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Our Government
is going to launch a big offensive against the evil of illiteracy, to finish it
for ever. Before planning a war, it is imperative that we have an insight, as
far as possible, into the strength of our enemy as well as the limitations of
our resources.
But how can we decide about these matters without
the knowledge of the following facts ?
I. What method of
teaching elementary reading and writing Hindi and Urdu will
be suitable for
our illiterate adults and how much time it will take ?
II.
What will be the achievements after finishing their primer ?
Without having sufficient information about these things, our efforts to prepare
higher textbooks and follow-up materials for the adult students will be just like
raising the scaffoldings for the upper stories of building without building the
first storey.
As far as my experience goes, our information
about these matters is scanty. From 1938 to 1972 it was my hobby to visit the
places about which I had heard that the adult education was going on successfully
there. Reaching the place, I used to select some classes at random and visit them
in cognito. There I visited the class, talked to the students, their neighbours,
important persons of the place and also drop-outs of the class and then to the
teacher. Wherever I went I heard the same story. On the opening day of a class
in a virgin place there were 30 students or more. But on the second day they became
15, on the third day 10, on the fourth day two and on the tenth day only one.
Then came the examination day. The poor teacher begged literate persons to impersonate
in the examination. He also offered some presents to them. After accepting the
presents, they took pity on the poor teacher and came to the examination and passed
it. So on paper, 20 illiterate persons became literate.
This is the way in which the adult education programme was carried on for 30 years
and it consumed crores of rupees. I have studied Hindi Urdu classes only, so I
can say nothing for the classes of other languages and it is possible that I might
have missed some useful classes.
Had we been successful to some noticeable
extent the road to higher stages would have become clear to us. Then we would
have known what is that pace at which our massess learn and how much time they
would take to make themselves well-served in the art of reading and writing. After
that how much they can achieve in a given time? What are their likes and dislikes?
Let me tell you my conclusion after observing dozens of adult classes. I concluded
that our masses are well motivated to learn reading and writing. How did I come
to this conclusion ?
On the opening day of a class in a
new place, there is always a good gathering of the adult students. But when the
class fails at that place and then the teacher tries to take a new batch of the
students there are hardly 2-3 students on the opening day. Why was there such
a good gathering on the opening day of the first class and why there was so poor
a gathering on the opening of the second class ? There is no explanation except
that on the first occasion the adults came with the hope that they would be able
to learn reading and writing and on the second occasion, having seen already the
failure of the first class they had no such hopes and so they did not come to
the class. It means that it was not the adult students who failed, but it was
the method of teaching which failed to satisfy them.
These
constant failures of the adult education became a great headache for our experts.
They attributed such things to lack of motivation and so it took the most important
place in the discussions of our conferences and seminar and lot of papers were
prepared on it. It went on for about 20 years or more. But as nothing came out
of this labour, the experts became tired of it and dropped it.
The experts also tried some methods to attract the students such as of radio sets
and musical entertainments etc. They even started to teach tem only. But all these
things failed miserably. Such tactics are still going on in the adult classes
at some place or other. At some places they have started to admit children in
the adult classes just to increase its bulk and say that as the adults insist
on it they are helpless.
Let us examine the factors referred
to above in detail under the following heads.
1. The Methods
2.
The Motivation
3. Other ways of making the class successful.
Methods
:
We have lots of methods and primers which were prescribed
for adult education, used for some time, and consumed lakhs of rupees and when
they proved complete failures they were withdrawn.
In any
work which is done on a mass scale, as adult education work is done, mistakes
are unavoidable. It is rather the mistakes which pave the way for the improvements
of work. But after each mistake it is our duty to examine thoroughly the cause
of failures. Now the question is what made us select those primers and why they
failed ?
