Off the beaten track

Hello ladies and gentlemen.

I am sorry that I am still unable to blog as freuqently as I wish.  At my workplace, all of us work on Saturdays too to get the processes speeded up a bit so that our company can meet consumer deadlines.  I hope to  get back to blogging atleast once a month, after November.  Thanks. 

Off the beaten track

Thanks for following my blog.  I may not be able to write any new post until after I get settled in my new placement in an Elearning Company in Vadodara, Gujarat (India).  I look forward to joining an exciting team there.

See you in a few weeks' time from the historic city of Vadodara. Thanks once again. 

Off the beaten track: Indian Film Music on Radia Australia .. nearly 40 years back!

This afternoon, the airwaves around our apartment, carried something exceptional: sound of a melodious song `Naan pesa ninaithadellaam nee pesa vendum ..' from one of the Tamil films released way back in '60s. [Although I am not particularly keen in films or film music, I do relish the sounds from the TV of my neighbour.  He could be about 10 years older than me and seems to like old film songs, almost all which were nonvulgar and full of good meaning].  My memory took me to 1969 when I used to listen to this very song and others, on Radio Australia in a programme known as Indian Film Music.  This radio programme used to be presented by Mr V M Chakrapani, who was a newsreader (on All India Radio) and a popular cricket commentator.  The programme used to air contemporary film songs in many Indian languages.  However, the programme did not last long.

I liked Radio Australia for its music content (They had excellent softrock programs). BBC World Service aired its own programmes, one of which was, `A Date with a Disc'. This was a 5 minute program before (or after?) their news bulletins.  VOA used to come out with `Now Music USA' with a lot of Afro-American, Blues and Country and Western songs (I prefer to call them `songs' not `numbers').  SLBC and Radio Malaysia  were also popular for their softrock content.  Back home in Madras, there were two channels of the Madras station of All India Radio on the medium wave: Madras 1 and Madras 2.  Western Music used to be broadcast on Madras 2 every evening from 5.30 to 6 PM.

More recently in the '80s, if I remember correctly, BBC World Service used to transmit a weekly programme known as `Vintage Chart Show' which contained songs of the '60s, '70s and '80s. 

While there were several other radio stations which used to broadcast western music, there were not many print based publications, except occassional articles and write ups in `Life' Magazine as far as I knew. In India, The Statesman of Calcutta introduced its `Junior Statesman' somewhere around 1968.  The magazine contained popmusic reviews, lyrics of famous songs, posters of pop musicians and of course articles.  We used to enjoy reading the magazine.  Those were the days.   

Teachers Day in India

This morning, Sreejith Karthikeyan sent the following message on facebook:

"I found guidance, friendship, discipline and love, everything in one person. And that person is you. “Happy Teachers Day”.

He is a very simple young man with excellent behaviour in his late ‘20s from Kollam, Kerala. He has a Master’s degree in Information Technology. He and I were colleagues at a Digital K-12 Materials Development Company.

Sreejith sent this message as this day is celebrated as Teachers’ day every year in India, in memory of Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan.

My father, who belonged to the generation next to that of Dr Radhakrishnan, was a dedicated teacher and a headmaster; he passed away on this day in 1997. In the '60s and '70s, poor students across caste and religious barriers, used to stay in the front room of our house for nearly a month just before their school final Board exams. My mother would cook food for them as well when she cooked for us. She would also teach them lessons (I learnt all the rudiments of English language grammar and usage by listening to my mother's teaching using a grammar book written by Wren and Martin.  This book was very popular in those days). My father, an avid lawn tennis player, usually played lawn tennis in the evenings, by forming a small team consisting of himself, the local doctor, village adminstrative officer, etc. Sometimes, he would teach these people how to play tennnis and train them in the game. After playing for at least an hour he would come home. This was his daily routine, in whichever town or village he was posted. After dinner, he would sit for some time with the students to find out as to their progress in studies. At the end of the students' stay, when parents came to take their children back, they would try to offer small gifts (such as paddy), which my parents would politely decline. I vividly remember the brightness in the faces of students and parents, a brightness that reflected a high level of gratitude.  Those were the days when most teachers acted as role models and were respected.

