Dispatching Despatches

Last week, The Telegraph started a Bihar edition from Patna. I started reading The Telegraph from its inaugural issue some twenty years ago, when it stood up to challenge the staid Statesman, which was every Calcuttan’s breakfast read at the time. It is wonderful to see the familiar Broadsheet at my doorstep every morning, this time from Bihar.

And that triggered memories about my own days as the Gangtok Correspondent of The Telegraph, when I was in the Northeastern India in the mid eighties and early nineties. In those days, there was no internet, and so we newspaper correspondents had to depend on the old wire services provided by the Postal Department. We would write or type our stories out in longhand, and then toodle off to the nearest post and telegraph office to submit them at the counter for telegrams. In those days regular telegrams cost fifty paise a word, so the members of the Press had special ‘P&T’ cards that allowed us to send telegrams to our newspapers on credit. The special ‘newspaper rate’ was four paise per word.

We would have to write our stories in duplicate, and keep a carbon copy. When we arrived at the post office, we would have to submit both the copies at the counter. The despatch ( a very official sounding word, I loved it) would be recorded, and the carbon copy stamped and handed back to you. The chap receiving the telegrams wouldn’t be wearing a smiley face. He’d stare glumly at the paper and say something like , “Seven hundred words! I’ve got to type seven hundred words, and that UNI fellow has handed in a report six hundred words long!” How quickly the telegram would reach Calcutta from Gangtok would depend entirely upon how enthusiastic and skilful the telegraph operator was, and we pressmen had to keep the fellow in good humour if we wanted our despatches to be ‘first off the block’.
In 1989, the fax machine made its appearance, and what a wonder it was. The first time I saw a fax machine was in the office of the UNI Bureau Chief in Shillong. He really showed it off. In fact, he invited all of us 'hick journalists' in Shillong to his place to ogle at it over a couple of swigs of cheap rum!

I dug up a couple of my old ‘Telegram cards’: the yellow one is the one for The Telegraph, and the other one is the telegram card for The Times of India, which I wrote stories for while in Shillong. As I turned them over in my hand, I heard a song play inside my head.. “Those were the days, my friend, we thought they’d never end, we’d sing and dance forever and a day….”

Author: Frank Krishner

Forgotten short story

 Almost two decades ago, one of my short stories was published in The Illustrated Weekly of India.
It was typed on an old 'Brother' typewriter and sent off by good old  India Post from Gangtok.
I didn't think it would be published, but it was.
Since then, I've lost the carbon manuscript and even the copy of the published story, which a friend 'borrowed' and forgot to return many years ago.
On rummaging through some old papers, I discovered this acceptance letter.

It says

Dear Mr Krishner

This is with reference to your letter dated January 17, 1992 --- which I found on my desk only a few days ago, since I was on long leave. Anyway, this is ust to inform you that we have neither a shredder nor a lady in high heels in our outer office mailing rejection slips. Yes, we do have one in our inner office, but that bit of information is rather irrelevant, since your short story will not have to go by that route. Look for it in the Weekly issue dated February 29, 1992.

With best wishes,

Radha Rajadhyaksha

Assistant Editor.

Now these were the times before the e-mail and the SMS invaded our lives and made communication terse, functional, or merely banal.
Author: Frank Krishner

Abhivyakti: Subaltern Voices

As usual, the 9th Ravi Bharati Bihar Low Cost Film Festival featured a few films that provoked responses. One of these films was Debaranjan Sarangi's  'From Hindu to Hindutva'. This film revisited the scenes of the worst ever anti-Christian riots in Orissa and presented the various voices and viewpoints around the Khandamahal carnage. The film was mis-named.

Several people visited the festival with the sole purpose of seeing the film, and one of them was Mr Patrick John, a fairly well known commentator in the Patna Church media. He expressed his appreciation of the film and said that  it showed how religion is being use as an excuse to wipe out the minorities. He called for the Christians to find ways to heal the wounds. A pious thought, no doubt.