A great hindrance in our way has been that there
is no science which may help us in the evolution of a method of primer. So far
nobody has tried to analyse the complicated system of script and classify its
ingredients and search out the mantel capacities required from a student to learn
reading and writing and then arrange them in the order of very common to less
common. The absence of such a science is the main cause of our failures. Whenever
a person gets some brilliant idea about a new method, he produces a primer and
tries to get it prescribed. One of the producers is successful in impressing his
idea on our experts and then his primer is accepted. I assure you that one or
two brilliant ideas can never make the learning of reading and writing easy.
Motivation
:
Recently people have started talking about the Vietnamis'
literacy and motivation. Before the Vietnam war only 10 per cent Vietnamis were
literate but now they are 100 per cent literate. Their motivate was the result
of extremely extraordinary circumstances. They were fighting back to the wall
and in order to save their children's, lives, they had so read the instructions
of leaders and then copy them and pass them on to others. I wish God may never
put us in such condition.
The motivation for learning reading
and writing among our masses is quite satisfactory. Everywhere in India I found
a respect for literate persons. But every one believes that the art of reading
and writing is the most difficult art to learn and perhaps it is beyond his reach
in his age- When the adults come to class they are very much diffident about their
capacity to learn. A slignt difficulty in the way is enough to discourage them.
But on the other hand they learn something substantial. On the first day doubts
are lessened and they gladly come on the second day. If they learn something more
on the second and third day also you will be amazed to see enthusiasm and happiness.
It is not difficult to discover the things which are difficult for the adult students
in learning. These people have acquired certain mental habits in daily life and
it is extremely difficult for them to build up some new habits over night. So
they can learn whatever comes within those habits and nothing else. As they never
cram any thing with there eyes or ears or mouth or hands, they cannot do such
things now and if they are asked to do such things, they will leave the class.
There are two methods of teaching in vogue now-a-days. One is a very ancient one
in which the alphabets have to be learnt up and then their compounds, and the
other one is in which a sentence is presented on the board as well as in the book.
A lot of exercises is given by repetition and then the sentences and further exercise
is given. Then the sentence is broken up into alphabets of which it is composed.
In both the methods the student has to go through a lot of repetition, cramming
and drilling and then after three months he is able to read very small and simple
sentences. The writing is less developed.
I will not talk
about the first method because with the exception of a few places, it has almost
been dropped. As for the second method there are many defects in it as for example
:
1. It requires a lot of cramming by the student with
his eyes and mouth. The written words are extremely complicated to be remembered
by eyes for an adult illiterate. When trying to recall a new object you search
your stores of memory for similar object. You bring them out and after comparing
and contrasting the new object with them, you bring out certain features in it
which make it familiar to you.
To remember complicated
words an illiterate adult requires an eye trained to grasp such figures and a
good store house of eye-learnt objects. There are only a few professions which
have these two things. As far example Chikan work of Lucknow Tailoring etc. The
coolies, rikshaw-pullers and vendors have not got these things, so they are not
expected to stay in the class.
2. When a student is learning
reading and writing, he has to apply different kinds of his mental capacities
in different degrees. Suppose he is trying to memorize the shapes and names of
the alphabets or words, he will have to apply the same capacity to the job which
he applies in memorizing the face and name of his new acquaintance, but in a higher
degree because he has no such sound and figures in the store house which, though
very remote, still have some resemblance with them.
When
a student tries to learn the long and short forms of certain vowels the above
capacity does not suffice, because he is required to retain two notes of the same
in his mind and then measure and compare their lengths. That requires some musical
sense too.
There are about five kinds of mental capacities
of three degrees each which are required to learn reading and writing. All of
them with all their degrees are not developed in every illiterate adult student.
They are to be developed separately and gradually in the classroom.
When you try to teach a full sentence composed of 11-12 consonants and 4-5 vowels
having the long forms as well as short forms, the students who lack all those
capacities in all degrees fully developed, will find the lesson beyond their reach.
Naturally 90 per cent of them will leave the class.
