Manoj Joshi invited me to his TFI school, Royal Roses English Medium School. It is on the hillock adjoining the main Sinhgad campus. The last 200 m is a steep climb, that’s where the electric cycle helped. Reached 5 minutes late. He introduced me to another TFI colleague – Vijayan – who was older than me. Vijayan is a mechanical engineer who stays in Bavdhan. He has finished his TFI program – and still continues his volunteering teaching work. Enquired with Manoj about how PTP can get enrolled in the TFI program. He said that it would be easier to get TFI alumni to teach. I have requested him to spread the message of our interest in the alumni group.
Earlier, the school was in the village – but shifted to the hilltop about 15 years ago. The school runs in two shifts – the morning one is the unaided English medium – and the afternoon one is the aided Marathi medium. The aided school is called the Dangat Patil school – and has about 800 students. The unaided school was also called the same name – but with admissions running low at the start – the management decided that it needs a more English sounding name. They first came up with Royal Stone – and subsequently changed it to Royal Roses. Btw, the trust also runs a graduation college in the same campus.
Got into Manoj’s history class for Grade 10. The syllabus this year has changed – and there is an interesting study of how history is written – histography. We discussed three periods in history – the ancient (pre 6th century), Medieval (6th to 15th) and modern history – and how history was written differently in those periods. Well, modern history tends to be more critical and medieval more hagiographical. He had one interesting assignment for students – read up the Babarnama. Manoj informed the class that an English translation is available on the web. One of the students asked for a link – and was promptly rebuked and asked to build up his googling skills. I found the class participation to be amazing – more than 50% of the class was involved. Probably had to with Manoj Bhaiya’s awesome energy levels. One interesting kaizen was that once a student had finished answering a question posed by Manoj, he would tag another student in order to answer the next question.
The gender ratio was heavily skewed towards boys. There were about 6 girls to 30 boys in the class. There were a few slackers – and Manoj had to use quite some energy in trying to ensure that they did not disturb the class. My suggestion to Manoj still remains that he should experiment with group work. He has a valid point – of being in a rush to finish the syllabus. And then of course there is pressure to repeat last year’s SSC results. The highest was 92% – more than 10 students got more than 80% – and except for one student who flunked math – the rest of the batch all cleared the SSC in the first attempt.
The interesting part about the class students was that all of them had been part of a TFI intervention – since their second grade. About 30 were originally from the school itself – and 15 got added in eighth grade – after having finished the first 7 years at a PMC run school – which is also part of the TFI program. Manoj has been a wee bit disappointed with the slackers – given this background. My point is that the law of averages always comes to play in any sample of population. In fact, the percentage – which is significantly less than 10% – is nothing too much to worry about. However, what worries me is that most of the experiments are evolutionary – Manoj agreed with the group work philosophy – but he may not get the political support to try it in the higher classes. As with Peepal Tree, the budgetary constraints also come in to play – alongside the fact that the trustees are mostly from a political background.
Chatted up with the Principal. She does a good balancing act – in managing academics and politics. Was a witness to that one of the Dangat Patils barged into her room, demanding a free seat for someone who seemed to be working with him. She skillfully directed the gentleman to the trust chairman. She joined the school about 13 years ago – when the strength was 180. About 10 years ago the TFI involvement started. The good joint work has resulted in the strength tripling to 500+ now. The school can expand further – but is limited by infrastructure – and a policy decision of not taking more than 50 students in a class. They have only one division per grade.
The KG admissions are low – because of the distance from the village – and the climb involved. Rest assured, no mom is going to do the climb twice a day. In order to get the admissions increase in KG, they have kept the KG fee at Rs. 6,000. The logic is that KG is a loss leader, which will ensure that the first standard gets filled for sure. The school reserves 25% of seats for RTE students. They do that even in the KG, even though they don’ get remimbursed for RTE before grade 1. This is in keeping with the loss leader strategy. The fees for the higher grades is about 10-11 K per year – almost at par with what we charge at PTP. The parent profile is also quite similar to what we have. A fair number of North Indians – who usually end up joining the school late as vacation home gets extended.
One significant difference is that most of the students come from relatively far off places like Kirkitwadi – and have to be bussed in. I guess, the immediate neighborhood has become a little richer – and prefers sending kids to higher priced schools. This is one of the challenges that we also face. We will need to think about how we can continue to attract a mix of students as the neighborhood income profile changes. The Principal’s advice to our student attrition problem was to ensure that we take mostly lower income family kids into the kindergarten. Combining this with a price hike for higher income kids will ensure that even if we get kids from higher income families, they will end up subsidizing the lower income kids.
Ended the visit with a chat with one of the students. He comes from a Paithan based farmer’s family. For a few years the family had shifted base to Pune, where the father tried running a scrap business. But things didn’t work out – and they had to shift back. The student stayed back – and is currently hostelling at one of the TFI volunteer’s house. He is planning to take up arts in grade 11. He was the most curious guy in the class – and during my short autobiographical talk – had pestered me a lot about the career choices that I had made. He is looking at applying to the Mahindra United World College for his grade 11. I hope he gets in!
Thanks for the detailed note, Atul.
“… but he may not get the political support to try it in the higher classes.”:
Not quite. In fact, Mrs. Deshpande or my ‘supervisor’ Dias ma’m does not even know what or how I teach in the class. In fact, I won’t be surprised if they didn’tknow what I subjects I teach :).
When I made that comment, I was looking at Mrs. Deshpande as a part of the system. I feel that it is the system that puts some restrictions on me. More so in the 10th grade.
