ManishChand:UNDERSTAND AND EVALUATE A PRIMARY SCHOOL TEACHER'S STATEMENT"I TEACH FROM THE TEXTBOOKS PRESCRIBED IN MY SCHOOL. I AM A CONSCIENTIOUS AND SINCERE TEACHER AND TRY TO TEACH AND EXPLAIN TO THE FULL CONTENT OF THE TEXTBOOK. I EXAMINE THEIR LEARNING BY GIVING THEM PERIODIC TESTS THAT SEEK TO FIND OUT IF THEY REMEMBER WHAT HAS BEEN TAUGHT" INCIDENTLY, THIS TEACHER WAS AWARDED THE BEST TEACHER AWARD BECAUSE ALL HER STUDENTS GOT HIGH SCORES IN THE EXAMINATION.

Above statement is not startling because now a day’s classroom practices are, in almost all schools, dominated by textbooks. All premises of flexibility of the curriculum and syllabus and freedom of the children and teacher are completely forgotten. It happens when the time an educational plan reaches the classroom. The teachers are seen as either incompetent or lack of accountability or both.  The school is seen as devoid of all learning.  Material and the environment are seen wild goose chase for child’s learning. The textbook appears as the single tool of best learning in schools.  It is expected to receive the entire knowledge child at a given stage. Child does not need to look beyond the four walls. Therefore, ‘teaching the textbook’ becomes the sole concern of schools.

Objectives of learning:

The school of classroom can be considered as traditional system of education which is devoid of interaction. Teacher seems to be meek dictator of textbook culture. There is no place for children voice and experience. Teachers’ main objective is to cover the syllabus in the time. Students are supposed to mug up whatever they have been taught. Teacher seems to be promoting rote learning. The textbook as part of bible, becomes one tool to engage the child in learning. The basic thrust of textbook is to enable children to become able to read write and remember in the main exam.  

But the teacher in such classroom practices can be used for variety of activities, concrete learning material, as well as textbooks.  What is to be learnt is planned as per the objectives of curriculum and the syllabus.  What is to be evaluated is decided on the basis of stage-specific objectives.. The purpose of learning through exam assessment is necessarily to improve the teaching learning process, materials, and be able to review the objectives that have been identified for different stages of school education. Another, objectives of learning should be meant to gauge the degree to which objectives are achieved and capabilities of the learners are developed. It is not just to know how many bits and pieces of facts have been memorized by children in the classroom. There must be full autonomy for the teachers in the classroom in pedagogical level. The textbook should not be considered as final order. Here it would insist the same Gandhi as said “If the textbooks are treated as a vehicle for education, the living word of the teacher has very little value. A teacher who teaches from textbooks does not impart originality to his pupils. He himself becomes a slave of textbooks and has no opportunity or occasion to be original. It therefore seems that the fewer textbooks are, the better it is for the teacher and his pupils.” (M.K. Gandhi, 1939)

Nature of Knowledge:

The teacher’s thinking is very confined into textual knowledge. The teacher needs to understand other dimension of knowledge. Teacher opines that textbook teaching, memorization and successfully writing in the exam are the nature of knowledge? Is this form of knowledge to pass out with excellent grade in the exam? Later on, forget all about, no matter. Teacher needs to understand that textbook as bundle of knowledge is useless through memorization unless it is understood in a practical sense.

Teachers must give space and opportunities to student to articulate their valuable reflection on the matter so that construction of knowledge could occur in the classroom. I am reminded of what Pratima Kale points out in her essay is very much similar with teachers practice with students in classroom, “the teachers projected symbol is of a profession nobly dedicated to the service of society, a body of trained and qualified men, confident in their knowledge of what is best for their clients, with full freedom to do what they think best in educational matters”.

Knowledge is so called intellectual power, and internal powers (Phuko). A learner is supposed to possess good knowledge, competencies if s/he has to succeed in the examination. On the basis of this knowledge, competencies development can be dreamed otherwise it is vague idea. The more developed the power, the more the possibility of the person’s success becomes as a professional. So knowledge of learner is not a one-day play rather it develops throughout time. Knowledge of students depend on their clear understanding and evaluation of the following factors and their inter-relations- students, their family, the community surrounded, the society at large, the country‘s tradition, socio-political and economic situation. So students’ knowledge development is based on both theoretical and practical and also it is influenced by social factors. I find formation of knowledge similar view in Munby’s essay points that there are two major threads, on the character of teachers’ knowledge. “The first thread concerns the work that seems to have influenced to our understandings of teacher knowledge from a theoretical, even a propositional stance. The second thread moves us towards a more practical oriented conception of knowledge as we describe important milestone”.

It is very important to note that teachers should be aware of the future development of the forms of knowledge.  The learners’ experiences should be organized to develop basis for all areas. The learner neither needs to know learners can be actively engaged only when they are motivated to learn. The very choice of work needs to be such that it encourages learners to participate and apply themselves. It is true that only active engagement involves enquiry, exploration, questioning, debate, application, and reflection leading to theory building and creation of innovative ideas formation of knowledge can take place. The syllabus of textbook should select experiences that build a knowledge base, capabilities to think rationally, ability to learn, capacity to work and to participate in economic processes, sensitivity to others, and aesthetic appreciation. It should be suitable for the development of a rational commitment to the democratic values of equality, freedom, autonomy of mind, autonomy of action, care and respect for others, and justice.

