Changing the education system

[anilkc]

From an earlier post from Subha Chand ji:

Here it is ( I am not concerned if some one wants to use it to his/her advantage it is the ultimate product which could be useful to young generation.);

School children in India and also other countries for that matter have to carry very heavy school bags (some times bag is bigger and heavier than child). With current technology and all the brains we have on this site there must be some way of making their load lighter. There could be various options but the ultimate aim is " Considerable Reduction in weight and volume of school bags at a reasonable price"

I started a separate thread bcos I beleive this issue along with many more related to childrens education is very important and needs more focus.

We neglect primary education. Our constitution mandates primary education for all (Article 8 of the Indian Constitution). Yet, 41% of children do not reach grade 5 in India.

It is the poor rural children, thousands of them, who paid for my education by losing their opportunity to become semi-literate.

Just to provide primary education, India requires seven million teachers if one were to have a 1:50 teacher to student ratio. Not only is that number formidable, the problem is compounded by the fact that these teachers are mainly required in the rural areas where the current number of qualified teachers is extremely low

The way out is to digitise the education.

[rkumar]

Dear Friends,

Yes this is a genuine problem. The weight of school bags has to be brought down some how. However, will digitization help? I am some what doubtful on that and my logics are;

1. Village infrastructure in India will make it very difficult to keep those gudgets running. One has to address this aspect while coming out with the new technological solution.

2. Does any country in the world have digital school bags? If yes, what is the experience there ? If not, why they have not been able to do it so far inspite of their superior infrastructure ?

3. Won't we be running the risk of exposing our kids to X-rate websites from very tender age if we go full blown into digitization and networking of primary school education? How can we address this aspect ?

4. How much will be the affordability of these new so called digital school bags? Won't it be that we will be creating another class of haves and have nots in our villages?

I am sure as the debate proceeds, we will find many answers to the problems raised and ofcourse many other issues will surface.

Regards
Rajendra

[anilkc]

1. Village infrastructure in India will make it very difficult to keep those gudgets running. One has to address this aspect while coming out with the new technological solution.

...the same thing was said when ppl wanted to bring telephones to the rural world...and then cdot happened. No doubt infrastructure is bad or even non-existent, but it will still be easier develope infrastructure to run m/c than sending teachers to the villages and constructing classrooms.


2. Does any country in the world have digital school bags? If yes, what is the experience there ? If not, why they have not been able to do it so far inspite of their superior infrastructure ?

College level education is seeing these changes. Primary education is still govt sponsored in most countries and govt speed is same everywhere in the world.


3. Won't we be running the risk of exposing our kids to X-rate websites from very tender age if we go full blown into digitization and networking of primary school education? How can we address this aspect ?

Its done. Use parental control s/ws.

4. How much will be the affordability of these new so called digital school bags? Won't it be that we will be creating another class of haves and have nots in our villages?

It will be lot cheaper than sending millions of teachers to villages and constructing school building.

In a very high level simplistic view, what needs to be done in a digital education is:
1) Create digital books
2) distributing it to the "digital schools"
3) student access to these books
4) Retrain the teachers

[anilkc]

Weight of school bags can be reduced even w/o any new technology. I am discussing technology to reduce the cost of education and make it more effcient/affordable and accessible.
What does a kid have in his school bag that makes it heavy:
1) Text books
2) notebooks
3) Tiffin
4) Water
5) Pencil box
6) maybe toys
7) occasionally some project stuff

have i missed anything ?
Most of these heavy stuff can be taken out of the bag.

[bnashier]

These heavy school bags are the result of too extensive syllabi at the very basic level. Kids in primary education level are loaded with contents of what they are supposed to learn. Then two issues arise.

1. If you want to keep the same level of syllabi, then it does not matter whether you digitize or make it wireless, kids will be loaded with mental weight.

2. If you don’t care about reduction of the mental weight, and still want them to carry less physical weight around, then have lockers in schools. Kids don’t use every textbook and every notebook at home everyday.

[ajmer]

Yes, it is a little common sense and a little management which is needed to get rid of the physical weight from students. Provide lockers at school or just lock the classrooms after the school is over.

Yes, technology is also very much needed (especially the internet and A/V equipment for current happenings around the world, documentries and good movies for the exposure) but the big question is how and who provides it. In fact, I don't know why the education board hasn't come up with course videos from some good professionals to reduce the need for teachers, provide easy and equal access to the education material in an easy to understand manner.

Oh yes, the students should not get any home work even if that means extending the school hours to 8 hours of school. All the study work should be done in the school.

-ajmer

Budh Nashier (Sep 13, 2004 02:37 p.m.):
2. If you don’t care about reduction of the mental weight, and still want them to carry less physical weight around, then have lockers in schools. Kids don’t use every textbook and every notebook at home everyday.

[alkesh]

Dear friends,

These are the text book which make back pack heavy. Having school going kids, now i know why they have lighter back packs.
1. every student has one text book( middle schools are really heavy) for each subject, which they keep at home all year. They have to return it at the end of the year in same condition.
2. homeworks are done on binder papers, which can be removed from binder, once their work is graded. There is only one binder, with label dividers.
3. lunch boxes are taken seperately in hand, comparing in India, where kids keep their lunch boxes in the back pack. For students who are below income level, lunches are provided free as well as low cost. With busy working parents, i have seen many kids eating school lunches with full price also, which is healthy, based on food pyramid( i hope you all know, what it means). Personally we, as as well other vegetarian kids don't have many choices in school lunch menu, so i pack home lunch.
4. water fountains are provided everywhere on school primises, where as in India I have seen kids carrying water bottles to the school.
5. elementary kids have their pencil boxes in their desk, where as middle school kids have minimum to carry.

So now you know the difference!

[sonalisingh]

Hi all:

I have added some of my views on education
under Careers/Education/"Kaliwarn School: Suggestions and Comments Invited".

http://www.jatland.com/cgi-bin/ub/UltraBoard.cgi?action=Read&BID=21&TID=372&SID=22167

Some of that is relevant here too.