Alienation of Communities within the Indian Education System
The formative years of education play a crucial role in a child’s life. They influence the way in which children perceive their environment and the relations they form with those who occupy them. Among the various tools used within a classroom, school textbooks play a significant role in shaping children’s worldview. This brings us to question, whether school textbooks are inclusive of the differences that occur within a student’s surroundings, especially in a multicultural country like India?
The current lockdown due to the COVID-19 and the distress it brought to the migrants in cities, has resulted in media attention towards the migrant workers present across urban cities in India. As per the census of 2011, the estimated number of internal migrants in India is around 45.36 crore, or 37% of the country’s population, out of which the number of migrant workers (a decade back) is estimated to be between 70–100 million (NSS 2007–08, and Deshingkar, P, and Akter, S. (2009)). Prof. Irudaya Rajan, migration researcher and the editor of India Migration Report, says “We see them everywhere. Yet, we never imagined migrant workers as a group big enough to be taken seriously”. The migrant crisis brought to public discourse, the space occupied by people who share different identities and cultures, and contribute to the rich diversity of cities. The children of migrants, who move with their families, have to face an educational system far from their own culture and communities.
Within India’s multicultural fabric, communities identify based on a multitude of dimensions including state, religion, caste, and language. This diversity is further enhanced by the migration of labour that takes places across cities and from rural to urban spaces. The integration of these diversities within everyday spaces, makes it essential for educational institutions to incorporate the same. This makes it the responsibility of textbooks to be able to encompass these distinctions and bring them into conversation. In a public-school setting, where students come from varying backgrounds, inclusivity ensures better transfer of knowledge, and therefore leads to more positive learning outcomes. According to Disha Nawani, textbooks are often found to exclude or alienate minority communities from discussions entirely, which leads to a chain of minority narratives being subdued (Nawani, 2018). The degree to which minority communities are represented or excluded from school textbooks, influences the way in which students of these communities perceive themselves as well as their peers from other social groups.
Curriculum and Textbook Content
The National Curriculum Framework (NCF) of India (2005), calls for a paradigm shift within Social Science “proposing the study of the social sciences from the perspective of marginalised groups. Gender justice and a sensitivity towards issues related to SC and ST communities and minority sensibilities must inform all sectors of the social sciences”. It adds “The school must then be prepared to engage with communities to listen to their concerns (about the inclusion or exclusion of particular knowledge and experiences in the school curriculum), and to persuade them to see the educational value of such decisions”. Inclusivity and representation are expected to play a key role within the education system. Along with this, the NCF also highlights throughout the document, the importance of having schools which teach even in minority languages, to ensure that students from no communities are left behind.
Based on the curriculum guidelines, NCERT textbooks in Environmental Science and Social Studies have made attempts to be inclusive in their representation of various communities at the primary level. The Environmental Studies textbooks of Grades 3 and 4 have chapters like ‘Changing Families’ and ‘The Food We Eat,’ whose illustrations try to show children from different socio-economic and cultural backgrounds (see Figures). The fourth-grade chapter on ‘Changing Families’ tries to account for children of different states and religions by naming the children in the chapter accordingly (Nimmi, Nazli and Tsering) along with the illustration of their families.
The textbook chapter from Grade-3 on ‘The Food We Eat,’ explores food from different cultures while also highlighting the socio-economic differences in the availability of food. It shows conversation between different children who discuss what they had for dinner the previous night and the responses range from a full meal to the complete lack of food in the house. The textbook also includes activities which question the last time a student may not have had any food in their house and the reasons for it.
Such kind of inclusivity, if facilitated in the right manner by teachers, has the potential of being able encourage conversations regarding diversity, discrimination and oppression. However, even within these attempts of inclusions in textbooks, there are limitations in the communities that are represented. While discussions about discrimination is addressed in the sixth grade Social Science textbooks by the NCERT, the extent of these discussions are limited and often can seem superficial and manage to scratch only the surface of a deeper structural problem.
A city like Mumbai which has migrants from all districts in Maharashtra and from other states of India. Census 2011 data shows that Mumbai Urban Agglomeration (UA), consisting of Mumbai city, Mumbai Suburban, and Thane has more than 40% of migrant population (1.01 crore). Out of these, 46% (46.4 lakh) are out of state migrants, mainly coming from Uttar Pradesh (18.8 lakh), Gujarat (6.3 lakh), and Karnataka (3.8 lakhs). In a city with such a diverse population, it becomes key that a schooling system creates a space that is inclusive and appreciative of the diversities among the students. Conversations about the backgrounds that students come from and the oppression that the students from minority communities face should be a key goal of the education system. Along with this, students should find a space within their educational institute to express and be respectful of cultural diversities. One of ways in which this can be enhanced is by addressing language diversities. For instance, the 2011 Census showed Mumbai’s language diversity with people coming in from different states and speaking different dialects of the same language. The chat shows that apart from the expected Hindi, Urdu, Gujarati, and the fourth Indian languages, there is a significant section of people speaking Bengali, Assamese, North eastern , and languages of tribal communities. Such linguistic diversity is indicative of the migration history and cultural diversity of the city. The need to create an integrated space which is homogenous ends up being counter-productive since it encourages dominant narrative to take the centre stage while all other narratives are pushed into the background.