I took more liberties in the 9th grade by teaching entire chapters through project work, group work, etc. I also prioritized the teaching objectives from the chapter and left a few of them un-taught knowing well that it will not impact ‘the boards’**. I think I told you about the ‘Financial Planning’ project where I conducted a reality-show like game in the class which was based on events that unfolded every week. The related textbook chapter talked about complex tax calculations and percentages and proportions. I ignored all that making way for basics – risks and rewards, predictable and unpredictable expenses, etc. in order to orient the kids for basic financial decision making.
I dont think I can take such liberties in the 10th grade. I can certainly not ignore any objectives. I have to ‘cover’ the entire ‘syllabus’. One more example: InSocial Studies, given that the English text is more than what my students can comprehend on their own at home, I make sure that the entire chapter gets read in the class at least once. This consumes time.
**Interestingly, the new evaluation system for 10th grade Math gives 20% weightage to the 9th grade syllabus. This means we will have to teach all those things which I ignored in the 9th grade.
2018 Feb, Manoj Joshi Visit
I reached school early and chatted up with Abhishek. I asked him what he liked in the old school. He liked the gravel that was spread around the ground. Over here he likes the jaali fence, the coconut tree in the neighborhood, the chairs and the farming experiments. He does not like the tables, he finds their height too much. I gave him an assignment to pick up a book and do some reading. In the meantime, I read a very interesting book on raising self esteem in children. (This book was gifted to Manoj, hope he likes it. Have also given the Summerhill book to Nidhi, she has to make a presentation on the same on Saturday. Bhavna was given seeds to be used by her class for creating a vegetable garden.) When a kid is born, the mother expects her to be like a mini Barbie doll – but honestly, all kids are born ugly. So it is a standard societal practice to praise the new born, so that the mother’s confidence in her kid comes by.
One of the interesting ideas that this book has is that people who are less beautiful tend to have lower self esteem. One interesting fact that the book shared was that in the last hundred years of US presidential elections, except on 3 occasions, the taller candidate has always won. It is a reflection on a society that values beauty as being an important success factor. After 10 minutes of my reading I asked Abhishek to put his book aside and asked him what he had understood. ‘Nothing’ he said. ‘I just read!’
Manoj Joshi landed up at 10:15. He is a Teach For India fellow, who is currently teaching in his first year of the two year fellowship at Royal Roses English Medium School in Vadgaon, close to Sinhgad College (you can find the school on Google Maps). His wife has finished her Masters in social work. His daughter is studying at National Law University Bangalore. In TFI all teachers are addressed as Didi or Bhaiya. I realised that yours truly been called Kaka is an anachronism. We already use tai for our female teachers. Dada is much better for Kaka for our male teachers!
Took him around the school. Explained the challenges that we face. He took a class on fractions for our senior students. I was out buying Vada Pav so I missed that part of the action. On my return back we assembled for a teacher meet. We started with introductions. Everybody spoke about their hobbies. Manoj’s hobbies are sketching and woodcarving. He likes to teach Social Studies because you can include anything in Social Studies.
We asked Manoj to discuss what he does at the school, especially his experiments. His first three months at Roses school were spent in understanding how the school works. For a person with an IT background, signing on the muster was a new experience. His current assignment is teaching math to 9th and 10th standard children. The challenge is these are kids who have in his own words ‘Bade Sing’, that is they are sprouting horns. There are issues in tackling them. His 9th standard has 49 children and 10th standard has 36.
Old kids remember whatever you say, so you have to be careful what you say to them.
Because of No failure policy till class 8, there are quite a few students in Manoj’s class who don’t even no what is a jodakshar. When asked about the alphabet, they stop at P. They don’t understand the concept of odd even. What has been done at Roses school is that the class has been split into two subclasses of 25, based on their capacities. Basic English and Math are taught separately to these classes.
Appendix:
Notes by Manoj
Manoj is teaching about financial literacy through an interesting investing experiment. Student groups have been given notional salaries – and an option of financial instruments. Groups end up making investment decisions. Month-wise data is given every day – and they can reallocate resources then. Here are his notes on this experiment.
Team, I have made the following charts based on the data given by your teams (Shradhali team’s chart is missing because I dont have their March data yet). These chart shows how each team is allocating their money into various options at the beginning of every month. Note that MF was introduced in Feb (so it was not available in Jan) and NewAge was introduced in March (so it was not available in Jan and Feb)
I am reading articles online to understand the facility of Form 17. Here’s what I have understood:
1) If a student fails class IX (for example in RREMS), then that student has an option to repeat class IX in the same school and then enter X grade in a normal way. If the student chooses this path, then he will lose 1 year.
2) However, if the student does NOT wish to lose 1 year, then he can get an LC from the school and appear for SSC externally by filling up Form 17. Studying and passing the examination will be totally his responsibility if he choses this path.
PROVISIONS GRANTED BY THE MAHARASHTRA STATE BOARD OF SECONDARY AND HIGHER SECONDARY EDUCATION IN THE STATE OF MAHARASHTRA, INDIA
25% Extra time
Oral Test along with the written examination for Standard I to IX
Promotion to next class on the basis of the Average
Writer/ typewriter
Question papers to be read out
Exemption from the Second and Third Language
Physiology-Hygiene and Home Science in place of Science
Arithmetic
Standard I to IV – errors of interchanging of computation signs and number reversal to be ignored
Arithmetic of Standard V in Standard V & VI
Arithmetic of Standard VI in Standard VII & VIII
Arithmetic of Standard VII in Standard IX & X
Use of Calculator at Class X Examination
Spelling errors and incorrect sentence construction to be ignored.
Errors in respect of showing directions in Geography to be ignored.
Students between Standard I & IX exempted from drawing diagrams, graphs, and charts.
Marks for such questions proportionately distributed to the other questions or students to be provided with supplementary questions.
20% consolidated grace marks in one or more subjects
Students are permitted to write in ordinary print
Exempted from having to write answers in detail during exams