Teachers’s assumption about learner:

Teacher in such a conventional classroom expects that learner as empty glass. She/he imparts his/her best knowledge to the students.  The Learner is perceived as a passive receiver who just learns everything by heart from the classroom and pours out during the exam. If there is no scope for interaction, discussion and conversation among learners, the class is not going to help as fruitful and activities based learning.  It is crucial in the classroom to motivate student-teachers to familiar themselves with the structures of school subjects and see their relation with standard-wise objectives, syllabus and mythology. It should be also necessary to help them to understand their students with the help of concepts, principles and theories in various faculties of knowledge.

It appears that it was traditional education (education as practice of domination) which focuses only over teaching rather learning. I realize that most of the students learned more during practical and classroom interaction. One might anticipate about such classroom, where  student could not be active role researcher, investigator and critical thinker. I find that nature of learning / learner should be based on Gandhian philosophy who advocates that self-reliance and self-dependent for learner, hand and heart experimental learning, and learners must have the freedom to create their own model of knowledge about the world. It means it could be a interactive session only if children experience and voices are heard.

 It seems that school (curriculum, textbook and curriculum) is meant of maintaining norms state authority in the form of I.S.A. (Ideological State Apparatus) according to Louis Althusser. Since nothing big changes have taken place since colonial and after independence in education system.  We remember as Shukla points out, “colonial policy used written examinations to evolve a bureaucratic, centralized governance of education. In our social life, the examination systems served the purpose of installing in the public mind the faith that colonial rule was fair and free of prejudice.” (S.Shukla(1978): 112-25,7-80.

Teacher understands of nature and use of teaching-learning materials:

In offered such classroom situation, where official control erodes the teachers’ autonomy by denying him/her to use innovative approach. It does not seem that teacher knows how to use teaching learning material because in traditional classroom. It is seen that T.L.M. are as model and kept for exhibition. Students are not supposed to touch and use. Teaching learning material appears in almost public and private school as show piece. According to Hridaykant Dewan, TML are material which can help in learning and also help in spreading the knowledge. It can be useful only if children will touch, feel, use it and play with it. T.L.M. can provide children an opportunity through which they can enhance their understanding about abstract thing.( Dewan’s T.L.M. vs Teaching Aid)

Textbook can be used as teaching learning material in two ways by teachers. In the first type, “teachers have the freedom to decide what the materials to use for developing a lesson. He /she is trained and expected to prepare own curricular plan and mode of assessment. He/she has authority over what happens in the classroom, in what order, at what pace and with the help of what resources.  The second types of education system ties the teacher to the prescribed textbook. She/he is given choice in the organization of curriculum, pacing and the mode of final assessment. She/he must ensure that children are able to write answers to questions based on the any lesson in the textbook without seeing the text, for this is what they will have to do in the examination.” (Kumar p.452).

What does mean it means to ‘know’-who is learning? What is being learnt?

Different kinds of situations provide different kinds of learning experiences to students. Exposure to a variety of learning situations such as self-work, small group work, and whole class (or large group) work helps in widening the experiential base. It also helps in developing diverse perspectives. Therefore, it becomes important to have opportunities for self-learning, peer learning, and learning through interacting with teachers nor could be expected to be aware that the experiences are chosen with forms of knowledge in mind. At the primary level there may not be enough conceptual basis for any clear demarcation of sciences and social sciences. But it could be possible to introduce ways of looking at the social and natural world in the form of practical activities, and making sense out of them.

Additions to that, the entire image of teachers’ practice involve in process of learning, the exchange of idea and healthy dialogue. I also find the teachers practice as same as Shulman argues in his article , the goal of teacher education is not to indoctrinate or train teachers to behave in prescribed ways, but to educate teachers to reason soundly about their teaching as well as to perform skillfully.

The curriculum framework 2000 enables schools and teacher to make choices and move towards greater autonomy. Such a movement towards school autonomy is seen in a positive light by all major policy and curriculum documents but it does not appear in the actual classroom teaching practices. When we come to decisions regarding methods of teaching, pace of learning, material, and concrete examples to be used, we reach the level of school and the classroom. These are concrete decisions that can be made only for specific classrooms and children, as the actual learning happens only in the child’s mind and depends totally on what has been learnt earlier. Therefore, the reinterpretation of the teaching pedagogy, content, and materials are completely within the sphere of practical decisions to be made by the teacher. Finally, what is needed is not a single textbook but a learning material that could be used to engage the child in active learning.  Similarly I find superficial statement on the ground and do not find any logic what National Curriculum framework 2005 articulates a new vision of the school curriculum as an inclusive space and the proactive engagement of the school teacher with processes of curriculum redesign is a necessary condition to ensure the success of the NCF. Therefore, we find that teachers do not find enough space for themselves so how one will imagine that children will be given full autonomy and freedom to share their experience and knowledge.

 Nature of school she/he is likely to be working in:

It is little difficult to assume that whether school was private or public. But it seems that school was traditional. But it is certain that still almost schools are following traditional methods of imparting instruction. Teachers still engaged in teaching textual knowledge, lecture method, chalk and walk method, encouraging rote memorization with least concern for developing creativity, logical thinking and decision making ability. The methods of teaching are mainly adopted to enhance the cognitive ability in theoretical concepts through frequent repetition method.