Admission
of children to the adult class :
When you admit children
to the adult class, you spoil all chances of success. In mixed classes, the bright
children make fun of the dull adults. If they are not allowed to do so in the
classroom, they do it outside. They are not so well behaved as to follow the orders
of the teacher everywhere. The result is that the dull adults stop attending the
class. When after the examination the teacher tries to admit a new batch of adult
students, nobody turns up, because everyone is afraid that he might be ridiculed
by children.
I became interested in adult education in
1937 and started many classes. After failing in my attempts I began studying the
problem. I visited many adult classes in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. I went to Adivasis,
Harijans and backward people and after a long study came to the conclusion that
the success of adult education depended entirely on the method and method alone.
That is to say, a method suited to the mental capacity of very ordinary people.
Than I began to think whether such a method could be prepared. I had almost reached
the conclusion that it was not possible to devise a method in which the adults
will not be confronted with any thing in which they have to use mind in a new
way. It is easy to reach the conclusion that adult education failed on account
of unsuitable method, but it is extremely difficult to prepare a method suitable
for adults.
Can I prepare such a method ? This problem
hovered upon my mind. One day when returning from Gaya where I had gone in search
of a solution and finding nothing there, I was returning disappointed, when, I
saw a batch of adivasis which started a train of ideas in my mind. The ancient
man who discovered script must have been only a little more advanced than these.
He started with picture writing and then succeeded in breaking word into syllables
and then syllables into vowels and consonants. How could he make such a big discovery
? He had neither the capacity for analysis nor for the scientific arrangement
of the material nor could he argue logically. It is obvious that this discovery
too must have been the result of chances similar to the discovery of fire and
roasting of meat I was thus led to conjecture about the sequence of accidents
that must have culminated in discovery. Could I not recreate them mentally and
thus discover a way to the teaching of reading and writing which would be quite
easy because the ancient man's every step after the other step must have been
very easy and practical.
How the ancient man broke a word
into syllables ? It occurred to me that there must have been an occasion when
two almost similar words must have come together and the ancient man must have
been struck by the resemblance and this must have started the whole process.
In my compartment of the train there was a box with a lock. I said to myself,
"Let me presume that the ancient man said ' Tala La ' in some ancient times
and he repeated it leisurely. It so happened that a calligrapher of pictorial
writing was present. He heard ' Ta..Lala '. A relative of the calligrapher was
named 'Lala '. It struck the calligrapher that now he could write Lala. He used
to represent ' La ' in his writing with a spread out plam. He made two open palms
one upon the other and wrote Lala. He made two open palms one upon the other and
wrote Lala. Thus the process strated and he began to make Gala, Mala, Kala, Nala,
by separating 'La' from them and having Ga, Ma, Ka and Na left out. Thus he reached
those four syllables also.
In my heart I was grateful to
my visit to Gaya. The place that had given light to Mahatma Buddha had given me
too a speak of inspiration.
When I had worked on this line
for about a year, I found the line was fairly productive but there were many complications
too. The efforts of the ancient man and his achievements were both crude, just
as his weapons and implements were crude and some ways were long and devious.
I had to decide that it was not necessary to take these things as they were. Crude
thing shall have to be chiselled and refined by the techniques of the modern age
and the long ways shall be cut short. In short a new construction shall be raised
on the old base.
Year after year went by. What happened
was that a primer was prepared and tried and discarded after sometime. Then a
new plan was drawn up and a new primer was prepared. I had to consider not only
the pupils but the teachers as well, for the teacher that would be available in
India would be of poor attainments.
In the early stages
the defects in the method were not the result of any defect in the line of thinking
but were rather due to the exuberance of my youth. For example in my eagerness
I hastened to teach the short vowel after the long vowel. After many trials I
learned that only those people could distinguish between closely resembling vowels
who had a sense of tone and musical notes and there are not many such people.
The ears of the students have to be trained gradually in the classroom.