Rajinder Dash a former administrator who has handled some of the worst communal conflicts in Bihar during his time, mentioned that the film clearly stated the complexity of the problem: the clash between the militant missionaries on both sides of the divide: Hindu versus Christian; the other issue of it being a Dalit versus Adivasi conflict over land and resources, a third angle being the adivasi communities pitted against the mining companies, and a fourth angel being the political angle: administration, its political alliances with the mining lobby. The root of the clashes were mainly economic, he pointed out. Rajinder Dash, being an Oriya and familiar with the langage of the film and the area, said that the area was so remote that it was no surprise that the adinistration took a couple of days to repond to the violence.

If  Debranjan Sarangi's film [screened on the first day] presented the complexity of religious hatred and manipulation in the name of religion to commit murder and genocide, Arzoo, directed by Shashi Ghosh Gupta [screened on the last day] was the story of a young Muslim girl who rose above the hatred and trauma caused by the Gujarat genocide, and did something beautiful for children. the film was rated the most outstanding of the evening. Arzoo, agreed many participants, was the answer to all the Kandamahals and Gujarats. The courage of conviction of the protagonist of Arzoo shone through the film. Young people took an instant liking to the film. One participant said that the film should be shown in all the colleges of Bihar.

Morality TV or Living a Jehad – Ek manohar Kahani by Paromita Vohra sparked off a lot of reactions - outrage, disgust, incredulity, and wide eyed amazement at the blatant way in which human rights are violated in small town India, how news is manipulated and how myth and lies masquerades as news, the way the small town media of Indore panders to the Hindutva Brigade, and how the police and society targets women. Even women policemen are hand in glove with this regressive repression. Someone said.. "Just look at that sickening display of corruption and coercion... nothing like that would happen in Bihar....and yet they give Bihar a bad name!

The beauty and pace of Do Din ka Mela by Anjali Monteiro and KP Jayashankar took many viewer's breath away, and discussions ranged around the beauty of the shots, and certain sequences, the subtle humour, the nuanced editing.

Student films also sparked off debates and appreciation. BRIDGE THE GAP by Sharanya Gautam & Shilpi Gautam was appreciated for its very interesting use of symbols to argue for holistic primary education. Inside Out by Divya Cowasji and Shilpi Gulati sparked off a considerable discussion about a woman's right to space, a woman's right to her body, how the burkha has been portrayed as  a symbol of liberation, as a means for a girl to access spaces within the city, how the burkha isn't really a symbol of freedom, as a woman she should be able to claim the spaces without hiding behind the burkha and so on.

The films from Bihar were noticed for their portrayal of themes that many of the residents of Patna were not aware of - the beauty of Bhagalpuri silk, the forgotten wedding and birth songs from Mithilanchal, and so on.

Author: Frank Krishner

Bihar's RTE Dilemma

Background

The Right to Education Act, 2009 is a path-breaking piece of legislation that has widespread ramifications on the primary education delivery system. This Act will come into force on the first day of April, 2010. The Act calls for a substantial reworking and remodelling of the institutions and procedures at State level, as well as for the framing of rules under the Act that will ensure Primary Education coverage for every child in the state.

Objective

In order to effectively formulate the State Rules under the Act, a series of consultations have been organised by the Bihar Education Project Council with national experts, state implementation partners and decision makers and stakeholders.

The first consultation was held at State level on 18th and 19th February 2010 at Hotel Patliputra Ashok, Patna.



Mr Anjani Kumar Singh, IAS, Principal Secretary, Department of Human Resource Development introduced the aims and objectives of the Consultation.

Addressing the stakeholders present, he pointed out that the Act was an ambitious one, specifically in the context of Bihar. He stated that in the past decade and a half, the kind of development expected on the elementary education front didn’t happen due to multifarious reasons.

“We can see that, in respect to other states, our state was quite backward in student-teacher ratio, school rooms, quality, teacher training, and facilities for disabled children. In the past three to four years, we have taken some measures which have resulted in the improvement of the situation to a small extent, but the ideal platform for us to launch such an ambitious Act does not exist at present,” he said.

