This week we received annual "progress" reports for two of our programme's children, Maumita (Level "ক" (k), first year of school, early childhood) and Rekha (Level One or Year one of Primary). Indian national and state level curriculum strictly enforces a marks/grades-based system with mid-term and annual examinations on the basis of which students may "pass or fail" in different subjects which determines promotions to higher classes or levels. In doing so, it often tends to create drop-outs and puts too much emphasis on competitiveness and examinations rather than learning. However, in practice, depending on teachers and school policy, usually at the lower levels, students are encouraged to learn in a more relaxed way, although that has increasingly becoming rare owing to many factors, of which parental and societal pressure is perhaps one of main factors.Above: MoumitaLeft and below: Moumita's report card. The cover reads: "Mataji Ashram Primary School, Garia, 24 Parganas", "Progress Report, Early Childhood section, 2007-2008", "Child name: Moumita Haldar, Level: "Kaw" (the first letter of the Bengali alphabet, read as Level A), Roll no. 19" |
 Cover page |
 Mark Sheet |
| The inner mark sheet shows the marks Moumita achieved in various subjects in two different exams, the mid-term and the annual. The subjects taught are: Bengali, English, Mathematics, "Common Knowledge" and Art. The first three subjects are assessed for every term with a maximum mark of 100 out of which 30 marks are obtained from Homework (10), Classwork(10) and Oral (10). Upto 70 marks can be obtained from written examination at the end of the term. Moumita achieved 91 in Bengali, 95 in English and 89 in Mathematics. "Common Knowledge" seems not to have been assessed whereas in "Art" she achieved a 20 out of 25 marks. She has been marked as the fourth rank in the class for 2007-2008 and also promoted to the next year level. |
| The comments page bears signatures of the class teacher and Principal and a signature of her father. The class teacher noted in the first term that she (Moumita) should try harder next time. |
 Comments page |
 Rekha, first grader |
 Cover page of the 2007-2008 Report |
 Mark sheet |
| First Year Mark Sheet is more detailed with the following subjects listed: Bengali, English, Mathematics (total marks: 100, 90 for written and 10 for oral), History, Geography, Science (total marks: 50, 40 for written and 10 for oral), and Painting and Drawing (total marks: 25). Rekha's achieved scores are: Bengali: 89/100 English: 96/100 Maths: 92/100 History: 43/50 Geography: 45/50 Science: 50/50 Painting and Drawing: 24/25 One the same page, at the bottom, Rekha's class teacher commented: "(She must) try to make more progress in all areas". She has been promoted to the next year level. Her "behaviour" is marked as "good" and attendance as "regular". |
Going by Maumita and Rekha's reports, we saw very positive results (a pleasant surprise!): both seem to be among the "top" students in their respective classes:. Maumita has been ranked "fourth" while Rekha is "third". If this is an indicator of anything , it certainly is that of the fact that the children are enjoying their learning experience and are diligent learners. We hope their enthusiasm for learning stays intact while at the same time we hope the system of education in schools they attend evolve to a more student-oriented holistic approach rather than too much emphasis on exams and ranks in class.
To that end, we have plans to shift the EduAid children to Narmada School where although owing to community and legal rules exam based curriculum is followed, the actual practice of education under Ms. Shanta Mukherjee seems to be the most child-friendly learning environment I have seen so far in these parts. Secondly, we have plans to turn our old office which is lying unused for two months now to a training centre where we have furniture to accommodate students to take part in learning activities. We hope we are soon able to organise training sessions for EduAid and other children/professionals to learn better English, computer skills and mathematics.
In order to do so, we are looking for support financially to keep the centre running (most of which is already sponsored by our company: rent, electricity, etc.), but mainly for staffing and equipment such as computers. We have decided to form a NGO and hire a project coordinator and assistant to run the place and we expect various professionals both from our company and outside to help voluntarily in the learning experience. This may also provide the opportunity for us to experiment with learning practices of international schools particularly if our trainers are exposed to lesson planning , delivery and assessment based on and inspired from holistic curricula framework.
What is particularly exciting is that this experiment can expose our software developers to the experience of actual teaching and training. With their time commitment, they may be able to earn hours of "holiday" for their involvement. This will be quite a full cycle for developers in not only understanding education domain knowledge to support educators but also interact and be integrated with a learning community locally and abroad.