At present time, the global competition demands a paradigm shift from traditional methods of teaching to innovative methods of learning. There is urgent need to discourage the use of traditional method and to encourage effective teaching, democratic participatory and competent methods that focus upon inculcating creativity and imagination, critical thinking, curiosity and decision making ability and not rote memorization.  In India, there is a tendency to take too wide a definition of curriculum in much of recent literature. “All the publications under DPEP, many innovative NGOs, and recent discussions in curriculum seem to say too often that everything that happens in the school is part of the curriculum. Result of this, the teachers work is to cover the syllabus on time.” (Position Paper, 2005,).  Above teaching methods have to be emphasized that develop not only cognitive ability but also affective and co-native ability. It is necessary to use updated discussion methods, scientific methods, heuristic methods, project methods, digital presentations of lecture etc, could become a integral part of the teaching learning process. Therefore, it can help in retaining the students in the education system as well also train them for facing open challenges.

Conclusion

Let me confine my view in nutshell, having heard the statement of teachers, it seemed that there was paucity of learners’ voice and experience. The teacher was using traditional rote learning pedagogy in which it was felt that the children apply their accumulated knowledge (rote memorization) in order to answer the question during the exam. The basic objectives of teacher’s pedagogy is to examine their memory not co-native ability so that they can write during exam and get passed. The learner’s nature was passive and empty vessel where teacher taught the best his/her side. The teacher pedagogy of teaching was authoritarian and less democratic participatory. The teacher has used text as bible by promoting text culture. There was no scope for discussion between teacher, interaction among learners and practical activities. It seems that that banking / traditional theory of mind was being applied by teacher. The classroom seemed to me remind Freire ,Paulo who argues Tradition/Banking education and put emphasis on critical process of enquiry in his ‘Pedagogy of the Oppressed’.

References

S.Shukla,” education Economy and Socal structure in British India,” Varanasi National Journal of Education1,nos1 and 2 (1978): 112-25,7-80.

M.K. Gandhi [Harijan,September 9,1939)]

Pratima Kale; The Guru and the Professional: The Dilemma of the Secondary School Teacher.Lee S. Shulman ; Wisdom and Practice.

Hugh Munby ; teachers’ Knowledge and How It Develops.

Goel and Sharma, A Study of the Evolution of Textbooks, NCERT,  Delhi.

Kumar, K. 1988, “Origins of India’s Textbook Culture”, Comparative Education Review, 32 (4), 452-65.

Chapter 2, “Learning and Knowledge” and Chapter 4, “School and classroom environment” in. National Curriculum Framework-2005, NCERT, New Delhi.

Position paper on Curriculum, Syllabus and Textbooks, NCF 2005, NCERT.

Jarolimek, J, Selection and use of materials.

H.K. Dewan ,Buniyaadi Shiksha,April 2008.

ManishChand:MID-DAY-MEAL POLICY: A CASE STUDY ANALYZING JOHN W. KINGDON'S THEORY ON AGENDA SETTING

         

I will seek to critically analyze the mid day meal scheme being implemented in India. I will look into the details of the aims of the scheme, its target group, details of implementation. I will try to estimate and analyze the success of the mid day meal scheme. I will also try to look the scheme in meeting the objectives it set out to achieve through King don three model. Therefore, to know the  limitation of this mid day meal policy I will follow Kingdon’s theory of agenda setting, three streams of problems, politics and policy come together at the same time, a window of opportunity occurs, issue come into the agenda.

  

Kingdons’s theory suggests problem identification and politics put an issue on the agenda, and the policy alternatives  are a secondary factor in agenda setting.  The present study is an analyze of this aspect of Kingsdon’s theory by reviewing the policy on Mid-Day-Meal Scheme (MDMS). Kingdon’s model underlines the existence of three distinct, but complementary, processes, or streams, in policy-making. It is the coupling of these streams that allows, at a given time and in a given context, for a particular issue to be turned into a policy. These three streams are

• The stream of problems. The rationale behind this stream is that a given situation has to be identified and explicitly formulated as a problem for it to bear the slightest chance of being transformed into a policy. Indeed, a situation that is not defined as a problem, and for which alternatives are never envisaged or proposed, will never be converted into a policy issue.
• The stream of policies. The second stream used to explain how an issue rises or falls on an agenda has to do with the stream of policies. This stream is concerned with the formulation of policy alternatives and proposals. An extremely important aspect of this model is the belief that such proposals and solutions are not initially built to resolve given problems, but rather they float in search of problems to which they can be tied.
• The stream of politics. Although they take place independently from the other two streams, political events, such as an impending election or a change in government, can lead a given topic and policy to be included or excluded from the agenda. Indeed, the dynamic and special needs created by a political event may move the agenda around.     

When question comes how do an issue becomes part of agenda setting. It comprises of many things such as

(i)                 An event or crisis.

(ii)-Information/evidence from evaluations and existing programs

(iii)-Reveals that a situation (because of severity, magnitude, number of people affected, etc.) requires attention.

(iv)-Values, beliefs or motivations can turn a condition or situation into a problem.

(v)-Collective action of interest groups, protests, lobby, social movements around a particular topic.

(v)-Role of the media.

(vi)-Political changes.

According to Dearing and Rogers,“The agenda setting process is an ongoing competition among issue proponents to gain the attention of media professionals, the public, and policy elites.”  (Dearing and Rogers, 1996). On the contrary, other issue does not become part of agenda because it has following reason. 

(i)Problem Definition

(ii)Crowded Out (by other issues)

(iii)Problem not recognized as a relevant issue/problem

(iv)Deemed not to be a legitimate state concern.

(v)Non-decision-making

Background of Policy

Here, I would mention about background of policy which I am going to look at. Mid Day Meal in schools has had a long history in India. In 1925, a Mid Day Meal Programme was introduced for disadvantaged children in Madras Municipal Corporation. By the mid 1980s three States viz. Gujarat, Kerala and Tamil Nadu and the UT of Pondicherry had universalized a cooked Mid Day Meal Programme with their own resources for children studying at the primary stage.  By 1990-91 the number of States implementing the mid day meal programme with their own resources on a universal or a large scale had increased to twelve states.

