There have been many debates in history about the nature of education and the purpose of knowledge production. The nature of debates changed with the onset of modernity. In the 19th century with the upsurge and spread of democratic ideals such as liberty, equality and fraternity, one common goal, to achieve through education has emerged in the popular imagination of most societies. This was a vision of equal rights to access education, that is, ensuring mass education to pursue social equality and justice. But with neoliberal globalisation, there was a retreat of the idea of state commitment to public education. The idea of education as a site of profit gained ground. That education is ought to be a public good became a dated and unproductive idea. This was reflected in India where there was a continuous delegitimization of government schools.
There was an increase in disinvestment and a promotion of private schools. This has led to a mass exodus of children belonging to the middle class and poor families from public schools to private schools. It meant that the ‘poorest and the most vulnerable ones were left behind in the government schools. Assam is one of the states witnessing this trend. On one hand, the private school began to dominate the scenario and on the other hand government/public schools began to be seen as redundant. At the same time, a vast section of the population remained untouched by education. Though the private sector promised better education than the government/public school, the costs to attain it were high. In India even today when many people fail to procure the basic needs of life, buying ‘quality’ education is certainly a far cry. For any inclusive development of a nation, the existence of public education is imperative.
It is under this backdrop, this work has examined how with the changing government priorities and policies along with the changing socio-physical landscape of Guwahati city, (my field of study) the character of a school has changed. The students it caters to have changed too. In my study one has tried to observe the everyday life in such a school- its curriculum and its hidden curriculum. It has sought to capture the small and big ways that inequalities get reproduced within the school and dominant ideas of the ‘good’ student exclude most.
Given that the inequalities evident within the school stem from inequalities outside- in society at large, one has sought to delineate and emphasise the links between school and society. Thus, while the school remains central, the study seeks to look into the many ways that the lives of teachers and students in the school are connected to the everyday lives outside the school
The study revealed that there exists a gap between the policymakers, schools/teachers and the guardians of the students. Policies are designed without taking into consideration the ground reality. While directing the schools/teachers to implement a particular policy, there is an urgent need for informed discussions and deliberations between the parties involved. Teachers need to be drawn into an engagement with the basic purpose of education and feel a sense of empowerment to make a difference instead of being felt like cogs in a machine. Engagement with the larger questions that inform different educational policies and the differences that teaching can make would perhaps. Policies too need to take note of ground realities and dialogue with the constraints teachers and students face. The failure to do so leads to several well-conceived policies failing at the ground level.
The present teaching-learning system favours the habitus of the middle-class background and the lens through which ‘achievement’ and ‘progress ‘is evaluated. This gap needs to be addressed urgently.
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Dr. Gargi Gayan is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology, Krishna Kanta Handiqui State Open University (KKHSOU), Guwahati.