As a strategy, MSFDA ( Maharashtra State Faculty Development Academy) visits colleges in districts to interact with teachers, students, and non-teaching staff. The purpose is two fold – one, listen to them, their aspirations, and their issues and trying to orient training programmes accordingly. Two, nudging them towards the basic principles and philosophy of MSFDA which revolve around student centricity, focus on learning, and creation of an emotionally-friendly fear-free competition- free learning environment.
Over the last few months, teams from MSFDA have visited 17 colleges/ venues from 21 districts. The initial set of meetings were held university-wise, where discussions were held with Prinicipals from all the affiliated colleges of that University in groups of around 100 each. Later, MSFDA deep-dived to have in-depth discussions with teachers, students, non-teaching staff from select colleges of various districts. The engagement with all these stakeholders not only brought MSFDA close to them, but also facilitated initiation of discussion amongst themselves at the local level on key issues concerning education. Given below are some thoughts and reflections from the interactions wherein I participated.
Methodology of interaction
All these interactions were conducted in the form of participative discussions. The students, teachers and non-teaching staff were randomised ( sometimes in respective groups, sometimes together) and requested to discuss amongst themselves issues such as – recalling their worst incidents as students; recalling their best incidents as students etc. The personal nature of question ensured participation from everyone, and also helped them open up to others through discussions. The discussions often led to issues centring around meaning and purpose of education.
(a) J M Patel College of Arts, Science and Commerce, Bhandara
One discussion revolved around biases in education. We were aware of a few through such such interactions earlier. These included biases of caste, community, region, language, gender, disability and even IT skills. A student here however reminded of another obvious( and perhaps) rampant bias – in ‘favourite’ students. Many of us will be immediately reminded of this bias from our schools as well – whether we belonged to the ‘favourite’ category or the ‘non-favourite’ category. What do students do to become ‘favourite’ – we asked. Various well known answers were received, including bringing tiffin for teacher with his/ her favourite dishes !
The second set of issues revolved around the sensitivity and empathy of an educator. Responses from children – ” I was punished for mistake of my friend” or ” My teacher threatened – BSc mein ab tum pass ho ke dikha do ” leave much room for introspection.
The final set of issues revolve around attitude of parents. A girl NCC student said that her most pleasant memorable experience was going for NCC camp – although she had to struggle with her parents because they were not giving permission for the same. Another had similar pleasant memorable experience – however, in case her parents allowed her to go for the camp. Without judging on either case, a point for discussion is what all factors impinge on a student’s mind; and also on education and learning.
MSFDA is a Section 8 company involved in teachers’ training. Its work centres around raising and addressing such issues. It believes in and propagates idea that educational institutions are for learning; and that learning requires a congenial atmosphere free of fear, biases and competition.