I am not sure as to whether I really deserve Sreejith's nice compliments. What I am sure is that this inspiring message will instil more confidence in my work towards education for all in our global village. I adore youngsters like Sreejith. I wish I had a son like him. 

Off the beaten track: To Koh Kong, Cambodia

It is nearly a year since I returned home after a year's stay in Phnom Penh, Cambodia (where I worked at the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports). This morning when I went out for some shopping, I could not help comparing the road conditions of Chennai (where I live), Phnom Penh (where I was based) and Koh Kong (a Cambodian fishing town, which I used to visit on work). 


Cambodia Map

Koh Kong is the capital town of a province with the same name.  It is a small beautiful town and is situated at nearly the same latitude as that of Phnom Penh, Bangkok and Chennai. It is very near the border with Thailand. The people were friendly like in other places in Cambodia.

Although, being a vegetarian, I did have an actue food problem, I could get it sorted out without difficulty, thanks to Indian restaurants (particularly Taste Buds, Aman and Annam) in Phnom Penh, from where I used to order vegetarian food that could be stored in fridge for 3 or 4 days, before leaving for Koh Kong. Of course, fresh fruits were abundantly available in the market place as well as in departmental stores in Koh Kong itself, just like in any other Cambodian village or town, not to mention Phnom Penh with several departmental stores and restaurants, including KFC, an outlet of which was just across the street, from my office at the Ministry of Education.

I cherish my memory of an evening dinner that I had with my Cambodian colleagues in a stilt on River Tonle Sap that flows along the town.

Signboard to the town

Road to Koh Kong

Restaurants on stilts on Tonle Sap

Off the beaten track: Down the memorylane

As I type this post, the weather is cool with some drizzling outside my window in Chennai. 

A few minutes back, as I was browsing the Net, I came across a wonderful website related to Ethiopia.  The photographs and posts reminded me of my stay in Ethiopia in 1982-83 when I had the pleasure of teaching physics in Ethiopian High Schools.  I remembered my frequent visits to Addis Ababa, a fabulous city with excellent amenities. 

Right now I am relishing Ethiopian injera (a local pancake resembling Indian dosa) and the aromatic makkiatho (strong coffee with milk) at an imaginary level.  As far as I know, Ethiopia is the only country where, I guess, you can order for 4 types of coffee: Bunnah (Amarhic term for black coffee), Bunnah Wotet (`Coffee with Milk'), Makkiatho (Coffee with a very small amount of milk) and Cuppuchino (the type of coffee left by Italians) even in modest restaurants.  It is believed that the term `coffee' comes from `Kaffa', a province in Ethiopia.

Off the beaten track: Good friends

Good friends are rare.  I sometimes nostalgically remember my very good friends.  Jos Kottuthundiyil is one such friend. He and I were colleagues in a school in Bhutan more than 30 years back.  We were also neighbours in the teachers' quarters.  He was a very softspoken gentleman and an excellent writer.  More importantly a friend, who had the courage to tell his friends, if they were wrong.  After I left Bhutan, I lost contact with him (like with many other good friends) due to laziness in writing letters.

As I was reading Bhutan Observer a few weeks back, I was delighted to read  an article and sent my feedback.  Thanks to the article, it has put us back into friendship after 3 decades.

As I remember my stay in Bhutan nostalgically, let me leave you with a First Day Cover and two stamps (3D and gold plated respectively) produced by the Government of Bhutan.

  

Practical skills and pedagogy in schools

Hitherto, I have thought that our newspapers don’t carry much content on development issues such as education, poverty reduction and livelihood except as conventional news items. Past Sunday’s edition of THE HINDU OPEN PAGE changed my point of view. It carried a very interesting and thought provoking article Can't they teach them how to deal with life's problems?. The article stirred up a fruitful discussion among the readers as reflected in the letters to the editor.