The National Programme of Nutritional Support to Primary Education known also as Mid Day Meals Scheme with a view to enhancing enrollment, retention attendance, and simultaneously improving nutritional levels among children.  The National Programme of Nutritional Support to Primary Education (NP-NSPE) was launched as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme on 15th August 1995, initially in 2408 blocks in the country. By the year 1997-98 the NP-NSPE was introduced in all blocks of the country. It was further extended in 2002 to cover not only children in classes I -V of government, government aided and local body schools, but also children studying in EGS and AIE centres. Central Assistance under the scheme consisted of free supply of food grains @ 100 grams per child per school day. It had subsidy for transportation of food grains up to a maximum of Rs 50 per quintal.

In September 2004 the scheme was revised to provide cooked mid day meal with 300 calories and 8-12 grams of protein to all children studying in classes I-V in Government and aided schools and EGS/ AIE centres. In addition to free supply of food grains, the revised scheme provided Central Assistance for (a) Cooking cost @ Re 1 per child per school day, (b) Transport subsidy was raised from the earlier maximum of Rs 50 per quintal to Rs. 100 per quintal for special category states, and Rs 75 per quintal for other states, (c) Management, monitoring and evaluation costs @ 2% of the cost of foodgrains, transport subsidy and cooking assistance, (d) Provision of mid day meal during summer vacation in drought affected areas.

3. In July 2006 the scheme was further revised to provide assistance for cooking cost at the rate of (a) Rs 1.80 per child/school day for States in the North Eastern Region, provided the NER States contribute Rs 0.20 per child/school day, and (b) Rs 1.50 per child/ school day for other States and UTs, provided that these States and UTs contribute Rs 0.50 per child/school day.

4.  In October 2007, the scheme has been further revised to cover children in upper primary (classes VI to VIII) initially in 3479 Educationally Backwards Blocks (EBBs). Around 1.7 crore upper primary children were included by this expansion of the scheme. From 2008-09 i.e w.e.f 1st April, 2008, the programme covers all children studying in Government, Local Body and Government-aided primary and upper primary schools and the EGS/AIE centres of all areas across the country. The calorific value of a mid-day meal at upper primary stage has been fixed at a minimum of 700 calories and 20 grams of protein by providing 150 grams of food grains (rice/wheat) per child/school day. 8.41 cr Primary students and 3.36 cr Upper Primary Students i.e a total of 11.77 cr students are estimated to be benefited from MDM Scheme during 2009-10.

Today, Mid day Meal scheme is serving primary & upper primary school children in entire country. Sinha, Shanta (2004). 

Analysis

Problem Identification 

First of all, question comes to our mind why do policymakers pay attention to some problems and not others? The answer lies in the way officials learn about conditions and, more important, the way these conditions come to be defined as problems. There are three ways to identify conditions. First, indicators may be used to assess the existence and magnitude of a condition--for example, economic conditions or human rights practices of countries around the globes can be monitored either routinely or through special studies. The indicators then can be used to measure the magnitude of change in the hope of catching official attention. Second, dramatic events or crises can occasionally call attention to a problem. A military coup or a revolution acts as a powerful stimulant for more or less foreign aid. Third, feedback from existing programs can bring conditions to the fore. Letters from Letters from constituents and impact evaluation studies are two relevant examples. Actually, not all conditions become problems . As Kingdon (1995 , p. 110) categorically asserts, problems contain a "perceptual, interpretive element.”

Whereas, according to Porter, for a social condition to be a problem, people must perceive it is such, and also see it as the condition amenable to a government action (Porter, 1995). So mid day meal problem was identified by PUCL. They started campaign with a writ petition submitted to the Supreme Court in April 2001 by People's Union for Civil Liberties, Rajasthan. Briefly, the petition demands that the country's gigantic food stocks should be used without delay to protect people from hunger and starvation. This petition led to a prolonged; public interest litigation (PUCL vs Union of India and Others, Writ Petition [Civil] 196 of 2001). Supreme Court hearings have been held at regular intervals, and significant "interim orders" have been issued from time to time. However, it soon became clear that the legal process would not go very far on its own. This motivated the effort to build a larger public campaign for the right to food.  In 2001, the Supreme Court ordered that the states should provide cooked meals for all school-children up to the fifth standard.

So in this way,MDMS was the result of a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by the People's Union for Civil Liberties, Rajasthan, before the the Supreme Court. The case was filed initially against the Government of India, Food Corporation of India (FCI) and six state governments, alleging that more than 50 million tonnes of food grains was stocked up with FCI while there was widespread hunger in the country, particularly in the drought-hit states of Rajasthan and Orissa. Eventually the list of respondents was extended to include all the States and Union Territories. The Supreme Court issued an order asking the states to implement eight different centrally-sponsored schemes for food security and to introduce cooked mid-day meals in all the government and government-aided schools. FAO’s latest report, The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2008 asserts that worldwide there were 923 million undernourished people in 2007, compared to 848 million in 2003–05. In 2008 the number of people suffering from chronic hunger is likely to have increased even further. According to a 2009 statement of the World Bank, the number of undernourished people exceeds now 1 billion. Shockingly, regression, rather than the progressive realization of the right to food, is the motto of the day.  

