3-2-1 Tuesdays with Ms Niv

Issue #004 / August 4, 2020

Hi! This is a weekly newsletter on education. Once a week, curated by me from amongst the videos I watch and articles that I read. Most of you would have been too busy to track trends in education or deliberate on career choice, parenting or pedagogy. Find it all here.

For whom? Students, educators and parents

When? Every Tuesday

Where? my blog post, register with your e-mail id, it is free.

I have been a research scientist, a journalist and an educator over 3 decades. I read and I write.  With this weekly newsletter, I intend to share what I read, learn and experience while I engage with students, parents and teams of teachers across K-12 schools, higher education institutions and ed-tech organisations.

3-2-1 Tuesdays with Ms Niv  is a newsletter for you to subscribe and enjoy your learning journey with me. This week, it consists of:  3 images, 2 thoughts and 1 video.

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Three Images For The Week

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Two Thoughts For The Week

“Children learn what they live. Put kids in a class and they will live out their lives in an invisible cage, isolated from their chance at community; interrupt kids with bells and horns all the time and they will learn that nothing is important or worth finishing; ridicule them and they will retreat from human association; shame them and they will find a hundred ways to get even. The habits taught in large-scale organizations are deadly.”
― John Taylor Gatto

“We stigmatize mistakes. And we’re now running national educational systems where mistakes are the worst thing you can make — and the result is that we are educating people out of their creative capacities.”
― Ken Robinson

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One Video For The Week

Let people with disability help you look sideways and help you solve problems, innovate, even plan better curriculum and schools of learning. “When we design for disability first, you often stumble upon solutions that are better than those when we design for the norm.” The process of ideation and iteration are fundamental to problem solving. Design thinking – an essential path to tread on way to a better world for everyone.

Very few innovations in this world have been the ones that came after succeeding the first time. Most of the greatest and most successful ones are those that failed many times before iterating into their successful forms. Did you know that text on mobiles were designed for the deaf? the OXO peeler was designed for the arthritic?

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Guest column :

Educator of the week (By invitation)

Bringing In an important Stakeholder in School and Higher Education

The current pandemic has caused major disruptions in the process of learning both in school and higher education. Given the closure of educational institutions and no clarity on when they are likely to permit learners physically return to their institutions, several questions are being raised on how do we take forward the learning process. We adapted to online learning more by compulsion and necessity rather than choice and proper planning. Here too, we notice the impact of the digital divide, in terms of access and connectivity. As someone passionate about the ‘learning process’ and having had the opportunity to be a part of it from multiple perspectives, the ‘lockdown’ has allowed me to reflect on how important it is for a meaningful dialogue and inclusion of critical stakeholders who should be an integral part of this process. During the lockdown we noticed several ‘hiccups’ and ‘tensions’ involving educational institutions, facilitators, learners and their parents. Each of these groups were responding to the ‘experiments in learning’ during the pandemic in their own ways and from their ‘unique lens’. In many ways, each was justified in the stand they took and the approach they adopted.

As one moves forward, it is vital that the role of ‘parents as responsible stakeholders’ who can also be ‘held to account’  is critically recognized.  A caveat at this stage. For too long as part of the pandemic have we been using the word ‘social distancing’. As a student of the social sciences, I find this word a little uncomfortable. The lockdown and its consequences do not require ‘social distancing’ but greater  ‘social and emotional bonding’. What the lockdown needs us to practice is ‘physical distancing’ as different from ‘social distancing’!  So, in these days of ‘physical distancing’ when learners would not be permitted to go back to their schools/colleges, the active involvement of parents as ‘responsible and accountable partners’ in the learning process becomes even more vital. Not for a moment, am I underscoring the role of other stakeholders – managements, facilitators and learners. I am only placing the lens on parents!

When I amplify on the role of parents, I am myself getting into those shoes (I too am a parent of a son who is still in the formal learning process). Firstly, partnering with educational institutions. The ‘lockdown’ has forced us to look at innovations. Educational institutions too are innovating and experimenting. This chartering into unknown territory has its challenges.  While looking at the initiatives, ‘could we catch them right, rather than focusing on the wrong’. When we only ‘catch them wrong’, the response become defensive. It often leads to an impression that there is no appreciation of an honest effort. An entire community of facilitators has been working with our children ever since they entered educational institutions.  Does one lose sight of their interests during a lockdown? The pandemic has caused an economic downturn, financial challenges and loss of jobs across the board.   This lockdown requires a partnership in which a critical support would be needed from the parent community.

Secondly, partnering in taking forward the learning process is imperative. I have been actively involved with online learning in the last few months. I have been highly appreciative of parents being part of the online classroom and look forward to their feedback. That feedback has often involved partnering with me beyond the online class to take forward the learning for their children. Maybe it is also time to look at how we build the ‘self esteem’ of our faculty who are often making an honest effort in a profession that often requires ‘constructive feedback’  and not just ‘negative comments and criticism’.