Although I was considered to be a meritorious student in my school and college days, I understood many textbook lesson concepts and their applicability in real life situations only after I began teaching, though I had used excellent textbooks such as College Physics by Resnik and Halliday. 

When I began teaching in India more than 30 years back, I tried to integrate textbook concepts and real life applications in my classrooms. But I could not succeed and I was considered to be a `slow’ teacher who needed to give more importance to `covering portions’ until I left India to take up teaching in schools abroad. There, I found that I could do justice to my teaching and my students enjoyed my classes. I had the pleasure of training my students to solve problems in a practical way, using lesson concepts.

If we are to offer quality education that will enable our kids to apply lesson concepts in real life situations as illustrated by Dr Pallavi Praveen, our Syllabus Boards, Textbook Publishers and Government Departments of School Education should initiate discussions, as THE HINDU has done through this article. The discussions should involve practising teachers. The resulting outcome should be documented and syllabus developed accordingly.

Once the Syllabus is in place, textbooks will automatically follow the guidelines. There are guidelines from Syllabus Boards in our country, but not specific and clear enough to enable teachers to teach practical skills. Forty or fifty years back, when children were admitted in schools only when they were 5 years old, there was a range of skills such as weaving, carpentry, tailoring, cooking etc. imparted to children.  The syllabus in those days gave ample time and opportunity for teachers to train their children in handling real life problems with ease. 

I cannot accept knowledge explosion over the years as a cause for quantity oriented syllabi that we come across today.  Even now, teachers who are courageous enough to break conventions can still manage by teaching practical skills to students. Teaching how to fix a fuse does not take more than 10 minutes in classroom settings. But the problem is that neither our colleges of education train teachers in this direction nor there are many teachers who may like to invite the wrath of parents and school managements by attempting something unconventional.

Many textbook lesson concepts can certainly be taught effectively so that children can use them in real life. But to make this happen requires drastic change in attitude and functioning from all stakeholders in the school education system.

Low priced laptop for learners

"Finally realising his dream project, Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Kapil Sibal on Thursday launched a $35 computing device that will be made available to ‘learners’ right from primary schools to universities..."

So goes a news report in today's edition of the Indian Express.  While it is understandably a great idea, I have never been able to find the actual manufacturer or seller's address in any of the media reports about this wonder gadget, which has the potential of revolutionsing the way our children learn.  I think that the HRD Ministry should begin processing MoUs with corportate bodies so that the gadget comes to market as early as possible.  Concurrently, the Ministry should also develope policies and programs to train teachers in guiding children to use the gadget in the right way.  Training can be given first to school head teachers and senior officers in the Ministry, who will in turn train teachers in the provinces.

With solar energy system built in the device, we can take it to remote areas as well, so that all children can derive benefits.

While the digital gap can be reduced by implementing education technology in school systems all over the country, the Ministry should take care that computer assisted learning does not replace simple activity based learning, unless the former is not advisable or not practically possible in any given situation.  There are many instances where computer assisted classroom processes have failed as they were proven to be far inferior to simple activity based ones; one classic example would be LOGO, a mathematics software developed and tried in high schools in the US a few dacades back.  Such costly mistakes need to be avoided if we aim to reach the UN Millenium Development Goals at least to some extent. 

Teacher Effectiveness: A lesson to learn

Yesterday’s edition of New York Times carried a very important news item.  The news item reflects what the State Government Departments of School Education in the US expect from teachers. 

Although there are dedicated Principals who expect high standards of discipline from teachers, their voices are sometimes not heard by School Governing Boards.  If any teacher deliberately makes mistakes that can have an impact on learning, he or she needs to be counseled, advised and so on. If this doesn't work, there is no reason as to why disciplinary action cannot be taken against the teacher.  School inspections can be carried out without giving advance intimation to schools. 

Quality in School Systems can only be enhanced and sustained if effective monitoring and evaluation of classroom processes are carried out.