Policy Stream

It includes variety of ideas floating arounf such as the "policy primeval soup." Ideas are made by specialists in policy communities--networks that include bureaucrats, congressional staff members, academics, and researchers in think tanks who share a common concern in a single policy area. Then a policy get formed.  People thought together and came up with consensus that middaymeal is best possible solution. And this solution came from long struggle by PUCL through right to food. Later Super court gave the order to all the state to follow it. One truth emerges clear that judicial intervention is important in the fight for pro-poor policies. According to Jean Dreze "It is hard to imagine how mid-day meals could have been extended to 100 million children within three years without the firm intervention of the Supreme Court." He believes, however, that the right place to bring up issues like right to food is Parliament and not the courtroom. "The fact that it took public interest litigation in the Supreme Court to get political leaders to focus on children's nutrition rights is a telling reminder of the lopsidedness of Indian democracy." (Zaidie, Annie (2005)

Even we find that many states are not able to adopt it due to inadequate fund. If we critically analysis irrespective of the policies adopted by the State the poor have always found their own ways of overcoming the limitations facing them and their own reasons for doing so. The challenge of securing a better future for their children is in no way different from their overall struggle to access resources and institutions in general. The real issue is whether the policies and programs aimed superficially for their benefit recognize this and support them in their endeavor. MDMS can be realized only if there is a demand created for schools and such a demand can emerge through an intense social mobilization and public action programme against child labor and in favor of children’s rights especially the right to education through full time formal schools.

MDMS Objectives: to promote enrolment and elimination of hunger and Encouraging poor children, belonging to disadvantaged sections, to attend school more regularly and help them concentrate on classroom activities.

Strength

i-increasement in enrolment

ii- increasement in attendant

iii- improvement in nutritional status of children in classes

Limitation

i-very poor infrastructure facilities (e.g. cooking shed, water supply and

utensils);

ii-repetition of the same menu every day.

iii- inadequate fund.

 Political Stream

According to Kingdon, it may be it may not be favourable to the policy. There might be changes in government and there might be public protest against this policy which could influence it. Fortunately, there was public mood in favour of this MDMS policy. The MDMS policy was accepted which had a lot gain for the betterment of society. And there was no risk factor which could be prevented it from the getting adopted. But politicians and bureaucrats tend to be lukewarm about the free mid-day meal programme because there are very few rent-seeking opportunities in such low-budget schemes.  While it is an accepted fact that mid-day meal scheme has had a positive impact on some children. It must be recognized that it has not met the issue of freedom from hunger of all children. Thus if there has been a marginal increase in attendance of children due to the mid-day meal scheme this may have provoked only some children but not all children to be in schools regularly. While, those children who are out of school are left out of the scheme, even those who attend school regularly are not all reached out to by the mid-day meal scheme because the programme is confined only to the primary level and even this is yet to be initiated in many states.

So as of now there are only 50 million children  benefiting who avail of the opportunity for the mid-day meal scheme and about 150 million children in the 5-14 age group are not being covered under this programme. It is estimated that the overall coverage of the scheme as of January 2004, is only in half of India’s 31 states, with seven states with an aggregate of 400 million populations not implementing the scheme so far despite the Supreme Court order. It is being implemented fully in the states of Gujarat, Kerala, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu and in substantial parts of other states including Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and West Bengal, partially in Chattisgarh, Delhi, Orissa, and Punjab, but not at all in Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana (Third Report of the Commissioner, May 1^st,2003). The expected reason given by the states that have not implemented the scheme has been that of ‘lack of funds’.

 It has been seen that it is more lack of the political will to implement the scheme rather than anything else. For example, “it would cost the Uttar Pradesh government a mere Rs.300 crore per year to provide mid-day meals to all primary (upto class V) children. And if all the estimated 150 million children enrolled in government primary and secondary schools across the country are provided free mid-day meals (as in the US), the additional expenditure incurred (including the cost to the central government, transportation and state government costs) at Rs. 3 per student per day for 200 days would aggregate Rs. 9,000 crore annually — an 11 percent increment of the national education outlay of Rs. 80,000 crore.  (  Parika,2004). The programmes of Mid Day Meals deal with the phenomenon of hunger as much as with nutrition and school absenteeism. Therefore, there is a need for political consensus. Prosperity at one pole and hunger at the other was not sustainable. 

Problem in Policy Implementation and Scarce Resources.

Issues of exclusion and caste discrimination do afflict the MDMS’s precursor scheme of distribution of dry grain to government school children.  According to IIDS survey addresses the cooked, shared meal MDMS, data from the three states of the study in which the MDMS has been thus implemented (Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu) will provide the substance of the following discussion. Finally, to measure Dalit caste discrimination in terms of treatment in the MDMS, the seating or eating arrangement is used as a measurable indicator, with segregated arrangements indicating discrimination, and integrated arrangements indicating non-discrimination.  As a second indicator, subjective comments by respondents regarding preferential treatment or other informal methods of discrimination, are considered.( Joel, Lee and Thorat, Sukhadeo (2004)p.10)

There are many cases of social exploitation and discrimination in many school places. Caste-based discrimination was reported in two of the 63 schools that were visited. The absence of any evidence of caste-based discrimination in most schools is encouraging, and from this point of view mid-day meals have an important socialization value. Also, some discrimination is likely to have occurred in the selection of cooks. Although there were Dalit cooks in the sample villages, their number might have been higher in the absence of caste discrimination. Indeed, there have been media reports of Dalit cooks being removed in response to local protests, generally from parents belonging to non-Dalit castes.  Another problem in the provision of mid-day meals is that in some places supplies are irregular or inadequate. The supply of wheat for some schools is based on last year's enrolment, and since enrolment has risen quite dramatically, the amount of wheat provided is often inadequate. Khera, Reetika (2002).

