Scrap books

We are seem to be grinding through a slow but real change in our educational system. But plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose ...

The state government has decreed that exams are bad and put too much stress on kids. Henceforth - no exams in schools. So our kids (who study in a school affiliated with the state board) are now freed from 'exams.'

Instead they get weekly 'assessments.'

The advantage - as we can see it - is that they are bite-sized and regular - so Asha and Enoch are always ready for them. This instead of the omnibus monsters that lurk at the end of term (which our 2 have so far been able to conquer pretty well all things considered).

There are to be no 'failing' of students from now on. Everyone is to be promoted. Regardless of how much they know and how much they can show.

What this will lead to is anyone's guess, but that's the party line from above.

One of the ladies who we work with has 2 daughters. Both are in pre-school. The older one goes to an 'English-medium' school. Our friend - Mrs. Maninder - is passionate about education and making sure her girls do well. The little twosome are often seen with books in hand - writing out English alphabets.

The school has told the older girl to maintain a scrap book. Every 2 weeks or so a topic is given. One day it is modes of transport. On another it is kinds of food. A third may be carnivorous animals.

Now as I understand it, a scrap book is supposed to foster creativity. The kid is supposed to look through stacks of old magazines and cut out images and then paste it into an old book in an artistic way. Mini collages anyone?

Fed into the great Indian educational sausage factory the hallowed scrap book comes out like this:

Teacher decrees what the topic is. Children write it down dutifully. Parents read it. Parents take children too nearby shop. Shop-keeper opens a drawer with multiple sheets of stickers. "National heroes? We have it here. Nutritional foods? Yes, madame. Space objects? No, problem." Parents fork out cash. Kids take sheet of stickers home and paste into multicoloured 'scrap book' which has been purchased for the purpose.

Creativity value? Nil.

Expense? Not too much for middle and upper class. Rs. 5 per sheet is not going to eat into the pockets of people living in flats that cost Rs. 25,00,000.

But for a family where the head is a widow. Where they live in a tiny room that the landlord pockets Rs. 1500 a month for. Where 5 Rs. is what will be used for the evening's vegetables. For them that is a lot of money.

And so Mrs. Maninder goes to the shop and asks the shopkeeper to make a photocopy of the stickers.

He does. She comes back and cuts out the pictures and pastes them into her daughter's scrap book.

Scraps.