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Krishnamurti Foundation India
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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS Question
1: Writing an exam, being successful in it is merely a matter of skill. The flaws in the exam system are such that it is not an effective test that assesses ability, creativity or understanding. It is essentially competitive and generates negative images of self in the individual's psyche. So flawed is the system that rarely does an individual enter the exam hall with a sense of peace, ease or confidence. Exams do not assist the process of learning. On the contrary, it often inhibits and sometimes even retards the process. Skills tested by exams are mainly memory, ability to comprehend questions and to answer them within a given time frame. These skills can be easily developed in class 8. In our experience, all that a student requires to tackle exams are :
At school we attempt to ensure that students learn these skills. Learning cannot be computed, nor can understanding,creativity, internalising concepts, initiative or interest. These are essential facets in the process of learning. What is important is the teacher is aware of these processes and assesses the child in various ways. These are class tests, group work, projects, assignments and so on. These go on right through and teacher is certain of the child's progress and reports it to the parents through school reports and meetings. Exams are introduced in Class 8, as a system that is necessary but, not entirely useful. It is clearly not the best tool to assess academic progress. Keeping these in mind, we have our priorities clear with regard to our intentions by way of academics. We certainly do not intend to introduce exams at lower levels. Question
2: Let us try and answer this query with a counter on : how does one prepare a child to face the world? The world is full of cheats, ugly jealousies, violence, passions. Do we prepare the child by telling her/him to develop these very qualities in them? Do we tell ourselves and our children that in order to survive in a world of cheats, frauds, thugs.....one must become a cheat, a thug, a fraud too? Do we enable our children to gain inner strengths, learn to distinguish between truth and falsehood; learn to stand erect in face of the tide and learn not to just survive in this world but really truly live? We do not recognize competition as meritorious. It seems to provide motivation to do better like the proverbial pot of gold. It actually does more than that. It alienates one human being from another. It devalues interest in something and plays up scoring and doing better than..? attitude. It might seem the best way to induce an individual to provide results but the means to an expected end does not justify the means at all. Competition may seem the best thing to get the best out of children. But one tends to forget that there is always one winner, one victor, but many `losers'. And a loser is an acknowledged term of a inability. It brings in feelings of shame, inability and feeling of helplessness and fear. Competition in any form, quizzes, exams, sport,
divides people, encourages selfishness, leads to an inclination
to cheat, creates images of a `superior winner' and `defeated loser';
encourages partisan behaviour from non The school is clearly not in favour of encouraging
this. We emphasise more on group work which helps in group interaction
and allows for cooperation and collaboration - a merger of abilities
which creates space for greater creativity. Perhaps also, the question you need to ask yourself is do I want my child to do something because s/he values or because one must do it in order to be one up on another person? Do I want my child to learn to be a boor because a boor gets what s/he wants? Do I want my child to be violent, aggressive, militant because all these get you somewhere? If your answer to these and similar questions are in the affirmative, then you need to rethink the direction of your child's education. For, we in this school firmly believe that competition and competitive drive and all its attendant qualities are not what we desire to develop in our children. Not now, not ever. Question 3: The school is primarily fee funded. There are no grants and the running expenses are met by the fees alone.Unlike other city schools, our school has been scrupulously avoiding connections between admissions and any donation.The two main reasons for the fee being on the higher side are :- the limited number of students, restricted to an average 25 and the student teacher ratio being 1 : 10. This is a conscious choice that the school has made. the school fees include food, lunch, tiffin and fruits. This provides an opportunity for students to develop a right attitude towards food, and to learn to interact with peers in an atmosphere of informality or sharing. The school also offers concessions and fee waivers to parents on request. The school has also followed a conscious policy of keeping fees static for 3 year. Besides our fees are more or less on par with several leading schools in Madras. Finally, in our view, fees are the second question that needs to be raised and not the firsts. The first point is whether parents are really interested in educating their children in a school such as ours with all its implications of no competition, freedom, responsibility no exams till high school, relationships and so on. Often it appears that affordability question is raised first to preempt answering the first. |