The RTE Act had already been passed and was expected to come into force on the first of April. Bihar would have to do a lot, and do a lot of new things to implement the provisions of the Act.

The Principal Secretary HRD urged the participants to examine the ramifications of the Act carefully and try to come up with solutions. He highlighted some of the challenges.

Parameters have changed a lot. For example it was quite difficult to bring the teacher-student ratio to 40:1. In the recent past, the government had appointed more than two lakh teachers, but even more teachers need to be appointed to attain that standard. If, in conformity with the Act, the ratio is made to 30:1, the question would be from where would three lakh teachers come? The Act calls for trained teachers, where would these teachers come from, he asked.

[The Act stipulates that EVERY child betweeen 6 and 14 MUST access school Compulsorily, and the STATE shall ensure this as the Act comes into force April 2010 ]

There are different categories of teachers at present, but under the Act all teachers would have to be trained and meet a nationally determined standard.

Stressing on the fact that the law had been passed and that there was no room to debate the provisions of the Act, he said that the Model Rules were a guideline along which individual states would frame the rules taking into consideration the local conditions, possibilities, and constraints.

He drew attention to the existence of implementation time frames within the Act, and asked the participants to deliberate on the ways and strategies that could be used to handle these time frames.

The Act calls for all schools to be registered with the Government, and the good thing about this would be that a minimum standard would have to be maintained in all schools. If these minimum standards were not maintained, then the schools would have their registration cancelled. He pointed out that there was a danger of harassment for private schools and complications in this context, and stresses the importance of evolving a system whereby implementation would be smooth and transparent.

It would be necessary to prioritise the areas of implementation, taking into consideration the priorities in the State. A workable time frame for the implementation of each aspect would have to be worked out.

One of the major challenges would be the fiscal aspect. Financial resources and allocation for different components would present a challenge.

He pointed out that currently education spending was about 15 percent over the budget allocation. The implementation of the new Act would weigh heavily on the state exchequer, and the challenge would be mobilising resources to meet the projected expenditure of approximately Rs 28,000 crore. He mentioned that even the developed states were finding it difficult to muster the resources required to implement the RTE act, and that it was generally felt that the Centre should contribute towards 90 percent of the resources required for implementation.

Mr Anjani Kumar urged the participants to come up with an implementable road map taking into consideration the ground realities of the State. He said that even though the issues thrown up by the RTE looked huge, it was not a time to be disheartened.

He said that the participants present represented a wide range: NGOs and pressure groups for educational reform, private schools, and stakeholders and it was his belief that the two day consultation would throw up useful recommendations that would help in a viable and priority based implementation road-map for Bihar.


Author: Frank Krishner
Frank Krishner documents several educational initiatives for UNICEF, the State Government agencies, and other International Organisations. This post and subsequent ones on the consultation are for the purpose of general awareness and for the response of the enlightened public.

Video in the ELT classroom

I have been using video technologies in the classroom since the late 1980’s. From videotapes to DVDs and streaming video from the Internet, the visual mode is still the most powerful and popular medium of communication. Far from being mere entertainment, carefully chosen films are, in fact, useful and highly motivational teaching tools for practicing listening skills and stimulating speaking and writing.
Though video technology became affordable in the late 1970s, video became an even more widely available teaching aid in the next twenty years or so. Today, although the CBSE[1] recommends the use of selected films in the classroom, its penetration into everyday classroom practice and course/syllabus design hasn't been deep. In fact, the video is still an outsider in over 90 percent of Bihar’s ‘English Medium’ classrooms. It’s a shame that even in University classrooms, the number one teaching aid at an ELT teacher’s disposal is usually a stick of chalk.

How can teachers use video in the classroom? Most often it is used either to present students with spoken language input for listening practice or to elicit student language output via speaking or writing. Videos may also illustrate cultural and nonverbal behaviour and can also be used for teaching a variety of content (e.g., “about” linguistics) and skills (e.g., media literacy, literary criticism, comparing book and film versions). [2]
Looking back at the early days, it may be recalled that the first pedagogical practice was the direct adaptation of existing methodologies to incorporate the new technology. The 1960s and 70s had seen the emergence of the functional/notional approach to describing and teaching language, and this had begun to substitute transformational grammar as the main underlying principle behind materials and course design. One example is the appositely titled "Video English", a series of videos which took the main functions of the English language (e.g. greetings and introductions, asking for and giving information, etc.), and developed short sketches around them. The videos were accompanied by useful teaching notes, classroom activities, transcripts, suggestions for teachers and additional language material.

