Yeh Hi Hai Rights Choice?

 A  Personal View of Teachers' Rights

World Child Rights Day is celebrated annually on 20th November and World Human Rights Day is observed less than a month later on 10th December. What do these days mean for us in India with regard to schools – particularly teachers and children?

Let's examine 10 indisputable facts about school education in India:

1. India has the largest number of school-going children in the world – with nearly 450 million being under 18 years.

2. Since 2009, access to quality education has been made a fundamental right for every child in India between the ages of 6 and 14 years. But four years on, children in the vast majority of our schools, still get a very inadequate, even poor, education

3. Teachers are expected to be adequately trained and qualified to teach. 

4. Teachers are also required to teach effectively and sensitively using child-centred approaches

5. Teachers are however given training, both at the pre-service and in-service levels, that's uninspiring, rote-based and theoretical. The focus is less on building teachers' skills and more on filling them with information. Moreover teachers don't receive any mentoring to make that difficult shift from teaching to enabling learning amongst all their students.

6. Teachers are required to teach and children are required to learn in conditions that would be deemed  in the developed world, as violations of basic human rights - no access to clean drinking water, hygienic toilets or decent work spaces.

7.  Teachers in the burgeoning affordable private schools sector get salaries that would put daily wage workers and domestic helpers to shame ranging from an appalling Rs. 3000 to a menial Rs. 6000 per month.

8. When learning doesn't happen the teachers blame their students and the world at large blames the teachers – the classic blame game and shifting of responsibilities.

9. Departments of education, Principals and school managements rarely ask teachers for their inputs or opinions on any aspect of school functioning, including teaching.

10.  Teaching is one of the least sought after professions in India and owing to that, there is a serious shortage of teachers across the country.

A familiar and dismaying pattern of the profession emerges from the above! Teaching as a career has been systematically undermined and teachers have been disempowered over the past over six decades since Independence. While everyone recognizes that “our schools are only as good as their teachers”, yet  “this occupation that makes all others possible is eroding at its very foundation”. If teaching is seen as a last resort career, it will remain a ‘third-rate profession’ and India’s human potential and economy will be driven by third-rate skills! 

Against this backdrop let's explore the idea of Teachers' Rights, in much the same way as Child Rights and  Human Rights. According to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, of which India is also a signatory, every child must have (put briefly here) the rights to – survival, development, protection and participation. Whereas, the UN Declaration of Human Rights recognises in its preamble, the inherent dignity and the equal and inalienable rights of all human beings. It lays the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world. 

So what about Rights for school teachers? Do they actually enjoy the rights inherent in this dignified profession?  I make a case for  teachers' rights existing at the cusp of Human Rights and Child Rights because teachers serve as the catalysts to promote, honour and enact the Rights of every Child, while preparing them as citizens of the world equipped with ideas of humanity, fairness and courage. However  Children's Rights cannot be nurtured in an environment that disregards, discourages and sometimes is even devoid of the same rights! That is the plight of the average Indian school teacher.  Our teachers have long been rendered voiceless functionaries  who carry out orders from school owners and principals, or demands decreed by the Education Departments. Since they lack the agency to do the right thing as education professionals, they overtly or covertly neglect the potential to do good as teachers in the classroom and thereby uphold children's rights  in schools. The loss of voice has resulted in the deterioration of many precious faculties - the capacity to think, reflect, feel, articulate ideas and competently carry out their role effectively as educators. The loss of voice has also been misused by politically motivated teachers' unions and associations who ostensibly stand up for teachers' rights, but in fact prevent teachers from functioning as accountable and committed professionals, by safeguarding them from any legitimate professional sanction. This of course pertains only to school teachers employed by the government – central or state, for whom employment is secure and there is little risk of them getting 'fired'. So if one considers teachers' rights to employment security, lakhs of government school teachers in our country have it – but these rights are 'enjoyed' at the risk of ignoring every child's right to quality education.  Meanwhile thousands and thousands of teachers are ill-trained and ill-equipped to teach and nurture children's learning –  sadly flouting the right of every child in India to a quality education.

