My speech at J M
International School, Dwarka, New Delhi on 21st March 2016 on the
occasion of my son Abheek’s citation
ceremony for passing out of Class-VI and stepping in to Class-VII
Respected Principal ma’am,
teachers and distinguished parents and loving students.
At the outset, I would
like to thank the school for giving me the opportunity to speak on this
occasion. I take this opportunity to
share some of my personal observations about J M International School where my
son Abheek has been studying for last 9 years since 2007 when he was admitted
here for his pre-schooling. It is imperative for any school to play a major role in inculcating social,
emotional skills in student apart from providing formal education and JMIS is
no exception in this regard for my son. It is more applicable to him than many
other students of the school considering the
fact he has not been undergoing any private tuition for his studies,
therefore, whatever he has been learning it is either from this school or from
us – his parents. In that sense, we are more dependent on the pedagogical
quality of the teachers in the school than those parents whose children have
been receiving private tuition. My assessment on the performance of the school is
that the overall, teachers of this school are performing effectively &
efficiently. I am saying this on the
basis of my observations that my son generally learns and understands most of
the lessons of any subject from the class itself as taught by the teachers. His
learning at school is supplemented by us at home. Therefore, I may conclude
that the teachers have been successful in making him understood the lessons in
the class itself which, I think as a parent, is quite appreciable. Having said
that I would also like to add that school should give more priority in making
the students more interested in learning the subjects for sake of buttressing their
understanding rather than merely scoring high marks in the examination,
especially considering the fact that the foundations of the students are built
at this stage only on which their career would stand in future. I would suggest
the school authority to carry out a reality check on the quality of education the students have
been receiving in this school. I would request the school authority to get an
external assessment conducted by a third party - any reputed independent agency
-on students to find out their level of knowledge and understanding of the
subject. The school authority should make the result of the assessments available
to the parents.
I would like to bring one
issue to the attention of the school authority regarding the availability of back
up teachers in case any teacher is leaving the service during the mid-season for
any reason. In the 2015-16 season, we have noticed that there has been no
science teacher in Class VI for about a month which is highly undesirable. I
hope that the school authority has made some contingency plan this year to
counter such challenges.
I would also request the
school authority to make more use of technology - audio-visuals, 3Ds etc in
teaching the students. It would definitely make the learning more interesting
for them. More educational tours & excursions should be undertaken. Each
and every student should be encouraged according to their potential and
interest to actively participate in extra-curricular activities.
In recent times, some very
unfortunate and horrifying incidents have occurred occur in few schools in
Delhi NCR resulting in loss of lives of students due to the alleged negligence by
the school authorities on the safety and security aspects in the school
premise. I hope, here in JMIS all proper safety precautions & measures are
in place in school premise , school transports as well as during tours. And the
school campus is physically safe and secured in all aspects for our children and teachers
and all others. I would request the school authorities to be extra vigilant and
cautious to make the school campus free of any potential Health, Safety &
Environment hazards. There should be no compromise in ensuring the safety and
security of the students. The school staffs should be regularly sensitized to
make our school a safe and secured place
for our daughters and sons.
Now, I would like to share
some observations on education system in India in general. Recently, I was reading a book ‘’The Country
of First Boys’ by Nobel laureate Amartya Sen wherein with his usual brilliance
and ingenuity he has analyzed, inter alia, Indian education system. The name of
the book itself reflects his thought about existing education system in India.
He has observed that at every level, Indian education is obsessed with the
first boys - in the class room, in society and in the making of public policy.
In each class, the teachers revel in the success of the first boys. but when
the first boy syndrome takes over an educational system there are reasons to be
seriously alarmed. The priorities can get oddly distorted when the focus is so
narrow and the concentration of public policy is so strongly on looking after
those blessed with opportunity and success. Meanwhile, the last boys and particularly
the last girls of the deprived section of the society driven by economic and
social inequality related to class, gender, location and social privilege,
cannot even read, not having the opportunity of going to a decent school – or
any school at all. Taking a cue from the insightful commentary of Amartya Sen
on Indian education system, I would, in this context, request the teachers here
to not just focus on the first boys but also the entire stratum of the students
in the class so that not only the first boys but the every student in the
school becomes a good citizen of this world with success and accomplishment in his
or her life.
Lastly, I could not resist
myself from not quoting one interesting experience of Gurudev Rabindranath
Tagore which he had during his school days at Normal School in Calcutta. He
mentioned the incident in his memoir ‘Jeevan Smriti’. He wrote in his memoir that
he could remember the line of an English song which he used to sing regularly along
with other students in the school which was ( to him) ‘kaloki puloki singil
melaling melaling melaling’. Tagore was able to decode these words much later
during his adult days as ‘Full of glee, singing merrily, merrily, merrily’,
even though he could not decipher what ‘kaloki’ had stood for. What he would
like to convey that though the song sung by the students had been meant for
entertaining the students; but it had become a meaningless boring ritual for
the students because neither they had understood the meaning of the words nor
the purpose of such program; though the school authority had been well convinced that the students had been getting immense
pleasure out of this ritual and never made any attempt to notice the impact of
it on students. Rather the school authority thought that it was the obligation
of the students to get pleasure out of it and if the students could not get any
pleasure, it was students fault. I hope there is no such ‘kaloki puloki singil
melainng melaing melaing’ ritual here in this school.
Thank you.
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