After 14 years the stage was reached when the primer was completed. Then it occurred
to me that the ancient man went from one word to other with the help of the discovered
syllable, as from Tala to Lala and Gola, Kala, Mala and Nala etc. It is to conclude
that at place it was a self-taught. At first it appeared impossible, but in four
years I surmounted the difficulties and a self-taught method was produced. Then
three more ideas came to me :
1. The ancient man learned
his writing from the picture. Can I not choose pictures which help the student
to guess the word as well as to make him remember its shape and write it down
?
2. There are sentences in every lesson for practice.
Can they not be joined in making poems and stories in such a way as to make the
primer serve as eye-reader also ?
3. Is it not possible
to make the student remember the shape of the alphabets at once glance, at least
in the beginning when he is quite unfamiliar with the alphabets, with the help
of audio-visual method ?
After long labour I put these
ideas into concrete shape.
From the very beginning, I realized
that whenever a syllable was discovered by the ancient man he used it in his daily
life. So script in parts or in whole is not a skeleton, but a lively thing. So
they should be taught in this way. So from the very first lesson we connect the
primer with the environment by putting such questions which help the students
in understanding and remembering the lesson and on the other hand he is made to
feel that education is closely connected with his life.
The secret of our
success lies in our method. We teach 'La' to our students on the first day and
this makes a sentences 'La Lala la'. On the second day we teach 'Tala' in which
they have learnt 'La' on the first day and with the help of the picture they guess
the word and write the sentence "Lala Tala La". On the third day we
teach 'Tara' (The Tara in the sky and Tara name of a girl). This includes 'Ta'
of the first lesson and so the 'Ta' can also be written. Thus they succeed in
making a sentence "Tara Tala La".
In the same
way we proceed to teach the students word after word and sentence after sentence.
On the 10th day, the students can read a poem. They learn to write it and can
write the answers to certain questions about it and in the same way they go no
progressing. On the 48th day, the students will read the last lesson of the primer
and can write it to dictation.
After that the students
will be able to read the III Reader of any primary school and write its dictation.
Here is a synopsis of the lessons taught in the first 10 days.
HOW
TO TEACH
The first lesson
There is a figure of Lala and opposite to it is the word *
'Lala'.
Lala holds a stick, in order to make the lesson more interesting and to connect
it with general life and make the students memorize the Lala and write it too.
Certain questions are put to the students about the use of sticks and they are
told that blind people's stick is white. Then (in Urdu) Lala holds the stick in
reverse and thus his stick and hand together make 'La' and in this way the form
and sound become fixed in the students' mind in association with each other. The
teacher would tell the students to write 'La' by drawing the stick with his pen
from its end to the handle and them from shoulder upto the fist.
The
whole drawing becomes *
When we make him write in this
way, the form of 'La' becomes fixed in his mind.
The lesson
will become far more interesting and useful if a student comes forward with a
stick in his hand and acts as Lala. He reverses his stick and the teacher's hand
travels from the end of the stick to the handle and then from shoulder of the
student to his fisit and hen he makes " * ". Then he asks the students
to make the same movements with hands on their seats. Then he writes on the board
repeating the stick and hand formula, then asks the students to write the word
on their copy books.
(In Hindi) Lala has a red shawl on
his shoulders and a stick in his hand. He is in white shirt and white bandi (vest).
He changes his shirt for a red one. So now his red sleeve which comes out of his
bandi (vest) is seen between the two folds of the red shawl. These things along
with his collar make the shape of * 'Now if you put Lala' stick behind him it
becomes *. Then some piece of wood is placed so that it crosses the collar and
joins the stick and then La * is complete. All these actions are done without
hurry and with continuous commentary by the teacher about what he is doing.
If a student acts as Lala and comes up in the class with a stick the lesson will
become very impressive. Questions will be asked about his stick. The Lala will
take out his bandi, put on his red shirt and then bandi. The students will see
the change. The teacher will point out with hand how the front portion of the
shawl, the sleeve, the back portion of the shawl and the collar make ""Ö".
