primary school teachers the twists and turns of everyday practice

Version 20 Oct 08, edited final
Malati tells the resource person that she is having trouble dealing with such a large
group, especially since they are of different ages and asks what is expected of her as
a teacher. He looks surprised and says: follow the textbook, teach and make sure you
furnish all the information that the government asks for.
Malati attends a monthly meeting in the nodal school at the cluster level and
collects her salary slip (her salary is deposited in a bank). Life goes on, she quickly
realises that no one visits her school—there is no inspection. Sometimes the block
resource centre (BRC) or Cluster Resource Centre (CRC) teachers come for a little
while, fill out forms, look at the registers, scrutinise the mid-day meal register and
leave. There is little discussion about teaching and learning. No one asks her what
she has been doing in the classroom or how she is managing a group of children who
are technically in different classes. She notes that even the children in Class 3
cannot read or write.
Soon Malati is informed that she must help conduct the household survey in the
village. As the survey date approaches, she seeks out her co-teacher to take his
advice on how to conduct the survey. He asks her to meet the local panchayat
pradhan (village head) and fill out the forms with his help. He hands her a copy of
the previous year’s survey and tells her to make sure that the number of out of
school children comes down. The next few days are spent filling out the forms and
compiling the data; Malati has little time to teach.
As the months go by, Malati settles into a routine. She takes the 10 am bus and
reaches the school around 11 am, teaches a group of students for about 40 to 50
minutes, supervises the mid-day meal, does some paperwork and returns by the 3
pm bus. She is home by 4 or 5 pm. Every month she goes with her co-teacher to the
cluster or block centre for the monthly meeting and to collect her salary slip.
At the end of the academic year, she purchases question papers from the market and
organises an annual examination for the children. She writes the questions on the
blackboard—one by one (as the blackboard is not very good and the children cannot
read if anything is written on the periphery of the board). Sometimes, she also
writes the answers. Some children are able to copy from the board, a few are able to
answer the questions but most of them just hang around not knowing what to do.
The children who go for tuitions do better. But many others do not even understand
the language used for teaching. In one sense it hardly matters: the no detention
policy ensures that they will all pass. But what are they learning? Malati dwells on
this thought for a bit, and then the moment passes. The days go by swiftly and
before she realises it the summer vacation arrives.
Malati is asked to attend a six-day training at the district headquarter. She seeks
out other women teachers to find out where they stay during the training. She does
not get any specific answer; many of them do not attend the mandatory training, as
there is no place to stay. She arranges with a distant relative to stay in his home.
On the first day of training she reaches the venue at 9 am and waits for a long time
before a few more teachers arrive. A resource teacher takes a class on ‘hard spots’ in
mathematics teaching for Class 3. Later another resource person talks about joyful
learning and the play way method—a lecture that she finds interesting, but which
provides no solutions for her situation. How do you use the play way method with
one teacher and 60 children in one room? At no point do the resource persons or
teachers ask her or any other teacher about the problems they face in school. She
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