to number of mails received on matters relate to NIOS.

Kindly address such queries on anil_vs_usa@yahoo.com.

Regards Er.Anil Nair, Ex I A F

Apart from the instructions that may be of use to Gillian’s son, this seems important to me:

Fixing the rules and Regulation is essential for World’s largest examination. It should be tamper proof and trustworthy.

How to achieve this has not been mentioned, but the agreement that there is a problem that needs to be fixed is important. In the meanwhile, the parents of the child are filing a Public Interest Litigation to demand better transparency in the process and are open to other parents adding their voice to the process. If you are interested, get in touch with me and I will connect you to them.

 

Update: Matthew reports that the Public Interest Litigation has already been filed, and the points to be urged are as follows:

I. Points to be urged:

a.)   That the rule of examination provided under Chapter No 7.7.1.5 of the Guideline for Centre Superintendents is arbitrary and prevents students in a Theory Examination from having sufficient writing space to produce their answers.

b.)   In any case the rule concerning additional answer sheets must be well publicized to the Students and Parents both orally and with a written intimation in a conspicuous place such as the Hall Ticket or on the first/original answer sheet.

c.)   That before the said rule in Chapter 7.7.1.5 of the Guidelines for Centre Superintendents is enforced, the very same rules mandate that the invigilator is to announce the said rule before the commencement of every examination paper. The invigilator failed to make any such announcement in the case of the examinations taken by the Petitioners son.

ALERT: Parents of children appearing in NIOS boards – No extra answer sheets!

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A rather horrifying experience has come to my notice. A child appearing for the Maths exam through the NIOS was doing fine, till about 60% of the questions completed, he asked the supervisor for an answersheet supplement as he had run out of pages on the provided answer booklet.

What follows is a horror and something parents MUST know and prepare their children for, till fixed.

The supervisor refused to provide him an answer sheet supplement stating that it is not allowed. Worried, the child asked for permission to continue answering on his own papers he had in his bag. Naturally, that was refused. He had to leave his paper incomplete in spite of being well in time, because he ran out of writing space.

His horrified parents approached authorities about this outrage, and were pointed out the guidelines. Page 23, clause no 7.1.5 states in bold:

There will be no continuation answer sheets. The candidates will have to complete their answer in the first Answer Book itself.

I have no idea what education system is up to these days, but when I was the age to give exams, there was a certain sadistic pleasure teachers took in getting us to write nice lengthy answers and use lots of supplements as some benchmark of brains, so this came as a total shock.

Regardless of the reasoning behind such an absurd clause, if it was to be enforced, then it should have been mentioned in a far more upfront manner – like in big letters on the answer book – “Use the space carefully, supplementary sheets will not be allowed” or something. Also subjects that may take up more space – involving equations, reactions, diagrams, drawings and such should have default booklets with abundant paper!

It is rather unbelievable that a student is able to write only 60% of the examination paper for lack of space.

Obviously this is a problem that needs to be fixed, but while it is still a problem, do spread the word among anyone appearing for NIOS exams among people you know, that the answer booklets are all the paper that will be allowed to answer on, and to use it carefully.

Note: I have no idea if this is the case with other boards, but it is worth confirming rather than a student getting a shock like this.

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What learning looks like

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When I lived in Borivali, my maid’s daughter once asked me if a magnifying glass could really burn paper. She knew the correct answer, but was having trouble believing it. I didn’t have a magnifying glass, so I showed her a video on youtube of how it happens. I told her it was true. That I had burned paper before.

She asked if paper would burn if she held a magnifying glass over it too. That vulnerable wondering if she was worthy of the miracle. If she was clever enough to make it happen.

I had a murderous moment over how teachers are able to reduce science to blind faith with making children memorize what they can easily find out. Learning is like a chain reaction. Thoughts spark new thoughts, data keeps coming in, connecting with other things, leading to new things to find out or know. The amount of learning experience can bring cannot be duplicated with mere information. And it was such a small thing!

It was absurd. A magnifying glass doesn’t care who holds it and holding it correctly is hardly rocket science.

We spent the entire afternoon watching all sorts of videos of magnifying glasses burning paper on youtube and other things till I felt her physically relax. Then she knew that paper burns when you focus light on it with a magnifying glass. Till then she only knew the correct answer.

We went one better. I got her a magnifying glass in a couple of days, and sent it home with the maid, who reported a few days later that she was burning everything she could lay hands on, including a broken mug (which didn’t burn, thankfully) and just like that, she had found out that some materials burn, and others don’t. I wasn’t even around.