I use videos in several ways in my language classes. Actually, there are broadly three kinds of videos that I use. The first category is gleaned from BBC English language teaching resources. These are specially designed teaching videos that are developed around a teaching point and come with a downloadable script that can be very useful for teacher and student alike. The second category is popular films and episodes from television series.
The third category – which the teacher in India can acquire with a little bit of resourcefulness – is the adaptation of authentic TV and video material for language teaching. Two examples are the BBC's "Television English" series, in which excerpts from (mainly non-dramatic) UK broadcast TV programs are the focal point for well-written language learning activities, and Sony Corporation’s teaching materials based on a limited number of major feature films.
In addition to these three main categories of video resources, there is content or theme specific course material such as “Business English" and "Tourist English" videos, as well as courses using cartoons, aimed at children.

How does one use video in the classroom? Like other ELT practitioners, I have developed my own techniques. These techniques are far from new. One such technique is silent viewing. The students view a sequence, for example of a couple ordering a meal in a restaurant, and then attempt to generate an appropriate dialogue for the scene. The actual dialogue can then be used as a model from which to adapt the students' efforts. Alternatively, if the students are already familiar with the dialogue, they can use the silent re-viewing to reproduce the conversation. The reverse technique is to play the sound only, and have students discuss what the scene might look like. The teacher may also make good use of the ‘pause’ or ‘freeze-frame’ option, to check comprehension and to answer unanticipated questions. In some viewings, students should be encouraged to indicate if they want a pause in the viewing to pick up on points of confusion or general interest.
There are a number of features found in real spoken language but not in typical teaching materials. Real people mumble and talk with food in their mouths; some speak rather rapidly and use nonstandard forms; they incorporate different levels of formality and colloquialisms; they talk in incomplete sentences and use all sorts of pause fillers, hesitation phenomena, and the like. Differences in speech may be found from those of different regions, ethnic groups, social classes, ages, even gender. Speech is full of variety and ambiguity and students need to develop some ability to deal with this, even if it’s just to learn how to ask for clarification when they don’t understand something. Using video examples, teachers can guide students do deal with language as it is really used.[3]

Normally, however, merely watching and listening is not enough in the classroom. Teachers have to structure activities around the video. We may have the students summarize the plots of movies or entertaining TV shows; they may be encouraged to describe specific scenes or characters in detail. For news or information programmes, students may be encouraged to locate specific information by looking for the answers to WH-questions such as What happened? To whom? Where? With some other stories , they may be interested in discovering he answers to: What is the problem? What are the effects? What caused it? Are any solutions suggested?
The abovementioned activities incorporate listening and understanding, as well as writing down key information, and talking about the video with others. The activities might take the form of comprehension questions (multiple choice, ticking off, or completion), note-taking, and discussion. The students may also be asked to fill in blanks in the transcript while listening or to focus on certain lexical and grammatical usage. This, of course means that the teacher has to do his (her) homework well, planning out the activities and developing the task sheets that are to be used in the class.

On a more practical level, where the classroom is fitted with a television and cable connection, such as the one we have at the Department of Communicative English with Media Studies in Patna Women’s College, it is possible to let the students have access to English news programmes aired on satellite channels such as NDTV 24x7, Times Now or CNN-IBN. The English news on Doordarshan can be a fairly useful tool to help beginners with weak vocabularies and limited exposure to the spoken word familiarise themselves with registers.
The television programmes that I have found most useful are those that relate directly to the students’ worldview. The popular chat show ‘Koffee with Karan’ , NDTV’s talk show ‘We the people’, and the quiz show ‘Are you smarter than a fifth grader?’ can be potent language teaching tools.

