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| London Metropolitan University |
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| St.Teresa`s College |
A research paper
presented at the International Conference on Multimodality, Multi Lingualism,
Multiliteracies: New Pedagoies for New Times, organized by St.Teresea`s College
and London Metropolitan University, sponsored by UGC.
Researched and presented by Laila Saein and Anil Emage
AFRC India, Centre for Research l Development l Training, Wayanad
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| Education minister M.M. Baby inaugurates the conference-Jan 20011 |
Introduction
On November1,1980, the
state of Kerala witnessed birth of a new
promised land. On this day, Wayand – a place bestowed with nature’s bounty, was
declared as the 12th district of Kerala. A land of deep rooted
culture, electrifying myths, rugged terrains resembling wild west movies, a
green canopy of tropical forests swaying to spicy winds and megalithic carvings on
rock formations make Wayanad stand apart from other regions of Kerala.Wayanad is characterized by
educational backwardness, quite ironically in a state which is well known for
its literacy rates.
Wayanad with its less educational and
related developmental activities is handicapped with methodologies which are
ineffective and time-barred. Futuristic education with a practical perspective
is a major problem faced by the district. Due to lack of educational facilities
in the district, the students wishing to pursue higher education had to move to
neighboring districts or states. Due to less proficiency in English and
communication most of them fail to make an impact in their respective
institutions. Over the years we could see various levels of slow , but steady
progress in the educational scenario of the district.
Despite the progress made in the
field of education, the issue of tribal education is still a problem in Wayanad
district. In spite of consistent efforts, they are yet to be imbibed into the
mainstream. Many of them are admitted to school, but are unable to remain and
drop out early without completing their education. Efforts however continue for
the education of tribals in the district. There are residential schools that have
been set apart for the education of tribal children. They are located at remote
set areas where they can be easily accessed by the tribal population. These
schools have better facilities but they do face severe language and
communication problems.
Majority of the population belong to
tribal communities and the rest are farmers, Govt .officials, business men etc.
Since educational institutions in Wayanad are less equipped to tackle language
and communication requirements of students, it is the need of the hour to take
a look at the problems faced by students, teachers, linguistic and
communication trainers of the district. Moreover we also present here an
alternative methodology of educational practice which was found successful not
only in Wayanad but in other districts of Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.
Complications
Most students in Wayanad belong to
poor/middle class families with less educated parents. English and other
languages are taught as a means to achieve better marks and grade, not as a life
changing tool. It might be difficult to believe but many high school students
don’t know even how to read and write properly. Since there is no good language
base for the majority, students lack confidence and as a result they fail to
make use of the language. They are deprived of effective communication skills
training too. Further they lack positive competitive mentality and they are
equipped with lesser EQ.
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| Connecting to the outer world |
For the past 15 years AFRC INDIA has been intimately involved with language related activities
in the district. From our experience we have realized the fact that language is
not taught in a systematic and scientific manner in most schools, especially
during the base years. As a result as the students grow up they are handicapped
as far as communication is concerned. Except a handful of English medium
schools, there is absolutely no environment for the students to practice the
language.
Solution
Since 1999 we have been imparting
lessons in Communicative English and Communication Skills. Later years
leadership training too was added to the training modules, as we realized a
student who does not possess leadership skills cannot effectively communicate
or use the language in a progressive manner.
At our training centre students come
for regular classes, besides we organise training workshops, seminars and
training sessions in schools and colleges. What we have realized at the very
beginning was the fact that students come without a good base of the language.
So the initial years of our training we focused more on developing modules
based on the theoretical aspects of English. At the same time slowly we were
aware of the fact that even though after getting a good base in the language
students found it extremely difficult to express their ideas freely. The need
for better communication skill studies and training was visible in the earlier
years itself.
We have given ample importance in the
teaching of the theory of English in the most creative manner we could manage
with the limited resources we possessed. Since we had to deal with many slow
learning students and backward village schools, we have tried our level best to
simplify English grammatical lessons like Tenses, Prepositions, Auxiliaries and
Question making. In the process we, over the years, have developed a system of
teaching grammar lessons in a scientific manner.
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| Communication training |
We introduced certain methods like
creating miniature real life scenarios with toys and objects and made the
learning experience easier and fun for the students by applying practical
exercises. We have also tried to focus on each student by following the `
Individualized method of training` in our centre. After learning their lessons
properly and clarifying relevant doubts, students are encouraged to conduct
teaching sessions by which they teach fellow students. While doing this, we
have observed the fact that each student tried to present his/her part in the
most innovative way possible, thus ensuring maximum student partnership with
better impact.
Many games, quizzes, and creative
assignments are all included in the curriculum to make the learning experience
highly imaginative and result oriented. In short, we have made it possible for
the less educated children and youth of Wayanad to grasp an “elusive” language
with fun and joy. Many educational institutions in Wayanad supported our
educational movements by inviting us to be resource persons in their schools
and colleges, thus offering us to widen our horizon for the quest for better
language and communication lessons.
2001 onward
we elevated our focus
from language to communication. Even after learning the basics of the language
we have realized the fact that students found it extremely difficult to
communicate. While many language teachers and similar institutions and trainers
blamed it to the fact that the students do not come with a good base in the
language, a fact which we couldn’t agree, for it was not true. Our students
were good in the “written aspect “of the language, and they spoke, but they
lacked the “skill” to make it music to the ear. The only advantage of working
in a backward and neglected district like Wayanad is that there are a million
opportunities to innovate and there are ready takers for the novel ideas.
Initially we started with smaller groups.
Once we made the novel methods
soundly applicable among these groups in our Centre, we then ventured out to
many schools and organizations. We have developed certain activities and
improvised existing activities like : Living books, Face to face talks, Interpersonal
communication skills, Newspaper analysis, Diary presentations, Story writing,
Vocabulary build up, Profile making, Note making , Wall magazines, Poem
appreciations, Blog posting etc.