Education makeover is complex says Azim Premji

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Speaking at the first convocation of Azim Premji University in Bangalore, Wipro chairman Azim Premji said governments and other stakeholders should invest more resources to improve education in the country.

“Given the diversity of our country , compounded by issues of socio-economic deprivation and ground realities , it is inevitably going to be a slow and arduous process ,” he said .

“They also need to reform governance of all related systems . Equally , I have no doubt that other stakeholders need to do more . This means that more people and more civil society organizations must engage in improving the government schooling system ,” he added .

In my view, it is more serious than that and people like Azim Premji have the influence and ability to push for far more. Education has become like an Olympic Sport. It is an exhibition of skill in performing in a very specific manner without any particular expectation of utility. Mere “improving education” is not going to work. What will be needed is a complete demolition and rebuilding of education based on actual needs people have.

It is no secret that even as job opportunities diminish, the problem of recruiting competent professionals remains. Any person who has interviewed job applicants will be able to attest to the fact that the number of unsuitable candidates makes selection remarkably like searching for a needle in a haystack. Even candidates overqualified on paper are rarely competent enough to handle jobs with any complexity.

Many jobs requiring no specific knowledge insist on graduation as a qualification. The basic reason being the hope that graduation would have provided more proficiency to basic language and logic skills. It is alarming that no one bothers to ask why spending 10 years in basic schooling does not enable students to be fluent in English or record their expenses competently, when uneducated vegetable vendors can manage their own accounts and kids pick up language easily.

Worse, because you have graduates competing on jobs which do not require any specialized knowledge, the people who have done basic schooling and can do those jobs are left at a disadvantage by their jobs going to someone capable of far more being under utilized and rendering them outclassed. At the end of the day, basic schooling that we are so adamant about as some kind of holy grail, does nothing to help people live more functional lives. It does not prepare people for jobs. It does not give them knowledge that they can use in the world. But we are putting a country of our size relentlessly through that machine to the point of insanity and even disallowing better alternatives.

There is fundamental uselessness in a system that doesn’t address the need for functionality.

I do not see how sticking with this method of boards and boring syllabuses taught by incompetent teachers to disinterested students will be useful even if you tweak it prettier.

A more useful goal would be to aim for abilities rather than subjects. For eample:

  • Basic literacy and practical mathematics skills for all – regardless of source of acquiring these skills.
  • Basic schooling – and I’m talking 4-5 years (starting at a later age – say around 8-13 years old) here, not 13 years as the useless monolith currently stands – should provide children with stable language, logic, communication, civics (laws, rights, structure of country, who to approach for what, etc), knowledge seeking and functional mathematics skills.
  • This would have your poor kids who legally start working at 14 at least having greater potential!
  • Nature of syllabus has to change. At the speed at which human knowledge is growing, subjects couldn’t possibly be defined or added to “teach” comprehensively, leading to an inflated sense of intellectual ability on achieving inferior quality memorization of introductory information – particularly among “top scorers”. It would be useful to teach children how to find (and test for soundness) information on whatever it is they need information on. There is no need for square roots and complex divisions of 10 digit figures by 4 digit figures. Teach them to use a calculator! The world has changed since the time these were handicaps if you didn’t know how to do it yourself.
  • Basic schooling should be designed to enable people completing it capable of any job not requiring specialized knowledge. No reason why a bus driver or receptionist needs to know more than this to do his/her job well.
  • Dignity of labour: Education must expand to appreciate the knowledge that goes into competence of all kinds rather than marks depending on some answers deemed “right”. If we need excellent soldiers, train drivers or garbage collectors, children must learn to recognize that there is ability in combat or strategy, driving a mammoth vehicle or sanitation.
  • High school diploma or degree too must focus on skill over information, though of course specialized information will be inevitable. Why do we not have enough architects and doctors? Is there a way to simplify syllabus and rapidly churn out more with only essential skills to handle the bulk of the load? Education needs to adapt to answer needs rather than create templates that will have to fit in somehow. Underutilized at times, lacking competence at others. We need to put the horse ahead of the cart.

In my view, if we are looking to build an India that is functionally strong, we must have kids who see their need to care for people and animals and dream of becoming forest guards or nursing staff committed to giving their patients every edge to thrive. We need kids who look at their pile of dismantled toys and think it would be cool to grow up to be a mechanic and do it with real cars. Or a child interested in food and wanting to become a chef should proudly put up a vada paav or lemonade stall in the neighbourhood without imagining that the excellence of a cook is in an air conditioned kitchen in a five star hotel. The excellence is in the passion!

