Wednesday, December 5, 2012
Migrant labour
www.learnatroots.orgEvery panacea opens a Pandora's box.
Urban migration is the option for many rural families that look to gain a toehold on the ladder of affluence. Drawn out of their context, migrants struggle on the margins of cities as they join the disadvantaged in urban slums and learn to view life butt-end up.
we live on, unconscious of 'them' and 'their' existence, choosing to be unaware that the last- woman -standing sees value eroded below levels of subsistence and survival even as she steps away to avoid the faster, fancier cars that speed past her.
uprooted, alone, she endures the vagaries of life on the street, vulnerable beyond the worst nightmare.
bigotry,exclusion are amplified experiences when lived within the kaleidoscope of deprivation and poverty.
Personal tragedy is just one face to this story.
Roll the dice to learn how fast our artisanal wisdom is depleted as men and women wise in their ways in their villages, are now morphed into unskilled labour for us to exploit...
Urban migration is the option for many rural families that look to gain a toehold on the ladder of affluence. Drawn out of their context, migrants struggle on the margins of cities as they join the disadvantaged in urban slums and learn to view life butt-end up.
we live on, unconscious of 'them' and 'their' existence, choosing to be unaware that the last- woman -standing sees value eroded below levels of subsistence and survival even as she steps away to avoid the faster, fancier cars that speed past her.
uprooted, alone, she endures the vagaries of life on the street, vulnerable beyond the worst nightmare.
bigotry,exclusion are amplified experiences when lived within the kaleidoscope of deprivation and poverty.
Personal tragedy is just one face to this story.
Roll the dice to learn how fast our artisanal wisdom is depleted as men and women wise in their ways in their villages, are now morphed into unskilled labour for us to exploit...
Friday, April 27, 2012
Shall we bell the cat?
The Supreme Court Verdict has approached to address the Lakshman Rekha of private schooling in India. The call for private schools to admit children from different strata in the neighbourhood has set the Tumbleweed rolling on mandated inclusion in all neighbourhood schools nationwide.
What stops us now from crossing this threshold in one clean step instead of excluding minority held schools or schools of alien origin from this egalitarian move?
Will this exemption usher us closer to addressing the several mechanics of delivering quality with equity which is the cat we must bell..
The learning path of children
It is time to wake up and smell the coffee on the differentiated developmental needs of childhood and youth across its several stages. To respond is to not preempt, to describe is to stop prescribing and this is the frame of mind with we must feed the hungry infant and nurture the young mind and body.
To hatch the egg before its time, to starve the caterpillar or feed the pupa is not a sound nourishment plan to breed butterflies.
So it is with the learning path of children and youth which must follow its natural trajectory and rise to meet the physical and psychic needs of each stage of development.
It is important that we listen keenly and favour homegrown solutions over cut and paste imports and work to incubate, verify and deploy appropriate models to live love and learn. Or we choose to fail the mandate and spirit of the RTE.
The wind carries whispers of ‘our children’ and ‘their children’ and how the two will never meet. The voices of bigots use the same syntax everywhere.
www.learnatroots,org/ the learning path of children
www.learnatroots,org/ the learning path of children
Act now!
Need to act now
To the child we know we cannot say wait till tomorrow for her needs must be met today for every child to claim her endowment and develop optimally. To strengthen the child, we must follow the child and his needs and rights today and not pussyfoot around the protectionist posturing of lobbies of vested interest.
Several Aided schools in Kerala and TamilNadu have thrived and served in their contexts to deliver value and build young people and children. Diverse models dot the nation and these proven ways of work can help usher a new dawn for the many by going where these pathfinders have gone in communities across the nation.
Central control of a monster RTE bandwagon could trundle these initiatives and actually flatten several provisions enshrined in the RTE Act. The fence cannot feed on the grass, Mr. Sibal!
The Right to Live and Learn
Right to live and learn
What will happen if The Right to Education is read with the Fundamental Right to life for children for whom access to education is the lifeline between having and losing? For now and all time?
Media which cries itself hoarse over the Freedom of Speech for itself and its minions must raise its voice to a crescendo to speak for all children in the subcontinent. This linkage of fundamental right to life and education for all children could then be used to overrule the cacophony of provisions for minorities and other interests (including unregulated imported models of schooling mushrooming around our metros.)
It is time to ungate our communities before we are all reduced to living in our ghettoes. Our schools and our streets must be opened to all children to learn and play together. For that we have to open our hearts and free our minds of old prejudices.
Monday, January 2, 2012
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