Romila Thapar, in the ‘History Debates and School Textbooks in India’ argues that the dearth of history from the perspective of minority communities, makes historic writing a communal affair. She describes the division of Indian history into three main segments, the Golden Age under the Hindus, the Muslim Dynasty as invaders who brought India towards a downfall and the British Rule. Historians struggle to fully portray the subjugation of lower caste groups to domination by upper caste Hindus during the apparent ‘Golden Age’ for the backlash that they end up facing. Along with this, Muslims are demonized and ousted for being the community which pulled India down to its ‘dark ages’ and towards its downfall
This can further be seen through the lack of representation of North-Eastern and Tribal Communities across India and their contemporary living conditions. While the seventh grade History textbook under the NCERT does have one chapter about the history of tribal communities, their contemporary situation is not addressed or represented across any other chapter or book. A paper by Pamela MacKenzie from 2009 also mentions the additional problems with the lack of language representation for North-Eastern and Tribal communities of India, which further hinder the growth and accessibility to education of these communities (MacKenzie, 2009). A recent article in The Bastion questioning the absence of Northeastern history states, “This lack of representation in the media and our textbooks cascades onto bureaucratic understandings of the different socio-economic and political circumstances which affect Northeastern states, which hinders policy formulation and implementation.” Along with this, the NCERT also excludes the History of South Indian kingdoms almost substantially, while bringing focus only to the glory of kingdoms in Northern and Central India.
About 54% of Indian children student in State government schools, 11.4% study governed aided (primarily by state), and 32% student in private Unaided schools. Out of total 1.51 million schools in India (DISE 2016–17), only 21,271 schools are affiliated to CBSE board and follow NCERT textbooks. State textbooks are found to be less inclusive in comparison to the NCERT. They hardly have any conversation which encompass the diversity of India or the kind of discrimination that various communities within the country faced. While there was one chapter in the sixth standard Social Studies textbook of the Gujarat State titled, ‘Unity in Diversity,’ it covers the diversity of the Indian landscape very superficially. Further, the eighth-grade textbook for Social Studies under the Kerala State textbook includes chapters which covered the growth of a few South Indian kingdoms and the rise of Sangam literature. However, the content covered by the chapters are limited. In the textbooks that we have reviewed, the state government books were found to cover less ground in diversity and inclusion as compared to the central NCERT books. State textbooks lacked inclusivity of diversity which exists within the state as well.
Going beyond the textbooks, the evolution of Indian school system has created an exclusionary divide, enhancing social segregation and class distinctions. Way back in the mid 60’s, the Kothari Commission (1964–66), noted the “segregation in education itself, the minority of private, fee charging, better schools meeting the needs of the upper classes and the vast bulk of free, publicly maintained, but poor schools being utilized by the rest”. School segregation “In addition to weakening social cohesion, they also render the education of their own children anemic and incomplete”. The Commission recommended creation of a Common School System (CSS), where children irrespective of caste, creed, community, religion, economic conditions or social status could study together.
Many dismissed CSS as a utopian thought, and the government made no efforts to arrest stratification of schools. Instead, the government itself started stratified schools for different categories. For example, Ashram Schools and Eklavya Residential Schools, both run by the Ministry of Tribal affairs, for Scheduled Tribe children in ST dominated areas. While on one hand, creating a space which ensures education for all students through establishment of such institutes may show some increase in the literacy rate, their major drawback is in their segregation. Specifically within the EMRS there is seen to be a disrespect for tribal language and cultures which leads to an encouragement in further cultural divide. The structure of such spaces only leads further towards acculturation and further away from understanding the lives of minority communities. Integration of schooling systems, where there is an active focus to address diversities, discrimination and divide within communities may help in bridging this gap.