Children are great “doers” and “makers” till we teach them that “respect” is in white collar jobs in multi-national companies after you do an MBA (another useless invented degree that abstracts presentation and management as a universal plugin – assembly line competence). Yet there are entire empires to be built doing so many things we do not teach kids to explore.

More importantly, there are dreams to chase and happiness to secure, which require knowing and chasing what the heart wants – education must not take up too much time and leave no time for this.

Note: I am a homeschooler, but this is pretty much what I’m trying to achieve for my child too!

Note 2: I do hope someone gets Azim Premji to read this.

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Remembering Tagore

Remembering Tagore on his 72nd death anniversary

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Yesterday (7th August) was the death anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore, and I found two pieces remembering him. I thought it would be a good start to my plan of sharing profiles of people who learned without school, as a response to a common anxiety parents share – what will my child become when he/she grows up?

Details Created on Wednesday, 07 August 2013 12:07 Hits: 80 Today (07 August) is the 72nd death anniversary of ‘Kabiguru’ Rabindranath Tagore.   Rabindranath Tagore, sobriquet Gurudev, was a Bengali poet, philosopher, artist, playwright, composer and novelist.   India’s first Nobel laureate, Tagore won the 1913 Nobel Prize for […]

Rabindranath Tagore, sobriquet Gurudev, was a Bengali poet, philosopher, artist, playwright, composer and novelist.

India’s first Nobel laureate, Tagore won the 1913 Nobel Prize for Literature.

He composed the text of both India’s and Bangladesh’s respective national anthems.

Tagore travelled widely and was friends with many notable 20th century figures such as William Butler Yeats, H.G. Wells, Ezra Pound, and Albert Einstein.

His body of literature is deeply sympathetic for the poor and upholds universal humanistic values. His poetry drew from traditional Vaisnava folk lyrics and was often deeply mystical.

Tagore, of course was learned at home and was a learned man. A polymath, which means he was exceptionally talented in many things. The Hindu carries a labour of love remembering him by Ashokamitran. I found it special because it speaks of the impact of Tagore on Tamils, which is hardly something we hear in the normal course of reading. An excerpt, follow the link to read the article.

Thirty years ago, my eldest son Ravi, then studying in class VI, needed a story to narrate in his class. I told him of a great man in Bengal, who in the guise of addressing grown ups, wrote stories that any child would cherish. Then I told him the story of ‘Kabuliwalla’. By the time I finished, he was sobbing. Next day, after narrating it in class, he told me, “When I finished the story, I couldn’t control my tears. Many students were in tears too.”

This took me farther back to the 1940s when I was a school student.

Our English text-book was a selection of prose and poetry pieces, mostly of British origin but there were a few like ‘The Hero’ of Rabindranath Tagore and ‘Transcience’ by Sarojini Naidu. ‘The Hero’ was my first conscious experience of Tagore. I had seen the bearded face of Tagore a couple of years ago in a Tamil book called Kumudhini. Almost on the same day I saw another photograph of the face in the Tamil weekly. It was in August 1941. Tagore passed away on August 7, 1941. Three years later was the year of ‘The Hero’. It took me a few more years to be able to penetrate into the world of Rabindranath Tagore. His plays were a little puzzling but there was no barrier between us and his prose pieces. Gora gave us a glimpse of the spiritual movements taking place in Bengal in the second half of the 19th century.

When I became a resident of Madras (which is now Chennai), in 1952, I found quite a number of people familiar with Tagore’s writings. Not only Tagore but Bankimchandra Chatterjee, Sarat Chandra Chatterjee, Tarashankar Banerjee and an odd writer by name Rakhaldas Bandhopadhyay. Many of Tagore’s works were then available freely in Tamil Nadu as translations. For the few avid readers of serious writing, translations from Bengali authors were among their first choices.

Later I learnt that two brothers, T.N. Kumaraswamy and T.N. Senapathi, lived in Bengal and learnt the language to be able to read Tagore’s work in the original and then translate them into Tamil.

Read Ashokamitran’s beautiful rememberances of Tagore and Tamils

Tax on auxiliary services to make education dearer

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Friend sent me this link about how schools are about to get costlier, commenting that it would mean more homeschoolers and that I should be happy.

When education was categorised under the negative list in the 2012 Budget, a finance ministry notification issued on June 20, 2012, read: “Services provided to or by an educational institution in respect of education exempted from service tax, by way of (a) auxiliary educational services or (b) renting of immoveable property” are exempted from service tax. However, another notification issued on Budget Day replaces “services provided to or by” with “services provided to”.