Other challenges  exist with regard to teachers who are employed by private schools. Private schools in India are highly stratified – there are the low-cost affordable private schools, the mid-end schools and the high-end elite private schools. Teachers working in the private schools serving the poor are the worst of. The basic human rights of equitable pay and favourable conditions of work are violated frequently. In a September 2011 hearing, the Madras High Court held that teachers' pay cannot be governed by labour laws. So teachers aren't safeguarded by labour laws in India. However as long ago as 1966, the International Labour Organisation and UNESCO had provided recommendations concerning the status of teachers, which relate to the most important professional, social, ethical, and material concerns of teachers. These issues include:

✔ initial and continuing training

✔ recruitment

✔ advancement and promotion

✔ security of tenure

✔ disciplinary procedures

✔ part-time service

✔ professional freedom

✔ supervision and assessment

✔ responsibilities and rights

✔ participation in educational decision-making

✔ negotiation

✔ conditions for effective teaching and learning

✔ social security

Unfortunately these recommendations are not legally binding. They only serve as a basis for national laws or practices concerning teachers, and are meant to influence the development of those laws and practices.

At the other end of the spectrum we have private schools for the wealthy and urban upwardly mobile aspirational sections of society. Here the scene is different. Competent teachers are highly sought after and wooed from other schools, for a few thousand rupees more. Such teachers know that they are a precious and rare commodity and often call the shots with school managements. They are a breed who have found a 'voice' in recent times, but they perhaps use this 'voice' in a way not very different from the government school teacher. They object to working longer hours than students or putting in more days of work during term time. This prevents them from providing students the progressive and global education that their glossy school brochures claim. School heads and managements often buckle under pressure from these teachers. Of course there are teachers and schools who are remarkable exceptions to the case – but they are unfortunately in the minority.

Within this overall scenario of Indian schools– the question of 'rights' needs to be considered in conjunction with responsibilities. Teachers' Rights must be fostered within the ambit of their responsibilities in the profession, more importantly towards the children placed under their care. Teachers' Rights cannot supersede children's rights. Nor can they gain pre-eminence over teachers' essential responsibilities, one of which should be upholding rights of the child. While the Right to Education Act details out the wide ranging, even overwhelming responsibilities of teachers, no mechanisms are in place to enable, support, strengthen  and oversee teachers' functioning at the school and classroom level. There is a disconnect between teachers'  responsibilities and teachers' right to relevant and meaningful professional development and mentoring support.

Teaching is a complex and exceedingly demanding and stressful profession. Policy makers need to work towards ensuring all teachers have access to decent salaries, humane working conditions, adequate non-teaching time for planning, preparation and reflection, and finally professional growth. In short India must implement the recommendations of the 1966 ILO-UNESCO Report.

But teachers also need to recognise that they are accountable to the young children placed in their care for 10-15 years. They need to treat the aspirations of a nation that they hold in their grasp with gentleness and reverence. That would be doing the right thing!

Maya Menon

mayamenon@teacherfoundation.org 

(This article has been published in the January 2014 issue of Mentor Magazine)

My Dream......

Teachers matter to me. My work at The Teacher Foundation, makes every day for me,  a teachers' day.  But today, the 5th of October - World Teachers' Day, I have a  special message for teachers of India. 

 I borrow from the pastor and civil rights activist Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 50 years have gone by since Dr. Martin Luther King's famous 'I have a Dream Speech' given in Washington in August 1963. I paraphrase that speech today....

I have a dream....

that one day India will rise up and live out the true meaning of its intent: "...that every child has a right to ... education of an equitable quality and relevance, in schools that satisfy all essential norms and standards."

I have a dream that one day, in our schools, children, regardless of social status,or economic status, or caste, or creed, will be able to learn and play together in an atmosphere of mutual respect and affection.

I have a dream that one day every Indian school, burdened today by bureaucratic neglect and guilty of inequity, inequality and lack of opportunity, will be transformed into safe, sensitive spaces for learning with freedom and fairness.

I have a dream that our grandchildren will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the circumstances of their birth but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, in every school and classroom, teachers will uphold with honour, their amazing power to do the right thing for every child, every day, and to see that no child, however disadvantaged, misses the education that is her right.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day the best young men and women in our country, will seek to be teachers, not just for the status the profession offers, but for the satisfaction of nurturing India's human potential.

I have a dream that teachers and principals in schools across our country will set high standards of professional competence and seek to continuously hone their knowledge and skills....

