Children are excited but not teachers

All dropouts are not alike. Some who experienced hardships after dropping out of school and worked as domestic help in people’s home yearn for Chunauti scheme’s Vishwas class. But teachers said they don’t want to teach dropouts’ section as they are incapable of learning.

The teachers’ opinion towards dropout students became stronger after two boys in Government Sarvodaya Kanya Vidyalaya Government Boys Senior Secondary School in Nangloi killed a teacher on Tuesday.They stabbed their teacher to death one of them, a minor, was rusticated and the other would have been rusticated because of the teacher.
According to some teachers who talked to Deccan Herald during their strike which followed the incident, most dropouts are also the students who are disinterested in studies.

“Their parents send these children forcibly to schools because they are afraid that they will get into worse activities if they do not, said Nand Kishore, Hindi teacher at Sarvodaya Vidyalaya, Najafgarh.

He said that teachers in his school have no affinity towards the students in their Vishwas class. “Neither do they understand anything nor are they responsive. No teacher likes to teach a non-responsive class,” he said.

“How can some one who has failed more than twice in a class study the syllabus of a higher standard?” he exclaimed.

He said that in his school 50 students who were dropouts have again enrolled in the Vishwas class, which is for Class 9 students who dropped out because of the no detention policy. He said that the Vishwas classroom is presently studying less of Class 9 and more of Class 10 syllabus.

The indignation is also growing because now teachers to students ratio is disproportionate. In Govt. Co-Ed. Sec School, Baprola, there are around 51, 000 students in Class 6 to 12 and 75 teachers.

“One teacher has to teach a class of 90 and out of eight periods we have to teach six. Most of the class goes into maintaining the decorum of a class,” said Arun Saini, teacher at Baprola school.

He said teaching 90 students is not the only challenging task; the difficult thing to do is to check around 200 papers in three days.

This year Baprola school has enrolled 345 children in Vishwas class which is divided into four sections. Time-table was a problem because of shortage of teachers, said Saini.
But these problems are hardly problems for children. For them, school is an escape into childhood, said Farida. Farida teaches school dropouts in a non-profit organisation school called Pehchaan functional in Jaitpur and Nizammudin.

Pehchaan has a shortage of teachers and funds, too, but the school has been running peacefully for the past four years.

It has enrolled many dropouts who stopped going to school after Class 9.
Iffat, 16, says she was extremely poor at mathematics, which is why she failed twice and had to drop out. But not for long; she joined Pehchan soon after.

Through Pehchan, she is preparing for Class 10 presently. She said she appeared for  her Class 9 exams through Jamia Milia Islamia centre. Pehchan has associated itself with JMI school, where their girls appear for their Board exams through JMI’s centres.

The dropouts write the common JMI School papers for tests, for which regular students appear. It is not mandatory to be a Class 9 pass, but if one is successful in clearing Class 9 and 10 exams, they will get the matriculation pass certificate,said Farida.

The reason for children dropping out is not only that they fail in Class 9. “Many girls are not even allowed to come to our classes. I don’t know if they will be sent to any school, even after Chunauti scheme,” said Farida.

Henna came to Pehchaan for three days and then her parents pulled her out, she said.
The paradox is that the sons drop out on their own, while girls still want to study but are forbidden. According to Farida, muslim girls in Nizammuddin Basti and Jaitpur and probably in other parts of Delhi, will still remain bereft of the chance of going to school as their parents are against girl children studying.

Some of them who are studying externally through different NGOs said that their parents will not allow them to study in a co-ed school.

Afsana, 17, preparing for her Class 12 Boards, said that she dropped out because her father could not afford schooling after a death occurred in their family.

Afsana feels indebted to Pehchan, but she said that school is more fun. “There are more children. You get to play and study,” said Afsana.

At first, the girls at Pehchan joined a skill-development programme through Pehchan, where they were learning embroidery and tailoring.

Afsana said learning a skill is not as good as studying. When we study, we can choose our own career, whereas, if we learn a skill our dreams will limit themselves.

The girls in Pehchan were unaware of Delhi-government’s Chunauti scheme
before this. Now they seem excited.

Iffat said, “I have six siblings and all of them go to school. I am also eager to go to one.” Farida told Deccan Herald that these children, who are dropouts from government schools, are excited about school but when they joined Pehchan for Class 9, they didn’t even know how to write letters of the alphabet in Hindi.

“We started from there,” she sighs. She dismisses school education but agrees that for children it’s very important.