Schools Without Freedom

Context: Lack of autonomy to the schools despite the sustained insistence on decentralisation has negatively impacted the state of the Indian education system.

Challenges with the autonomy of the schools India: Despite the decentralisation being routinely favoured, it did not touch the core aspects of education.

• Bureaucratic attitude towards school functionaries: The bureaucracy views school functionaries with the deepest suspicion, both in their capacities and integrity.

• Support for Regimented Approach Boards in private education: Despite the endorsement of school-based capacity building, the major processes have stayed centralised and exam boards have tightened grip.

• COVID Chaos: Lack of autonomy for village schools to assess local conditions to allow children to come for their meals and spend some time studying. 

• For E.g. decisions regarding the daily time span and class size might have been taken following distancing norms by schools’ heads and teachers.

• General Bias against villages: 

• The awareness and resilience demonstrated by many villages are largely ignored in the media.
• Thus, their efforts towards containing the pandemic have been largely ignored and laughed off.

• Falsified basing of learning outcomes on technology: The mooting of online education to tackle the ‘learning loss’ neglects the importance of education based on collectiveness and observation. 

• Child psychology tells that In its formative stages the human mind needs opportunities to observe the natural phenomenon, represent it in different forms and analyse it. 
• The hope that communications technology can improve pedagogic quality, sustained flawed interest in the radio, then on television and the Internet.
• Absence of basic learning equipment: Great expenditure is made on purchasing technology for schools, but it does not cover binoculars or microscopes. 

Way Forward:

• Providing autonomy and professional competence: Schools need to have the freedom to nurture a free, thoughtful mind among the young.
• Technology needs to motivate and enable people to solve their own problems. The educational technology needs to bring life into the classrooms. 
• Better learning experience: Providing experience that expands a child’s interest and understanding is very much essential. 

• Village schools are in a far better position to provide this opportunity than city schools by encouraging children to spend time outdoors for assigned observations.

Conclusion: If our schools fail to nurture a free, thoughtful mind among the young, one reason is that schools themselves have no freedom.