The number of students passing out of educational institutions in India every year is, no doubt, in their millions. We as a country are slowly but surely succeeding as far as ‘quantity’ in the field of education is concerned; it is now time to reflect on the ‘quality’ of education that is being offered. It is only reflection with action that will lead to praxis.
My reflections on the quality of education in India started a couple of years ago after I retired and returned from South Africa to settle down in Namma Bengaluru for good. I have been ruminating on the times of my own schooling as well as on certain incidences in the recent past related to academic life. Some thought provoking articles in The Times of India on education added gist to my reflections. The immediate provocation for an in depth reflection has been the famous educationist Paulo Freire becoming the villain of the piece in a standoff last year between Christian Churches in Kerala and the Marxist led government over the content of a social studies text book for standard VII. The controversy centred around parts of the content critically questioning religious belief systems and introducing the idea of atheism.
All of us remember our school days as the most carefree of our lives. In fact, it is the happenings – good and bad – of this period that we love to reminisce with our schoolmates even in our old age. In those days all teachers taught with liberal doses of the cane. Education consisted of the teachers giving us information - formulae in math, capitals of countries in geography, Emperor Asoka’s reforms in history and so on. We silently listened and memorized. We did not dare to ask questions on the subject matter out of fear of our teachers; besides, there were no doubts as all we had to do was memorize.
Even at University level, memorization was the way to go. Just one example as illustration. Fr. Racine, a retired French Jesuit and a brilliant mathematician taught us Abstract Algebra during my M.Sc. course at Loyola College, Madras. Other than saying Mass, eating his frugal meals and teaching us a couple of times a week, he spent the entire day developing new Mathematics theories. The only problem with his teaching was that he would solve a problem in three sentences, whereas it required at least ten for the mathematically challenged. Only one out of a class of 16 barely understood what was going on. The rest of us ‘mugged’.
It was only when I started teaching that I began to think about mathematical concepts. A good grasp to the subject is a must for any teacher to make himself understood. Even then, both my students and I hovered around the ‘knowledge’ and ‘recall’ levels of Bloom’s taxonomy with infrequent forays into the next level, that of understanding. The examination system also remained at the ‘reproduction’ levels, testing students on their ability to ‘recall’ information. These days private coaching and tuitions do a roaring business reinforcing memorization of facts and mechanical application of theory. In this system, most students score in the nineties; however, John Kurien, Director, Centre for Learning, Pune, rightly says that ‘Marks Mask Incompetence’ in an article of the same title appearing in The Times of India dated July 27, 2008. The net result according to him is that “… a large proportion of our engineering and business management graduates, and a far greater percentage of general graduates, are unemployable.” My son, who was at one time in charge of interviewing and selecting candidates for the post of software engineers for his company, told me that, based purely on their potential to apply computer knowledge in implementing projects, two out of twenty would barely fit the bill. A close relative who graduated with distinction in electronics engineering could hardly identify the problem with a non-functioning T.V. set. On investigation, I found that the best student is one with the sharpest memory and that there are professionals who can do the final year project, which involves applying the theory, for you for a consideration.
This type of learning is aptly named ‘the banking concept’ of education by Paulo Freire. Just as we deposit money in a bank and withdraw the same later, bits and pieces of information are ‘deposited’ in the minds of students to be ‘withdrawn’ at the time of tests and examinations. Against this, Freire advocated ‘problem-posing’ education.
So, who is this Paulo Freire?
Paulo Freire (1921-1997) is a Brazilian educationist whose theories and praxis of education have contributed enormously in liberating oppressed masses all over the world. I have been a fan of Paulo Freire for more than a decade. It all started when I became involved in a teacher training program in Apartheid South Africa in early-nineties. The black majority was systematically being oppressed by the white minority. This was going on for a long time. A similar oppressive system prevailed in Brazil in the last century. Paulo Freire, who was born and brought up in that country, expounded his theories on liberating the oppressed masses in the book “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” which became a runaway success. Realizing that his ideas were most apt and relevant for the liberation of the South African black masses, I prescribed two chapters from this book as compulsory reading for my third year B.A.Education students. If the process of liberation is through Education, then the ideal person to start on this path of liberation is the teacher who must first free himself from the oppressor’s yoke before he can liberate his students.
What is the core of his educational philosophy?
Freire starts with the premise that man’s ontological vocation is ‘humanization’ – becoming more fully human. This is thwarted by acts of dehumanization – injustice, exploitation, oppression and the violence of the oppressors. When a person is brought up in an environment of oppression, he internalizes the methods of the oppressors and in turn becomes an oppressor. He is unable to express love and compassion since he himself has not been shown love and compassion.
To surmount oppression, man must first critically recognize its causes, so that through transforming action, he can create a new situation in the pursuit of a fuller humanity. The oppressed should engage in reflection of their situation leading to action – praxis.
Banking education is one very effective method employed by the oppressors to continue the consciousness of oppression in the oppressed. The more students work at storing information, the less time they have to develop the critical consciousness needed to transform the world around them. The more passive they are made, the more easily they tend to accept their state of oppression. The oppressors use banking education to change the consciousness of the oppressed and not the situation which oppresses them. The educator’s role is to regulate the way the world ‘enters into’ the student. Education becomes an act of domination and domestication, indoctrinating them to adapt to the world of oppression.
Against this, Freire proposes ‘problem-posing’ education. It is based on creativity and stimulates true reflection and action upon reality, thus helping man to achieve his ontological vocation of becoming more fully human. The students become critical co-investigators in dialogue with the teacher. They come face to face with real problems in the real world and develop the power to perceive critically the way they exist in the world.
The Indian context.
After more than six decades of ‘freedom’ and ‘democracy’, the Indian mindset is still feudalistic. Geriatric dynastic rule is still the norm. Men and women of dubious character and criminal bend are foisted as leaders riding the crest of the cast and creed bandwagon. Corruption is endemic. The sheepish mentality developed through indoctrination using banking methods of education is the root cause of religious fundamentalism leading to suicide bombings and terror attacks. Religion, unable to withstand the scrutiny of the critical mind, relies on blind faith. What better technique than ‘banking education’ is there to keep the sheep in the fold! When students are insulated from engaging in problems of the social reality around them, many take the suicide route when confronted with easily solvable situations
Why is Freire’s name dragged into the recent Class VII Social Science text-book controversy in Kerala?
The main allegations against the Social Studies text-book of Class VII are that it
“... is trying to teach children atheism, materialism, anti-religious sentiments and wrong perspectives on the Indian history.” and that “… the book’s effort was to finish off religious beliefs and to propagate atheism.”
Members of the text-book reform panel countered saying:
“… the effort was to enliven the academic curriculum through critical interaction of the students with society.”
Added a member of the panel:
“The book is asking the students to understand social reality themselves and to approach it critically, which is the only way to develop their intellect, thinking faculty and sense of social responsibility.”
He said the model was based on the theories of Brazilian pedagogue Paulo Freire, who had shown
“… the right path to right education in the social model like ours.”
I believe it is high time for us to transform ourselves from our feudalistic and paternalistic mode to a democratic, participatory and critical mode of thinking and acting. Old habits die hard; but bad habits must surely die.
A critical and transformatory mindset is essential for us to become more fully human and to help others in this vocation of humanization. For this to happen, the next best place after home is the school. That is why it is imperative that we as a nation impart to our children an education of quality. This calls for a change from the traditional ‘banking method’ of education to the ‘problem solving’ model leading to awareness and critical engagement in the student with personal and social reality.
[Note: Action with reflection leads to praxis; action without reflection is activism; reflection without action is verbalism.]
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