The findings of our earlier studies (on the delivery of primary education in six districts of West Bengal) confirming varying degrees of social discrimination based on caste and religion. “ In two of the 15 villages under the study, upper caste Hindu children did not take food in the school, as the cook was a Muslim lady in one school and in the other she was a Dalit. In a school, children of caste Hindu families told us that they wanted to take the food but their parents forbade them from doing so. “Chan na kare ghare dhukte debena – [parents] won’t allow us to enter the house without having a bath.” Rana, Kumar (2004).

The major emerging obstacle to the success and spread of the mid-day meal programme comes from the upper-caste opposition to it. C. Chaluvaraju, headmaster of the Government Higher Primary School in Uramarakasalagere village, Mandya district, with his pupils. The mid-day meals served in the school were boycotted by upper-caste children as instructed by their parents, as the head cook was a Dalit. Several villages in Mandya district of Karnataka have boycotted the programme, protesting against the appointment of Dalit cooks. "The whole of our village consists of upper-caste people. Our children will not eat food made by a Dalit. If the government insists on retaining the cook, then we will reject the entire bisi oota scheme. Our children can eat at home," G. Sadasivaiah, the president of the SDMC at the Government Higher Primary School in Gowdeyanadoddi village, told Frontline. Menon, Parvathi (2003)  

It seems that the rationale behind hot cooked meals arises from the unsatisfactory trends in improvements in levels of under nutrition. Based on the three rounds of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS), “the all-India average reveals that there has been stagnation in the percentage of children (0-3 years) who are underweight. The number has reduced in the stunted category and has registered an increase in the wasted category. While the reduction of the stunted category is positive, the increase in the proportion of the wasted category is worrying.”( Rama Baru, 2008 Economic & P 20 Political Weekly).

Similarly, we find view Jean Dreze agrees that the mid-day meals' impact on child health and nutrition is questionable, as of now. "The quality of the meals is inadequate. However, with the recent injection of financial assistance for mid-day meals from the Central government, there are unprecedented opportunities for upgrading the quality and diversity of the food provided.” Drèze, Jean and Vivek S. (2003). 

Probable Solution

Apart from playing a very important role of eliminating classroom hunger and reducing the level of under nutrition..

It has to be noted that the cooked Mid day Meal programme alone cannot change the whole schooling system increased attendance of the children does not necessarily mean a better quality of education. Efforts are needed to streamline the whole schooling system from allocating more funds for infrastructure to ensuring better teaching and learning in the classroom. Mere pious pieces of advice by the political leaders and government officials are not sufficient to put a stop to teachers’ absenteeism of various kinds, particularly under a ramshackle inspection system. Stronger supervision by the local community can be the best corrective measure to eradicate these evils. Parents’ involvement in the implementation of the midday meal programme armed with certain legal power (through the parent-teacher committees) can bring about a sea change in the actual delivery of education. Needless to say that the local communities, parents are the most essential driving force not only for the implementation of the Mid-day-Meal programme, but also for the governance of the primary schools as a whole.

While planning for implementation of mid day meal programme, the issue of universal coverage is seldom raised. It is assumed that all children may not be able to come to schools and therefore the mid day meal scheme can act as an incentive to increase the enrolment and attendance of children in schools. In doing so, unwittingly the issue of provision of midday meal is seen as a means to increase enrolment and therefore is satisfied when there is a slight shift in the enrolment figures as a consequence of the scheme. Since the issue of hunger touches each and every child, and since a large number of children still do not access schools.  Calculations made on the basis of some more children being in schools and not on all children requiring being in schools are just not enough. It is necessary to see that to achieve a universal coverage of the right to food programme there is a need for universal access of every child to schools.

Conclusion

It seems that the Mid-Day-Meal policy is an example of Kingdon’s theory of three independent streams-identification of problems, generation of policy alternatives, and finally politics-coming together during a window of opportunity to arrive at change.  In particular, hunger, wastage of grains the issue during 2001 became more critical matter for problem identification which was raised by PUCL. Public mood clearly favored this compaign (right to food)  so the interest groups, NGO, and the right to food is a human right (Indian Constitution) and is a binding obligation well-established under international law, recognised in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.  So they united through right to food campaigns and utilized the national mood to fight against hunger. The Mid day meal scheme definitely adds an incentive to the student to go to school. It needs to be directed in the right places so as to fulfill the objective of providing nutrition to the children. Most parties involved agree that the measures suggested by the National Advisory Council will lead to better running of the scheme. But it needs introspection and deliberation on the part of the policy makers as well as implementation agencies in making this scheme a success and incentivize it to motivate children to come to schools.

REFERENCES

Kingdons,J.W.(1995). Agendas, Alternatives, and Public Policies. New York: Harper Collins College Publishers.

Shantha Singh; Mid day Meal Schem and Schools-A Need for Universal assessment.

Aravind, H.M. (2003) “Parents ‘Caste’ Aside Govt Mid-day Meal”, The Times of India, 4 July.

Drèze, Jean and Vivek S. (2003)  Hunger in Classroom.

Drèze, Jean and Aparajita Goyal (2003)  The Future of Mid day meal,(EPW July 2003)

 Rama Baru, Rajib Dasgupta, Mita Deshpande, Aparna Mohanty,Full Meal or Package Deal? June 14, 2008 Economic & P 20 Political Weekly).

Ravi, Padmalatha School meals make slow progress (India Together, 5 December 2006)

Zaidie, Annie (2005) Food, for education ,Frontline, March 2005.

