DIDI
What kind of problems did Shaheen face when she settled in India?
Shaheen Mistri, the Indian social activist and educator was born with a silver spoon in her mouth. It was her trips to Mumbai that showed her the inequity rampant in India and that helped her to identify her life mission. The first difference she noticed was about the academic system in India which prioritized
bookish form of learning. So she realized that she would be able to learn more in the city, beyond the classroom. In the city, she walked into a low-income community buzzing with life. She was astonished to know that an estimated 10,000 people lived there with no running water, no system of waste disposal, and shared six dark cubicle toilets. When she entered a home of the native in that community she saw, that home was smaller than the bathroom of her house. Illiteracy, poor housing, sanitation etc are only a few among the myriad problems Shaheen faced in India when she settled.
What was the inequity that she found in India?
To Shaheen Mistri, life in her lovely white colonial home in Jakarta was a pleasant, almost perfect life.But in India she was dazed at the unfair conditions. Through the window of her air-conditioned car, she saw children begging in the streets. She would see piles of wasted food at a friend’s party and when she
left, she would notice a woman sitting on the side of the road, sharing out the meager amounts of dal and rice for her family. She noticed the wide disparity that existed in different people’s lives. On the one side life abounded in abundance and affluence while on the other side life strangled with impoverishment and destitution.
Why, do you think, the principals of different schools refused to give a space for the children from the slum?
The principals of the different schools refused to give a space for the children from the slum for the most illogical reasons. The fear of spreading diseases, scratch on the desks with glass bangles worn by the daughters of the fishermen were only a few rubbish kind of excuses. It is clear that the rich takes care of
the rich only. Only a few like Shaheen Mistri is an exception to them. The children of the affluent get ample opportunities for their better bringing up while the children of the poor are always underprivileged. In a world where education has become business, the principals of the sophisticated educational
institutions are motivated by the huge sum of capital offered for the children of the rich. They are least bothered about the marginalized lot who live in the fringes of the social structure.
Shaheen refers to the Indian education system as ‘bookish’. Comment on this.
Shaheen Mistri noticed that in India bookish form of learning replaced the academic rigour and intellectual stimulation she had received in the U. S. So she realized that she would be able to learn more in the city beyond the classroom.
Indian educational system is still teacher centred with more of the TTT or Teacher’s Talking Time. Its main objective is to help the students achieve high marks in the examinations. Students in a classroom are taught the same material in the same traditional method. Direct instructions and lectures given to the students and the students receive these instructions seated on a permanent seat. Their social development is given little attention. Interaction with peer groups for discovery learning is seldom possible in such acurriculum. Socializing is largely discouraged except for extracurricular activities and teamwork based
projects. The curriculum is single and unified one for all students, regardless of ability or interest. The scope for practical examination and its scores is minimal and hence the students fail to gather practical expertise. Instead they get theoretical knowledge which does not generally make them proficient and
skillful. This kind of system produces only certificates and not experts.
Learning experiences which involve hand on activities, student led discoveries and group activities help in better assimilation and reinforcement of knowledge. But this system is not practised in most of the schools in India. Hence Shaheen Mistri is right in her observation. I personally feel that she became a great educator with her experiences outside the classroom.
PREPARED BY DR SAJEENA SHUKKOOR, HSST (ENGLISH), TRIVANDRUM
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What kind of problems did Shaheen face when she settled in India?
Shaheen Mistri, the Indian social activist and educator was born with a silver spoon in her mouth. It was her trips to Mumbai that showed her the inequity rampant in India and that helped her to identify her life mission. The first difference she noticed was about the academic system in India which prioritized
bookish form of learning. So she realized that she would be able to learn more in the city, beyond the classroom. In the city, she walked into a low-income community buzzing with life. She was astonished to know that an estimated 10,000 people lived there with no running water, no system of waste disposal, and shared six dark cubicle toilets. When she entered a home of the native in that community she saw, that home was smaller than the bathroom of her house. Illiteracy, poor housing, sanitation etc are only a few among the myriad problems Shaheen faced in India when she settled.
What was the inequity that she found in India?
To Shaheen Mistri, life in her lovely white colonial home in Jakarta was a pleasant, almost perfect life.But in India she was dazed at the unfair conditions. Through the window of her air-conditioned car, she saw children begging in the streets. She would see piles of wasted food at a friend’s party and when she
left, she would notice a woman sitting on the side of the road, sharing out the meager amounts of dal and rice for her family. She noticed the wide disparity that existed in different people’s lives. On the one side life abounded in abundance and affluence while on the other side life strangled with impoverishment and destitution.
Why, do you think, the principals of different schools refused to give a space for the children from the slum?
The principals of the different schools refused to give a space for the children from the slum for the most illogical reasons. The fear of spreading diseases, scratch on the desks with glass bangles worn by the daughters of the fishermen were only a few rubbish kind of excuses. It is clear that the rich takes care of
the rich only. Only a few like Shaheen Mistri is an exception to them. The children of the affluent get ample opportunities for their better bringing up while the children of the poor are always underprivileged. In a world where education has become business, the principals of the sophisticated educational
institutions are motivated by the huge sum of capital offered for the children of the rich. They are least bothered about the marginalized lot who live in the fringes of the social structure.
Shaheen refers to the Indian education system as ‘bookish’. Comment on this.
Shaheen Mistri noticed that in India bookish form of learning replaced the academic rigour and intellectual stimulation she had received in the U. S. So she realized that she would be able to learn more in the city beyond the classroom.
Indian educational system is still teacher centred with more of the TTT or Teacher’s Talking Time. Its main objective is to help the students achieve high marks in the examinations. Students in a classroom are taught the same material in the same traditional method. Direct instructions and lectures given to the students and the students receive these instructions seated on a permanent seat. Their social development is given little attention. Interaction with peer groups for discovery learning is seldom possible in such acurriculum. Socializing is largely discouraged except for extracurricular activities and teamwork based
projects. The curriculum is single and unified one for all students, regardless of ability or interest. The scope for practical examination and its scores is minimal and hence the students fail to gather practical expertise. Instead they get theoretical knowledge which does not generally make them proficient and
skillful. This kind of system produces only certificates and not experts.
Learning experiences which involve hand on activities, student led discoveries and group activities help in better assimilation and reinforcement of knowledge. But this system is not practised in most of the schools in India. Hence Shaheen Mistri is right in her observation. I personally feel that she became a great educator with her experiences outside the classroom.
PREPARED BY DR SAJEENA SHUKKOOR, HSST (ENGLISH), TRIVANDRUM
CLICK TO DOWNLOAD THIS FILE
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