Then he will put Lala's stick behind it and it will make ""ÖÖ".
He will put another piece of word across his collar to his stick and then ""ÖÖ"
is complete.
The students also will move hands from sets
and at some time they also join the commentary. This audio-visual aid will make
the student remember the syllable for ever.
Then the teacher
write "ÖÖ on the board but goes on saying what he has said when
moving his hand on the student acting for Lala. After repeating this he asks the
students to write ""ÖÖ" in the copy book.
The
Second Lesson
The second lesson is Tala. There is a
figure of a lack and Tala is written before it.
The student
has been made acquainted with the figure on the title page (according to the instructions
to the teacher).
The student knows that the figure is Tala and that the other.
1.
part of word is * So when the teacher prompts him he reads
*
and also * Lala Tala La.
Then the teacher uses his audio-visual
aid. He brings out a big lock made of card board and reverses it so that its upper
part along a a side of the loc comes out and thus it makes * Now he puts two nail
heads of the lock on this figure and * is complete.
The
teacher moves his hand first on the portion of the Tala which were separated.
Saying, "here is the hook of tala and here is its
side and these are the nail heads" they make Ta. The students also will move
hands with the teacher from sets. Then the teacher write 'Ta' on black board and
goes on saying," this is the hook this is the side, and this is the nail-head.
Then he asks the students to write 'Ta' in their copy book.
In Hindi everything will be as in Urdu except that in Hindi, audio-visualaid will
be of a different kind. Here after reversing the lock, it upper part is turned
so that it makes a reverse *. Then it is taken out long one of its side and it
makes ~. Then Lala's stich is put behind it and an other stick above it. Thus
Tala is compelte.
Drama : (In Urdu & Hindi)
The
teacher says :
" We require a lock and Lala, who
is your neighbour. Will you (pointing to a student) write a letter to him and
ask him to bring a tala? " The student writes " Lala Tala La "
and sends the letter with another student. A third student is sitting somewhere
with a lock. He reads the letters aloud and comes with the lock.
FOUR
SENSES :
When teaching these lessons, the teacher is
expected to remember that he has to make use of the four sensory organs of the
student, eyes, ears, mouth and hands and none of them should be neglected.
TWO
SUGGESTIONS :
Suppose we use ten pictures in our campaign
and then five of them fail. The loss may go upto five crores.
So I make a suggestion. Let us test all the primers and see how they work in practice.
1. Ten areas may be selected somewhere in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh or Bihar. The population
should be of the same economic and cultural standard.
2.
Ten teams should go to those areas and take a census and demarcate a portion of
each of them which contains 300 illiterate adults, including ladies. The team
will write down names and take group-photos.
3. let one
area be given to each method by lot. Sponsors will be allowed to take 5 teachers,
one supervisor and one controller. Other five teachers will be selected from the
local population.
4. The Government will prepare 10 sets
of of papers for testing reading and writing. The papers will be kept sealed.
The Government will nominate ten teams of examiners.
5.
After three months teaching is completed in every area the examiners are allotted
the area by lot. They also get papers by lot. Then they go to areas and examine
the students and see how many of those 300 have been taught reading and writing
and to what standard.
SECOND SUGGESTION
Let us fix some date for a visit of five experts to Lucknow. There they will find
the following things :
1) Two classes (one ladies and one
gents) started 4 days back, two more such classes started 8 days back and two
more such classes started 10 days back.
2) The group-photos
of these classes (of gents only) and copy books from the first day will be available.
3)
80 classes more which have been started 2 months, 3 months and 4 months back with
the record of each student will be available for inspection. You will talk to
Mohalla people and our students
The second suggestion is
meant only to give you an idea about the extent of
motivation of our masses
and to give you some insight into pace of learning reading and writing and other
achievements.