Parikh, Kalpana and Summiya Yasmeen (2004) Groundswell for mid-day meal scheme (India Together, January 2004).

Joel, Lee and Thorat, Sukhadeo (2004) Dalits and the right to food: discrimination and exclusion in food related government programs.

Rana,Kumar (2004) The Possibilities of Mid-day Meal Programme in West Bengal by Kumar Rana, Pratichi (India) Trust, p. 23).

Sinha, Shanta (2004) Mid-day meal scheme and schools - A need for universal coverage.

Menon, Parvathi (2003) Untouchable Lunch (Frontline, August 2003)

Khera, Reetika (2002) Mid-day Meals in Rajasthan.

( Rama Baru, Rajib Dasgupta, Mita Deshpande, Aparna Mohanty,Full Meal or Package Deal? June 14, 2008 Economic & P 20 Political Weekly).

AGENDA-SETTING: THE UNIVERSAL SERVICE CASE;Joanne D. Eustis, April 7, 2000

Blacksburg, Virginia.

www.righttofoodindia.org

MANISHCHAND: HIDDEN CURRICULUM IN POLICIES ,TEXTBOOKS, SCHOOL PRACTICES AND GENDER CONSTRUCTION.

First of all, I would like to explain what hidden curriculum is. Hidden curriculum was originally coined by Philip Jackson’s ‘Life In Classroom’ (1968) to draw attention to the idea that schools do more than simply aid the transmission of knowledge between one generation and the next. Jackson argues that we need to understand “education” as a socialization process. That is a process that involves the transmission of norms and values as well as a body socially-approved knowledge (that also involves socially-derived conceptions of what constitutes valid knowledge, acceptable levels of understanding.

“NCF (2000) ensures that women learn to play out their “traditional” social roles as good mothers, wives and daughters within the family and the nation. It gives the emphasis on Indian tradition and the collapsing of values education with religious education puts on hold the possibilities of education emerging as an enabling tool for women empowerment.” We find how the policy implicitly envisages spoiling the value of education and promoting traditional role and religious education. One might think that religious education always inculcates high morality. A woman can only keep safe her chastity, if she resides inside the home. NCF (2000) is promoting the women empowerment but under the boundary of four wall of family. This does not talk give the encourage women education, schemes for women literacy, promote the gender equality through equal participation of women in social, cultural, economical, and political sphere so that they can become independent.

According to National Education policy (1986) gives brief regards to women education. The view of 1986 policy refinement does not produce any important positive supply the manner in which gender is dealt with in the texts. But there is dire need to develop and implement gender inclusive and gender sensitive curricular strategies to nurture a generation of girls and boys who are equally competent and are sensitive to one another. They should grow up in a caring and sharing mode as equals and not as adversaries. We can also see how social leader like Dadabhai Naroji, his views is not very open towards women education. His thinking is male oriented for example, “But that time has not come yet...Good and educated mothers only will raise good and educated son.”(Bhog,p.1639).

NCF(2000) seems to be saying that there is a dichotomy between Western and Indian culture and tradition. So it is difficult to bring social secular trend as Western cultures have. For example, “It also ignore the subordinate position that women occupy in different religions.”(Bhog,p.1640).

The NEP (1986) argued that it will play a positive interventionist role in the empowerment of women. Unfortunately, Indian state appears to be failure preventing the domestic violence and sex-selection technologies and sexual harassment. We find in textbook also women are represented as stereotypical role. For instance, “In 10 lesson, the presence of women was either mentioned in passing or confined to traditional roles-ie, as mothers, sister, etc.”(Bhog,p.1640). On the contrary, minor event in the lives of great men were portrayed and described are very much highlighted. For instance, “No details are given of their family life or homes. There is, in Baba Amte’s life history, a mention of the impact that his mother had on him but this is an aspect of the customary supporting role that women have to play in the lives of great men.”(Bhog, p.1640).

The textbook imagery reflects the idea of women as care-givers and by showing them predominantly as housewives. But in few those instances where they are portrayed in other brave, they appear again in the care-giving role. For instance, “Rani of Jhansi is no doubt a great rider and fighter but she is vulnerable too- prone to depression (at the death of her son and husband) and doubt (the Rani often finds refuge in prayer and withdrawal from the world). Even when she comes back to fight the British, she has to take recourse to spiritual fortifications-she is said to pray every morning-before commencing on worldly matters. (Bhog, p.16410). In case of Madam Curie, we see that she has been portrayed both aspects private work (home) and as scientist. She had to do both domestic responsibilities being women. For instance, “even she busies herself in the laboratory, surrounded by chemical fluids, test, tubes and complicated experiment not to mention her scientist-husband. We are informed” Maria used to do to do all the house, wash clothes, cook food and wash dishes. After two years, she gave birth to a girl child. This increased the load of work but did not affect the quality of her work.”(Bhog,p.1641).

The construction gender is done through textbook. Schools are the centre where gender construct are embedded by way of teaching. Masculinity and feminity are introduced in school as ideal word. In schools boys are told right from the beginning that you are boy you should not weep or cry. We can look at this photo which reflects how children are laughing and cutting jokes, when a boy weeps. However, boy may have a lot trouble. He cannot weep because friends will cut joke upon him. For instance “As babies or children when boys fall and hurt themselves, their parents and other family member often console them by saying ‘Don’t cry’. You are a boy. Boys are brave, they don’t cry.” To support my point, I want to mention here, what British sociologist Bill Williamson also argues that men and women” have to contend with the institutional and ideological forms of earlier times as the basic constrains on what they can achieve.”