Slowly we could see a remarkable
change in the students. We not only made use of methods quite commonly used in
communication training like Group discussions, Presentations, Public speaking,
Conversational activities , Mock interviews, Debates , Seminars etc. ,at the
same time so as not to limit the learners imaginative power of thinking we have
included activities like Theatre, Short film making, Storytelling, Creation of
web magazines, Travelogues and Blog writing.
Our interactions and interventions
and the resultant contribution in the field of education is based on the three
schools of learning which are cited below:
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| YLP Roshan trains JNV Wayanad children |
1. Living Books (Living Library)
2. Art for Education
3. Leadership Village YLP
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| Leadership Village YLP presentation at SAP Labs-Anil Emage, Laila Saein |
1. Living Books (Living Library)
‘Living Book’ is a concept of
education introduced by us in 2005. Over the years many personalities across the world came forward
and happily became part of this educational movement Living Library has
been introduced in three states of India ,by AFRC.A few serious papers too have
been presented on Living Library and the education methods we developed here
based on it. The joint leadership initiative of Leadership Village` considers `Living Books` as a main instrument to
develop leadership initiatives among the village children and youth. Many
schools and colleges in the district of Wayanad are now familiarized with the
concept. The major attraction of Living Library is it is unconditional and is
based on finer human values.
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| Living Books |
Once the students reach the stage in
which they could communicate well, through this methodology they are introduced
to a new avenue of meaningful interactions. Through the ‘Living Book’ concept
individuals are treated as living books and students are encouraged to ‘read’
them. Not only resource persons from various faculties interact with the
students, we have also developed methods by which students document information
collected from the ‘Living Book’. ‘Living Books’ are volunteers, who like to
interact with the younger generation and pass their life experience and
knowledge. Moreover ‘Living books’ proved to be of great help when students
required expert guidance in specialized areas. Once trained, it is then the
turn of the students to be ‘Living Books’ . By interacting openly with the
fellow students the young ‘Living Books’ gain self-awareness and we have found
them more self-motivated and the level of self-esteem races ahead as they
are considered not as mere students but as individuals who deserve
attention and listening ears.
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| Laila Saein trains engineering students |
Besides being used as an effective
communication training tool, we have found ‘Living Book’ concept extremely
useful to train slow learners with the help of ‘Student Living Books’ who are
well advanced in their studies. From interior village schools to Microsoft
Student Partners, from tribal belts to engineering colleges, with our
educational efforts, the striving for better communication continues through
the ‘Living Book’ tradition.
2. Art for Education
Under the umbrella of ‘Art for
Education’ we have arrayed creative educational activities such as theatre,
media initiatives, art and literary appreciation etc. Moreover students are
encouraged to read and review classic literature, listen and appraise
international music, watch classic inspirational movies and their
creative talents like painting, sketching, writing , editing skills etc. are
honed through house journals, wall magazines, web journals and blogs.
Under this initiative many workshops, interviews, exhibitions, conferences etc.
have been organized by our student community.
We have observed that students who
gathered confidence with their language and Communication skills easily related
with the audience through various onstage activities. Introverted students too
find it a great way to express themselves in many offstage activities. We have
been successful in introducing various personalities from different walks of
life and students collected firsthand knowledge and skills from the maestros.To
widen their creativity and broaden their vision art is an essential tool of
education, we believe.
3. Leadership Village YLP
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| Young Leaders of LV train village children |
In 2009 we partnered with the
organization, LeadCap,founded by Sangeeth Varghese (Forbes Columnist ,
leadership thinker and author), who researched in leadership in
London School of Economics and Harvard. Leadership Village was born out of a passion to
empower the Indian villages through meaningful, holistic education. Leadership
Village is an initiative striving to create the first ever ‘Leadership
Democracy’ (a place every individual has equal opportunities to discover their
true potential irrespective of birth or living conditions.) It is undertaken
with the support of the villagers, students, parents, teachers and civic
associations. The project brought a revolutionary change- a change that could
only be achieved when students are pointed towards their true potential and
when they are shown the true change that they could create in themselves, and
in their communities. The passion and vision behind this project is the
empowerment of the students through creation of self-awareness and mentor these
individuals to help them discover their hidden skills- in the areas of
communication, self-motivation, language skills, problem solving,
decision making etc.
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| Sangeeth Varghese trainins YLPs |
The project Leadership Village
YLP has been involved with various activities to uplift the standard of
language, communication and leadership skills among the students of Wayanad.
The main training tools applied are YLP (Young Leaders Programme- Leadership
training) Living Library and Library On Wheels.
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Communication training for Journalism students
YLP (Young Leaders Programme) of Leadership
Village aims in uplifting the village children and youth with the help of
world-class language, communication and leadership teaching and training.
Students are introduced to the latest theories of leadership once they attain
good language and better communication skills. They are encouraged to take
educational and social awareness initiatives. They take English lessons for
other students, they have presented papers in international seminars ( a clear
sign of language independence) , they regularly write in English blogs,
they write poems, they participate in many competitions and are an active
presence in the world they live in.
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Library on wheels is an initiative organized by the children to spread reading habit among the village children.
The project has a library of its own with books donated by IITs and
well-wishers across the world. aThrough social networks like ‘Facebook’ much evangelization for the project has been done.
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| UNESCO-National award winner Paris Mohan Kumar inaugurated Library On Wheels in 2011 |
Tremendous improvements happened here
after these activities. Literacy and communication experiments like Living
Books, Art for Education and Leadership Village YLP now fill the missing
elements in the educational zone of Wayanad.
