Igniting the spark in rural students, everywhere
Our country is a curious melting point of many cultures. There are so many festivals in India, and there are many religions as well. Each and every State has its own language and its own culture. Though attempts have been made to force down Hindi through the throats of millions of non-Hindi people, the local languages still manage to develop far beyond one's imagination.
Be that as it may, there is one more very disturbing, but very relevant problem -- the rural students. An estimated sixty percent of India still lives in its hundreds of thousands of villages, and in each of the villages, there is a tremendous amount of social change going on, thanks to the power of the internet, the television and the print media, with magazines in every language. There is a big push towards learning English, as a very important commercial language, and in many places, it is preferred as the medium of instruction, by hundreds of thousands of parents, who want their children to study in tune with the modern world, and not be left behind.
Yet, there are millions who learn the English language, only in the passing, or as a compulsory subject, but with a distinct fear or hatred or both, towards it. The hatred becomes even more pronounced in cases where the father and more are just farmers, or farm laborers, or just illiterate. Since the social conditioning and the social environment does not offer any chance to get the latest updates in terms of what is going on in the Corporate world, the children grow up in a highly closed environment, and they do not get any job when they come to the cities.
However, these young boys and girls, have a huge amount of native intelligence. They know much about agriculture and the seasons and about herbal medicine. Unlike their city counterparts, the students are not cunning and selfish. They are always ready to learn, and can and will improve their standards of education, if only they are properly motivated.
The secret is to give the rural students a strong foundation in spoken and written English, so that the students are not left behind. The huge Corporate organizations can take a lead in this respect.
The public-private sector partnerships are vital in this respect. Let the village students remain where they are. Let the students get to think differently, let them think in a far better fashion and let them think that they have all the capabilities to match their counterparts in the big cities.
Imagine two colleges in villages situated at least forty kilometers from Chennai. To bring the same standard as that of the world-famous Loyola College, all that needs to the done, is to enter into an Memorandum of Understanding with this college, and help the students there, to acquire that same standards of education, in say, commerce.
The Corporate organizations can also support such causes through guest lectures by industry professionals. The process of learning English, through the mother tongue, has to become a big reality. If the students are taught the meaning in the mother tongue, the process of understanding the English language will become that much faster, and simpler.
Avenues for opening up the potential of the rural students, has to be thought of, in very many ways. For example, if there is an Essay competition in English, on a subject like globalization, the student has to just learn the basic ideas in his or her own native language and then pick up these threads in English. In this fashion, it is possible to make huge dents in the creativity and knowledge of the rural students.
Similarly, let the Government promote agro based industries and let the private sector take advantage of the huge surge in demand for herbal products that cure many ailments and are now found very effective. The ancient wisdom of the rural population can be effectively put to use through these industries, that can be started in the rural areas and where the students can effectively interact with members of their own community to innovate in terms of the processes that could lead to the most effective methodologies of medicine, now called alternate medicine.
Thanks to the huge surge in both the siddha and ayurvedha streams of medicine, there is a huge amount of interest in this area, and the yoga movement has also added spirit to this movement. In Tamil Nadu, there is a sport called silambattam, which is a very traditional form of sport with bamboo sticks. This is a superb form of exercise, and it can be supplemented with yoga to stimulate the creativity of the rural students.
So, the answer to develop the skills of the rural students is to go to their own backyards, understand the various mechanisms available to them to acquire the huge amount of native wisdom, convert them into commercial opportunities and give them access to such opportunities.
We can all learn to be creative, once we learn the art of doing the best in a given situation, given all the resources. The key is the language part of the entire process. The mother tongue is the only route to reach them, and then not only teach them English, but also help them acquire skills that will help them get good opportunities in terms of jobs, and also self-employment opportunities.
The key is also innovation in terms of teaching methodologies and the skill processes leading to acquisition of key skills. Public-private partnerships are a must.
Like it on Facebook, Tweet it or share this article on other bookmarking websites.