I am going to keep talking about the group of students who opt for Open Schooling .... many of them are in their 20s, 30s, 40s and older ...people who feel the urge to get back to studies after working from a very young age...
then there are the students who are termed Slow Learners and Learning Disability Students... Special Children who need loads of love and encouragement
then there are those who are shooed away from Regular Schools for scoring less than 60% ....this is a horrendous thing to do to students .... it is a mockery of education as... how is it possible for every student to score more than 60% .... I as a mother am thrilled if my elder child scores 50% ....he scoring a 50% is Enough for me ....however some schools in Pune harass students who score less than 60% and force them to opt for NIOS or give them a Leaving Certificate .... I once taught a student who was treated this way ...that child was timid and insecure ....it's only after he finished his undergraduate studies and went for post graduation in Australia, that he started doing very well ....ergo that Labelling he got in a Valley school in Pune took so much time to wear off ....
this lot of students who are shunned by schools for scoring less than 60% tend to go into a shell and become shaky and lose confidence .... both the parents and students go through a harrowing time .... this trend is a new one and was totally absent during my time ... I had quite a few classmates who did not score more than 60% in their 9th and no one ostracised them ...parents not voicing their opinion and taking schools to task has made schools go Krazy in the last decade ...
then there are the students with challenges like dyslexia, partial visual disability and or complete visual disability, some have a physical disability and opt for open schooling as they can not afford school along with treatment for their disability ....
then there are those who are busy with sports, alternative careers, and those into modelling and acting full time etc etc etc
finally there are a few who have had to leave school for discipline issues or whose parents have a transferrable job and they have opted for OS and for these children ....who are normal students with no problems with Learning ....Open Schooling is a Breeze ...the percentage of such students is very low
the problem with Open Schooling in India is that the syllabus is extensive .... I feel that there should have been At Least 2 levels of Open Schooling .... my elder child has no learning disability ..he has lack of interest ...for children like him ...the syllabus is just about doable ...
however for children with Learning Disabilities ....there should have been a lower level ....as the syllabus is mind boggling .... I saw so many harassed parents last year during exams ....all those mothers knew the syllabus By Heart !!!!
the poor child would come out of the exam hall and get a tick off for forgetting some thing or the other ....and my heart would go out to the child ....is it the child's fault that they forgot ....
first the vast syllabus and then the utter confusion before exams every day .... it's enough to Fluster such simple souls ....
Aren't these children the Special Children of India ???
Don't they need our support and help ????
Why did I hear All the mothers complain of the mean and rude treatment these children got in the schools they went to ??? they are even ridiculed ...for being slow in understanding concepts ...
Has anyone in India Ever heard of NIOS and the problems the Special Children of India face in exam centres Every year ???
these children are treated so badly and even ridiculed for taking up NIOS ....however.. is the syllabus of low standards ????
NO ...the syllabus is gigantic and it takes an enormous amount of preparation to cover it .... now imagine the cooks, mechanics, tailors, househelps, housewives and so many more economically weak young adults taking this exam ....
most of the study centres are run by Callous staff who are rude and disinterested in running these centres .... now imagine how much these economically weak young adults deal with ...to just finish their course work and pass ???
now imagine their assignments going missing ...their answer sheets going missing and no one cares ....no one helps and no one even knows such things have been going on for years!!!!
to help the students with Learning Disabilities the Open Schooling system has an option of Exam on Demand ...in such cases students can give exams as and when they are done with one subject ....however a few parents had wards giving a re-exam as the Centre had Lost All their Exam Answer Sheets ...the ones they had answered on demand ...and last April those poor kids were giving their exams a second time ...
why such Callous treatment for the Special Children of India ..are they not Good Enough to get Equal Rights ????
it's only when I went for the exams with my child that I realised how Callous the person at the Study Centre I chose for my son was ....she did not return the corrected and marked assignments ...all other students in other centres got back their assignments and knew how much they had scored in their assignments ....I felt that I chose the school where I studied as a study centre for my child ....we were in Bahrain when the results were declared ....and I realised this young girl managing the study centre where my child was registered ...not only did she not give us the corrected and marked assignments ....she Lost one assignment ....she did not give marks for one subject ie Culture and Heritage ....
I realised why some of the teachers who taught me told me that they Never go to school ...I realised last June that the school which had Super Dedicated Teachers has changed forevermore ...and How !!!!
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