Learners in Context:
Children’s voices and experiences do not find
expression in the classroom. Often the only voice heard
is that of the teacher. When children speak, they are
usually only answering the teacher’s questions or
repeating the teacher’s words. They rarely do things,
nor do they have opportunities to take initiative. The
curriculum must enable children to find their voices,
nurture their curiosity—to do things, to ask questions
and to pursue investigations, sharing and integrating
their experiences with school knowledge—rather than
their ability to reproduce textual knowledge. Reorienting
the curriculum to this end must be among our highest
priorities, informing the preparation of teachers, the
annual plans of schools, the design of textbooks,learning materials and teaching plans, and evaluation
and examination patterns.
Children will learn only in an atmosphere where
they feel they are valued. Our schools still do not convey
this to all children. The association of learning with
fear, discipline and stress, rather than enjoyment and
satisfaction, is detrimental to learning. Our children need
to feel that each one of them, their homes,
communities, languages and cultures, are valuable as
resources for experience to be analysed and enquired
into at school; that their diverse capabilities are accepted;
that all of them have the ability and the right to learn
and to access knowledge and skills; and that adult society
regards them as capable of the best. We are becoming
more aware of the importance of these needs as our
schools expand and increasingly include children from
all sections of society. The midday meal and the
provisioning of infrastructural support and pedagogic
concern for inclusive education are among the most
significant developments in recent times. A strong stand
must be taken against all forms of corporal punishment.
The boundaries of the school need to become more
porous to the community. At the same time, the
problems of curriculum load and examination-related
stress require urgent attention in all their dimensions.
Physical and emotional security is the cornerstone for
all learning, right from the primary to the secondary
school years, and even afterwards.
