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EDUCATION: SCHOOLS
DEHRADUN'S NOT LEARNING NEW IDEAS
Template Of Doon
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ABIDE WITH US: Few schools want to break away from the Doon
School model
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For a city that
has its own Vasant Vihar, Defence Colony and Connaught Place--everyday
place names to any Delhiite--the mimic act may not be entirely unfamiliar.
Almost all the schools set up in Dehradun know only one framework of imparting
education and rearing a young adult-the one at Doon School. As Arun Kapur,
director of Delhi's Vasant Valley School and formerly a teacher at Doon,
tells you, "It's almost as if a template exists and every school
tries to get as close to it as possible." Not that this necessarily
makes these schools inferior. It's just that the "school capital
of India"--as Dehradun is sometimes called, jocularly or otherwise--is
not quite a microcosm of the universe of modern Indian schooling. Of the
five new school projects visited by this reporter, only one promises to
try and break the mould.
"Old model", for lack of a better
term, schools in India borrowed from military or English public school
or missionary traditions or
a combination of these. The emphasis was on discipline and a certain rigour.
In a sense, when Doon was set up in 1935 it was
a trifle radical for its time, notably for its ban on corporal punishment.
Of course much has changed since then. As an
educationist points out, there are a host of "new model" schools-Rishi
Valley in Andhra Pradesh, Sardar Patel, Shriram, Mother's International
and Vasant Valley in Delhi, Aditi Mallya in Bangalore, Nath Valley in
Aurangabad and so on. True, these schools are very different from each
other but, to quote Kapur again, they share a certain temperament: "Fresh
concepts have arisen in pedagogy. There are new systems of grading, multiple
intelligence, a whole cognitive science." The child is approached
as more of an individual and the school itself endeavours to be in a process
of constant change.
Admittedly, these innovations in schooling have
triggered much debate. A school today may address a specific parent mindset.
Some experiments fail, some succeed. The point is this great churning
is almost completely missing in Dehradun. Only SelaQui raises hope of
an alternative system, if that be the word, to Doon's. Its biggest stress
is on technology, promising a completely wired school. In addition, each
teacher will be required to devote "45 days each year to upgrading
skills". The proof of the pudding will, of course, lie in the eating.
Doon School too has a "Teacher Resource Centre" but critics
say its use has been minimal.
The absence of pedagogical argument is not,
of course, a hindrance to commercial viability. Dehradun's emerging schools-many
of them on the Chakrata Road, which is becoming something of a local silicon
alley with the Uttaranchal Government allocating land for an it park as
well-are unlikely to be short of custom.
Doon School inducted 90 boys this year after
receiving 450 applications. In 2000-01, its first year, Asian School admitted
575 children, turning away 800. Sinha of Indian Public School puts matters
in perspective, "There's enough space for everyone. We're talking
of a few thousand seats in a country of millions."
The schools of Dehradun will flourish. If only
the schools of thought did as well.
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