Thirdly, in my three and a half decades as a facilitator, I have found that the sustained impact of the learning process is seen when there is a genuine partnership between ‘parents and facilitators’. A partnership wherein the values, ideals, principles and processes we seek to usher in through ‘formal learning’ are also part of the larger ‘home experience’. This has become ever more critical in times of the current lockdown. Are we preparing our children for what a post lockdown world would require through practices at our home and in our community? In our communities are we bringing in the ‘culture of physical distancing’ so that it becomes a part of the ‘way of life’ when our children return to school/ college and until such time as a vaccine to deal with COVID 19 comes into the market?

Would end by saying that this partnership among stakeholders would involve a reflection on the role of administrations, facilitators and learners….but that needs to form the focus of another set of articles!

*Dr Sandeep Shastri has been in the field of education as a facilitator for the last 38 years. The views are his personal reflections.

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Parent speak:

Raising children has always been a challenge to parents. Successful parenting requires the parents to have some qualities and characteristics. However, I believe that parenting is a seamless  process which happens  unintentionally as soon as one becomes parent.

I am the mother of a son. Soon, he is going to enter adulthood. I have many beautiful memories to share which I felt while in my parenthood journey.  Although, it is difficult to express in words , I will try.

I feel that parenting starts when a baby comes in mother ‘s womb.  I received a good news and a bad news together. Former , I am expecting and latter was , I have complications. Furthermore, doctors advised me to abort the baby . In medical terms , my chorionic membrane was weak to hold the foetus in the womb. There was very less chances that baby will survive or at any stage it can be a dangerous miscarriage. Whereas, I had an inner voice that I ought to continue with the pregnancy.

So my parenting started from the day when I received the news that I am a would be mother.  A feeling of responsibility and extra care of my baby became an inevitable part of my life. Moreover, it was unconditional. By God ‘s grace ,I delivered a healthy baby boy.

Now, He is grown up. With time, phases and way  of parenting  changed but today also style is involuntary .

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Showcase:

Agastya International Foundation’s efforts shines bright during COVID 19 Pandemic: Be it shifting its operations online or working on the ground to spread awareness and distribute essentials, Agastya’s efforts during Coronavirus pandemic has been swift and effective.Amidst this pandemic, Aagstya has been working on developing modules to educate people on COVID-19.

Agastya Embarked on a unique humanitarian project to provide sustenance in the form of vital Grocery Kits , PPE Kits and Study Kits for the Children.  Agastya Instructors all over the country were involved with the Education Department and their teaching staff who in turn are training the children to make Simple Concept Based Home experiments with available material during these times.  The education kit has concepts related to class 6^th to 10^th comprising of physics, chemistry, biology and mathematics.  This kit also contains the manual for concepts.

Donations made to Agastya through the link below are exempt under 80G. https://pages.razorpay.com/pl_E1r6FHt9nFAxla/view

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Opinion: NEP 2020. I am hearing murmurs and shouts on medium of instruction to choices of vocational courses and coding with computers… What are your thoughts on its implementations and impact? Let us deliberate.

NEP 2020  From Ministry of Human Resource Development, Govt. of India. According to it, the National Education Policy lays particular emphasis on the development of the creative potential of each individual. It is based on the principle that education must develop not only cognitive capacities – both the ‘foundational capacities ’of literacy and numeracy and ‘higher-order’ cognitive capacities, such as critical thinking and problem solving – but also social, ethical, and emotional capacities and dispositions.

From The Hindu: A panel led by former Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chief K Kasturirangan had submitted the draft new NEP to Union Human Resource Development Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal when he took charge last year. The draft was in the public domain for feedback from various stakeholders, and over two lakh suggestions were received by the HRD Ministry.

• 4-year undergraduate degrees with multiple entry and exit options.
• A single higher education regulator, the Higher Education Council of India (HECI), for all higher education institutions (except medical and law colleges).
• While the current expenditure on education stands at 4% of the GDP, the NEP envisages increasing it to 6%.
• Medium of instruction should be mother tongue or regional language till Class V.
• A National Testing Agency (NTA) will offer a “high quality common aptitude test”. This test, however, will not be mandatory for university entrance exams.
• NEP aims to expand access to higher education for 50% of high school students by 2035, and achieve universal adult literacy before that date.
• Every child should have one vocational skill by the time they complete school.
• Target of 100% gross enrolment ratio from pre-school to secondary level by 2030.
• Report cards will be a comprehensive report on skills and capabilities instead of just marks and statements.
• There will be a National Mission on Foundational Literacy and Numeracy.
• Computer coding will be taught from Class VI.
• There will be no rigid separation between arts and sciences, curricular and extra-curricular.
• Vocational integration will be from Class 6, and internships will be included.
• Aim to reduce the importance of Board exams, which will be split into two parts: objective and descriptive.

From The Times Of India :

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And finally :

Here’s Baby Beluga by Yo-Yo Ma and Raffi  Baby Beluga song – a special single just released on the 40th anniversary of this iconic children’s song. Don’t miss the additional verse of grown up Baluga grads. Brings a smile on your face I promise 🙂 

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If you have created any material, virtual or physical that you think can be reviewed and/or featured in this news letter, please feel free to write to me at : niveditamukerjee10@gmail.com

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