Teachers grab the greatness that's in your reach !

Maya Menon
mayamenon@teacherfoundation.org 

Going Global, Losing the Local? a look at the growing phenomenon of international schools in India

Going Global, Losing the Local?

a look at the growing phenomenon of  international schools in India

My mother and her much-older siblings walked long distances every day in the hot sun or pouring rain to go to school — Malayalam-medium schools in the Kerala of the 1930s and 40s. They, however, grew up proficient in English and eventually left the boundaries of their native state and set up homes in other states in a newly-independent India, bringing up children or pursuing respectable careers in the government. My father and his siblings on the other hand bicycled to school – an English-medium convent school in Vizag. They grew up leading a middle class genteel lifestyle, with my grandfather achieving considerable professional success as a doctor in pre-independent India, outside his native state. While the schooling that my maternal and paternal sides received was different, their cultural sensibilities and the professional opportunities they got were very similar. The latter did hinge significantly on their ease and comfort with the English language.

Moving on to my generation.... Four decades ago when I was in school, the 'convent schools' by then at their peak, were seen as the epitome of a well-rounded western (read, good) education in India. They even had a certain snob value since the most well-off people sent their children to these schools. But there were also many children from salaried class families, like myself, who shifted schools every few years. There were still others from less privileged backgrounds who also went to these schools, receiving tuition waivers or subsidies unobtrusively. And we all learnt and grew up together, vaguely aware of our different parentage, but without it unduly hampering our interactions. Apart from fostering a very sound foundation and easy fluency with the English language, the missionary schools I went to nurtured in me a love of music, a strong work ethic, a sense of aesthetics and an eye for detail – all of which stand me in good stead to this day.

That was the 60s and 70s! In the 1980s, by which time I had become a teacher, there was an imperceptible shift of favour from the convent schools to the 'public schools'. These schools were not the public schools modelled on the lines of the British public schools. These schools were products of an Indianized elite who wanted to send their children to schools that offered a well-rounded English-medium education with equal emphasis on academics, arts, sports, and service. The convent schools, while still in popular demand, had begun to be seen as symbolic of a colonial past.

In the 1990s after the much feted liberalization of the economy, many new schools were set up that called themselves international schools. They boasted of international curricula, a certain proportion of expatriate teachers, an eclectic mix of Indian and non-Indian students, world-class infrastructure and facilities including air conditioned classrooms and buses. Before this phenomenon, the only international schools in the country were the schools associated with the different embassies in New Delhi and a token school in each of the metros and one or two hill-stations, primarily serving the children of diplomats and other international passport holders. They formed a tiny community catering to an exclusive clientele who went back to their home countries for higher education. Such schools had little interaction with their Indian counterparts – they were self contained and self sufficient.

The 2000s have seen a further mushrooming of these schools, now varyingly called world and global schools too. Many of these however don't really satisfy the norms of international schools that were mentioned earlier. Some of these are wannabe schools who are attempting to grab the attention of an increasingly aspirational middle class who wish to ensure that their children get the best possible school education and a certain social status that will stand in good stead for a global career and lifestyle.

The reason for this extended preamble is to set the context for examining the reason and relevance of international schools and the accompanying education fairs that do the rounds in all the Indian metros as well as neighbouring countries. The school market is not an entirely transparent one, partly because of the unfriendly government regulations but also because of the many vested business interests in schools today. Schools are seen as the sunrise industry of the 21st century.  People setting up schools today, especially international schools are businessmen, builders, corporate houses, and politicians. Their purpose, while never overtly stated, is to make profits, not necessarily to educate the millions of young children below 15 years, who desperately need the life opportunities that a good school can provide. Schooling in India is increasingly stratified and divisive and the essential social and ethical purpose of schools is somewhere getting fuzzy!

Government schools lie at the bottom of the pile and serve only the poorest of the poor. Even poor and illiterate parents are opting out of government schools for their abysmal accountability and admitting children to low cost English-medium private schools paying fees. A friend remarked ironically, “If the poor are rejecting something that they could get for free and are paying for the same service elsewhere – that truly is an indication of the failure of the government school system.”