While some academics who believe that the change in wording is an error have been trying to get it clarified by the finance ministry, the excise department has gone ahead and asked schools to pay up. “The intent to levy service tax on services rendered by educational institutions to outsiders is right. But, the finance ministry notification seems to indicate the contrary. I appeal to the FM to exempt auxiliary services and renting of hostels provided by educational institutions to its own students from service tax,” said S Vaidhyasubramaniam, dean of planning and development, Sastra University.

timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/education/news/Tax-on-auxiliary-services-to-make-education-dearer/articleshow/21566497.cms”>Click here to view original web page at timesofindia.indiatimes.com

This development is rather alarming because good schools are already rare and prohibitively expensive for a majority of the population.

I am not happy, actually. The idea that people might move to homeschooling because they cannot afford school strikes to me as a failed education policy and the worst possible reason to switch, though it is true homeschooling can be cheaper (or far more expensive) than school.

Homeschooling, in such a case would not be the first choice, but a compromise made out of necessity. This may not be a suitable situation for the considerable commitment to pursuit of learning that homeschooling demands.

Not to mention that the legal position of homeschooling itself is very tricky in India. While no one is persecuting homeschoolers, the few efforts that were made for recognition failed completely with no consession whatsoever so far. Informally, the word is that parents dissatisfied with the system may choose to homeschool, but it can be too precarious to risk for people unfamiliar with the concept.

In short, education in India is slowly becoming a complicated and increasingly meaningless thing, with no real alternatives.

 

Note: There are plenty of homeschoolers in India who have decided that we will not be sending our children to school. Technically, we are on the wrong side of the law, but many of us are determined enough to risk consequences if need be, but not inflict the schooling system on our beloved children.

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U.S. Justice Department refuses asylum to German Home Schooling family

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U.S. Justice Department court filing rejected a German home schooling family’s application for asylum in the US is in trouble after initially being accepted. The Romeikes, a home schooling family with five home schooled children are being represented by the Home School Legal Defense Association, while the Obama administration want them to be sent back to Germany.

Germany has a national law requiring children to either attend public school or a government-approved private school.

The Romeikes had already been fined and German police once forcibly escorted their five children to school. They were notified that they could ultimately lose custody if they continued to home school. […]

While this is not India, it is worrisome snapshot of the world, because it is an example of how the interest of children and home schooling families is fragile if the country’s law makes it tougher for them. Immigration appeals or asylum laws both seem indifferent to alternative education programmes, leaving home schooling families and other special education initiatives entirely at the mercy of the national education machine. Without the support of organizations like Home School Legal Defense Association, it can be overwhelming for individual families to ensure their rights.

With the RTE Act, India is well on the road of the absurd “free and compulsory” – whatever that means. Home schooling families in India are already wary of the directive for every child to be in school and seeking alternatives, while special education organizations working among marginalized communities are scrambling to save themselves when their highly educated post-graduate volunteers are not enough to rescue their organization from a short sighted Act that requires qualified teachers who are not available in the numbers dictated by the act.

I doubt if that definition of “free and compulsory” is going to include the freedom to learn that home schooling nurtures or indeed any freedom of education other than the lack of educational fees. While at the moment, the government is hardly applying it, home schoolers are already vulnerable to malicious accusations of abuse or deprivation of education that could get them into trouble with the law. Because a carelessly crafted law does not recognize home schooling families or special education or alternative education programmes as any different from depriving children of opportunities to learn.

There are initiatives like “Swashikshan” (self-learning/teaching) which, while not Home School Legal Defense Association, have seen home schooling families connected and organizing to share resources. I hope we are able to suggest some framework for home schooling eventually, ideally with as much credibility as the Home School Legal Defense Association, or at least a recognized body, before the law strangles diversity of learning here as well.

A Map of the Legality of Home schooling around...

A Map of the Legality of Home schooling around the world. Based off of Image:BlankMap-World6.svg. Green is legal, yellow is legal in most political subdivisions but not all or is practiced, but legality is disputed. Red is illegal or unlawful. Orange is generally considered illegal, but untested legally. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It is unbelievable to imagine that a country like Germany (which gave enough and uprecedented votes to a Pirate Party – that extraordinary political endorsement of freeing knowledge, and going beyond regimented structures to find what works) persecutes home schooling families to the point where a family must worry about losing its children is very worrying for a country like India, where enforcement of laws is arbitrary and human rights are not an issue.

Update: Must read – Ann Althouse writes an excellent post asking why the German family is seeking asylum in the United States, when they have free movement in the European region and could easily go to another European country.
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