(NCERT,Class VI,p. 15)

Textbooks reproduce the gender division of labor. The women’s role is generally undervalued in the labor process. In Civics textbooks points out that what are the duties of women and rights of men. We can see the roles of women are invisible except in private sphere. It appears that these textbooks are also written by male centered views. For example, “Portrayal of women and men in sex bound role confirms the patriarchal notion that men are the legitimate, inside real actors in the social arena; women are the unworthy outsiders.”( Rubin Saigol,p. 138).

What textbooks presents not only in India but all over the world we find same gender issues. For instance, “A study of primary-school textbooks in Colombia found that they represented men and women in three dichotomies: men as public and women as private, men as strong and women as weak, and men as active and women as passive.”(Stromquist, p.399).

Lastly, I will discuss school as a social institution and agency of ideological state apparatus and acts as vehicles of socialization either direct or indirectly. While injecting ideas, values and they function to mediate between the summits of power and everyday life. For instance, Bernstein argument suggests that children speak voices of pedagogy. “He distinguishes between voice and message plays a key role in discriminating between-social and pedagogic identities, specialized voices based upon power relations. This relations revealed in talk and dominant and subordinate voices and the yet to voiced. We need to distinguish different types of talk in the classroom-classroom talk, subject talk, identity talk, and code talk.” (Madeleine Arnot and Diane Reay, 2007,p..323)

We can see how gender construction is being practiced by teachers into the classroom. Girl is told that she is weak. For example, girl monitor of 4b, Shanti, was prcieved as being ‘’ineffective’’ by both boys and girls in controlling dhammaal(uproar) , whereas Gagan, her counterpart in4a is called by teacher as “ideal monitor’. The hidden agenda of domestication is brought out in the commentary of ne boy: Our teacher tells the monitor, you are a girl and you can’t keep the class quiet? See gagan.(Raju,10;4b) (Battacharjee, p.342)

In school, where there is gender division on the basis of sex. Girls’ writings are considered beautiful by teachers. Ideal norm of good handwriting is a wedge in the gender divide: “all the children told me how the girls are asked to write on the board because their writing was good. When boy (monitor) is asked of 4b: My work is to keep the boys quiet. (You don’t write on the board?). No, The girls make us write in our books. (Why?) They don’t let us know(what the teacher has asked them to write.) they tell us to keep the boys quie… teacher says their writing is good.” (Bhattacharjee, p. 344)

There is masculinity and feminity construction into classroom. Girls are considered quiet, passive whereas boys are regarded haraami, active. There is effect of this genetic term in the classroom. For example,”Our teacher does not scold, so nobody sits quiet. Even if she does shout nobody listens. The boys are all haraami…the girls listen, but the boys don’t… They trouble me. They hit me back. (Bhattacharjee, p.367).

In fact, Schools as institutions that embody collective traditions and human intentions which are the products of identifiable social and economic ideologies. If much of the literature on what schools tacitly teach is accurate, then the specific functions may be more economic than intellectual. If we are honest with ourselves, we must acknowledge that the curriculum field has it is a root in the soil of social control. For instance, “Whose meanings are collected and distributed through the overt and hidden curricula in school? That is, as Marx was fond of saying, reality does not stalk around with a label. The curriculum in schools responds to and represents ideological and cultural resources that come from somewhere. Not all groups’ visions are represented and not all groups’ meanings are responded to. How then, do schools act to distribute this cultural capital? Whose reality stalks in corridors and classrooms of America schools? ((Nancy King,p.44).

Conclusion:

Above we have seen that instead of policy commitment (NCF 2000,NPE 1986) to provide an empowering education for women and girls, the situation on the ground did not improve much. The crucial role of schools play in maintaining dominant class and gender ideologies through both curriculum content and teaching practices. Still we see in out textbook, “Traditional meaning of the masculinity and feminity continued to persist along with the oppositional, dichotomous categories of active-passive, emotional-rational, nature-culture and dependent-autonomous.”(Bhog,p.1642). There is no intention to deny the usefulness of education as an instrument of change but I think education could achieve the desired goals only under certain minimal conditions. These conditions are; a commitment on the part of the agent of change to the goals of change, a relative clarity about the message of change and the existence of an objective situation in which the new values seem to provide guidance and legitimacy to an increasingly larger section of the population that is influenced by education. It appears that these conditions are not fulfilled in Indian today. For example, “There is therefore, urgent need to train teachers, not only to acquaint them with a new curriculum but to make female teachers recognize their own oppression. Especially, needed, in the context of a more effective teacher’s role in sex education, is training to inform teachers about human sexuality and help them reflect on their own experience.” ( Stromquist,p.404).

REFERENCES

Apple, M.W. (1990). Ideaology and Curriculum; Economics and Control in Everyday School Life.Pub.New York: Routledge.Giroux (1981). Ideaology,Culture and the Process of schooling. Pub.Temple University Press(U.S.A.).

Madelein Arnot and Diane Reay, Discourse; studies in the cultural politics of education,Vol,28,No, 3 Sept 2007,pp.311-325. Pub.Routledge Falmer ,London and New York.

Bill Williamson,’ Continuities and Discontinuities in the Sociology of Education’ in Flude and Athier,op.cit.,pp.10-11.

Rubin Saigol, His Right/ her Duties: Citizen and Mother in the Civics Discourse.

Nell P. Stromquist,Molly Lee Birgit Brock-Utne, The Explicit and the Hidden School Curriculum.

Nandini Bhattacharya, Through the Looking Glass: Gender Socialization in a Primary School.

Dipta Bhog, Gender and Curriculum.