Above the government schools, come the affordable (low-cost) private schools, next middle level private schools catering to the lower-middle and middle class socio-economic strata. Next come the upper-end private schools that cater to children from the well educated middle and upper middle class families who are mainly salaried professionals. Right on top, in a rarified zone, are the international, world, global schools. These cater to the affluent business communities and the expatriate populations in India and neighbouring countries like Nepal, Thailand, Malaysia. In much the same way as the poor are opting out of government schools, India's privileged classes are also in a rejection mode – they are rejecting a 'desi' way of education. They are willing to pay exorbitant fees varying from Rs.3 lakhs per year to 8 lakhs per year, perhaps even more, in order to insulate their children from the 'conventionality' and 'mediocrity' of an 'Indian mindset', and an 'Indian way' of working and living. There seems to be a growing disaffection amongst the privileged classes in India towards the 'Indian school'.

Undoubtedly language, i.e., English language as the de facto lingua franca of the world, has been a reason for the rise of international schools in India. In his book Learning from Conflict, Prof. Krishna Kumar states, “Competence in the use of English is the single most important marker of a young person's eligibility for negotiating the opportunity structure that the modern economy has made available. Those who lack competence in English have remarkably limited scope for moving into higher income and higher status roles in society.” This is reinforced in international schools through the exposure of students to western stereotypes, culture, and lifestyle. The textbooks, the furniture, teaching aids, food all promote an affluent metropolitan culture. In fact the 'schooling industry' has spawned a parallel industry of products, services, and supplies to these 'global' schools, with purely business motives. The clientele of these schools use them as an easy springboard for getting admission in universities abroad. In an environment of stiff competition and reservations, securing admissions in good Indian universities or professional colleges for courses of one's own choice is an increasingly bleak prospective for the average student. Therefore, those who can afford it prefer to study abroad, especially since, in India there is a cache attached to a 'foreign' degree. So, international schools do seemingly serve a vital purpose.

However, the flip side of this is that children in most international schools live in a certain twilight zone, getting the semblance of an authentic global schooling, but removed from the realities and contradictions of their neighbourhood, community, city, and country. Concerns about fairness, equity, and equality are rarely raised or discussed. And the international curricula are not really to blame for this, since they do allow for regional contextualization especially with regard to social sciences and languages. This happens because in the absence of adequate numbers of thoughtful and competent teachers with a contemporary world view, many international schools go only through the motions of offering an excellent education. However what one often sees in these schools, barring some prominent exceptions of course, is quite average, even mediocre teaching. The teachers in international schools, apart from the few expatriate teachers who are employed at much higher salaries paid in dollars, come from the same pool as that which serves the convent and public schools in India. They haven't been previously exposed to or trained in contemporary teaching practices that are expected for delivering international curricula. Despite the crash course training these schools do provide after recruitment, the teachers are not adequately supported or mentored to enable them to shed conditioned ways of teaching and adopting more learner and learning centred approaches. To exacerbate the situation, many of the teachers come from fairly modest backgrounds with rather conservative mindsets. This results in a socio-economic disconnect between the teachers and their students who have been exposed to a different value system. Parents, especially the NRI and expatriate parents are rather critical of the 'Indian' teachers and look down upon them. In fact, an invisible caste system has been created amongst teachers in international schools. The elite class are the expatriate teachers with foreign passports and international qualifications, next are the Indian origin teachers with international qualifications. Following them are the Indian teachers with Indian qualifications. Last come the Indian staff without a teaching qualification who also get to work as teaching assistants. Such an organizational structure doesn't help establish an ethos of collaboration, mutual respect within the schools. Notwithstanding the fact that these schools cater to only a tiny segment of our school-going population, the subtle discrimination these schools breed, is a matter of concern especially when the promoters and owners of the schools are themselves Indian.

In the final analysis it's pertinent to ask whether international schools play a vital role in India. I believe they have the same relevance as they did in the 70s and 80s – for a small minority of young people – diplomats' and expatriates' children who need to be globally mobile. For the majority of our schools – government and private, what we really need are high standards in line with the best in the world – especially in terms of curriculum, teaching, and assessment. The rest can be achieved with the internet and cloud-based technologies. Our children can learn alongside students anywhere in the world, with our schools partnering with schools from other parts of the world. That would be truly going global, while living local.

I can be reached at : mayamenon@teacherfoundation.org
This article has appeared as a cover story in the Teacher Plus edition of April 2013