Moving forward:
Representation of occupation
In a country like India, where culture, religion and caste play such a prominent role within the society, the role of such inclusivity becomes crucial. For instance, in India a lot of occupations are caste-marked. This implies that certain types of labour is performed only by individuals from specific caste-communities. Within the Indian society, some jobs are always privileged and pedestalized over others, while occupations which are caste-marked are almost ignored. In the general public discourse, occupations like lawyers, doctors and engineers are considered superior in comparison to workers whose jobs are labelled as ‘menial.’ Examples of this can be seen through the lack of discussion about labour marked as ‘menial’, as mentioned by Kancha Ilaiah, an Indian political theorist. In public schools, where children come from different socio-economic backgrounds, lack of representation of occupation leads to alienation of the curriculum from the life and livelihood of marginalized communities. In the book ‘The Dignity of Labour’, Kancha Ilaiah addresses different occupations and their relevance, and highlights the apathy that the education system develops towards ‘productive labour processes’ owing to the invisibilization of the effort these jobs come with. It makes an attempt to discuss the historic development of such a structure which labels castes and their labour as ‘lowly and undignified.’ Having discussions within classrooms that address occupations in a similar manner, paves the way for much more inclusive thinking among children along with making students from all backgrounds feel comfortable about course material.
Inclusion of tribal and the north-eastern communities
Based on the current scenario, the communities to be hardest hit by alienation in India are the tribal and the north-eastern communities. They are alienated both in terms of their representation within textbooks and through the alienation of their language. Along with this, other communities that take the hit of lack of representation or misrepresentation are religious minorities and lower caste communities in India. This is seen most commonly in the representation of history. While the NCF recommendations make provision for inclusion to a certain extent, larger issues of the society are not addressed including the lack of accessibility to basic everyday resources. This is also worth thinking about in times of global crisis such as the current one, since the everyday functioning of non-privileged communities are significantly more shattered than privileged majority community groups.
Integrated Schooling Systems:
The New Education Policy Draft (2019) suggests the creation of school complexes which are described as “a basic unit of governance and administration.” The idea behind school complexes is to integrate schools within a certain geographic location into a single larger school. This is expected to result in the creation of better community spaces with an increased number of teachers for varying subjects and sharing of staff members. There is also the intent of creating a space where children from various backgrounds share an environment along with the resources. While having such integrated spaces could encourage children to understand the people who they share their everyday social spaces with; it is necessary to remember that the mere creation of these spaces with no active involvement to address the diversities and discrimination will only recreate the cycle of dominance by a single community. The school curriculum must also make an equal effort to move towards an integrated syllabus that accounts for diversity and addresses the kind of oppression that minority communities face.
Teacher Training
Along with textbook content, teachers play a dominant role in imparting understanding of inclusivity to the pupil. Having the understanding and training regarding the sensitivity and importance of inclusivity will play a significant role in the manner of the content being reproduced in the classroom. It is essential that teachers are given compulsory training in diversity sensitization to be able to facilitate content based on inclusivity in the most appropriate manner possible. The draft of the New Education Policy has provisions for training teachers for students with special needs. The same sensitivity should be extended by training teachers in their understanding of diversity and inclusion of minority groups. Along with this, the education curriculum should encourage conversation regarding discrimination more explicitly, as opposed to being subtle and include narratives of tribal and north-eastern communities. The central and the state textbook committees should also aim to present history with more inclusivity of Southern and North Eastern India and not exclude their role in the culture of present-day India.
Having conversations which encourage inclusivity and the acceptance of differences from a young age should be foundational to the education system and be given priority in the child’s former years. Understanding and acceptance of diversity and differences could also be key to nurturing empathy among students. Since public schools in India either follow the Central or State textbooks and include children from different backgrounds, it is essential that they can relate to course material and feel accepted and understood by their peers. The school curriculum has the potential to eliminate the replication of structural oppression and address the learning crisis through the inclusion of various communities within it.
— Abhramika Chaudhuri and Shivakumar Jolad
A version of the article has been published in The Bastion on 25th June, 2020
References
Draft National Education Policy, 2019. Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India.
Deshingkar, P, and Akter, S. (2009). Migration and Human Development in India, Human Development Research Paper 2009/13. New York: United Nations Development Programme.
Ilaiah, K. (2007). Turning the pot, tilling the land. Pondicherry: Navayana Pub.
MacKenzie, P. J. (2009). Mother tongue first multilingual education among the tribal communities in India. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 12(4), 369–385. doi:10.1080/13670050902935797
Nawani, D. (2018). Is there a learning crisis in our schools. Retrieved 21 April 2020, from http://www.india-seminar.com/2018/706/706_disha_nawani.htm
National Curriculum Framework, 2005. National Council of Educational and Research Training.
About Authors:
Abhramika holds a B.A. in Psychology from FLAME University, Pune, and is interested in the fields of sociology and public policy. She enjoys reading and singing in her free time.
Dr. Jolad works as Associate Professor of Public Policy at FLAME University, Pune. His research interests include social policies focused on Education, Health, and Human Development. Jolad has a Ph.D. in Physics and a doctoral minor in Demography from Pennsylvania State University. Prior to joining FLAME, he taught at the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar. )