One of the great advantages of video is that it provides authentic language input. Movies and TV programs are made for native speakers, so in that sense video provides authentic linguistic input. Students in Bihar are usually taught to memorize some grammar rules and vocabulary; the actual ability to use the language may or may not follow. When faced with a real native speaker, they panic. The unfortunate situation prevalent today, especially in the ELT ‘teaching shops’ is that ELT teachers in are not native speakers of English, and in this context, the judiciously used film/TV show can be used as a substitute for the ‘authentic’ native speaker.

[1] Central Board of Secondary Education
[2] Katchen, J. E. (1996). Using authentic video in English language teaching: Tips for Taiwan’s teachers. Taipei: Crane.

[3] ibid


Author: Frank Krishner
Frank Krishner is a journalist, film-maker and documentation specialist who has authored the weekly column “Wordsmith” on English usage in the Education Times (Times of India). He has been teaching mass communication at Patna Women’s College for the past decade.

Glory Days: Patna as education hub?

The early 1900’s brought students from other states and neighbouring countries to Patna for education, will the 21st century see the resurgence of Patna as a destination or quality education? The jury’s out on that one, writes Frank Krishner

Every June, outbound trains and planes carry significant numbers of freshly graduated high school students towards colleges in other cities: Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, and even to towns such as Indore and Gangtok. These youngsters leave home and wing their way to mainstream and vocational courses, battling it out in competitive examinations, braving inhospitality and swallowing their pride because they believe that colleges, institutions and universities outside the state will give them a better deal.

Observers say that times are changing and that this tide may soon be stemmed. They point to the many ‘franchisee’ schools: the ‘big brands’ of private education that have set up shop in the State capital. Vocational courses that lead to better paying pay-packets are no longer exclusively available in the Metros. Bihar can boast of several players of national and international repute that promise world-class education right in the heart of Patna. Be it media studies, animation, radio and television, foreign language courses, business management or fashion designing, there are institutes that offer these courses right here.

TRYST
“Patna’s tryst with modern education started way back in the 19th century. Schools like St. Joseph’s Convent and St. Michael’s have traditions that span over 150 years,” says Anne D’Costa, who taught at the latter school for over 25 years and who now lives with her equally famous footballer and teacher husband Rocque D’Costa in Mumbai.

Patna College dates back to 1912. Patna Medical College and Bihar National College gave India and the world some of its brightest luminaries. The American Jesuits started St. Xavier’s, and the American Bishop Sullivan started Patna Women’s College in the tempestuous years of 1939-40. They read the signs of India struggling to break free from British colonialism and encouraged their students to prepare themselves to take on great responsibilities in the New India. Students travelled from Bengal, Orissa and neighbouring countries to schools and colleges in Patna.

PASS WITHOUT ENGLISHIn the seventies and eighties, Patna saw several upheavals, not the least in the field of education. There emerged a new category on the Matriculation certificate, “Pass without English”. The venerable Catholic / Protestant aristocratic English medium school ethos: stolid and elitist, underwent a drastic change as the Jesuits shifted gears and opened the floodgates to Dalits in their new-found ‘option for the poor’. Upper class Patna watched aghast as trusted traditions were thrown to the winds and first St. Xavier’s, and then St. Michael’s reversed gears and became Hindi medium schools. This resulted in the opening of several privately run English Medium Schools run by Anglo-Indians, the most famous of which was set up by a certain Alfred De Rozario.

ASPIRATIONAL LANGUAGE

“Let’s face it. English is the aspirational language of Bihar. In spite of all attempts to portray Bihar as a rustic place which has no place for English, several private English Medium schools opened in Patna,” observes journalist and educator Allen Johannes. “Schools such as Rose Bud, St. Karen’s, St. Dominic Savio’s were started and flourished. Soon other schools such as DAV and Krishna Niketan opened: all of them teaching with English as a medium of instruction.”

Post-modern, technology-driven, globalised India has an entirely different set of aspirations and values, and the shift is evident in the choices made by the prospering middle classes of twenty-first century Bihar. The air-conditioned designer schools have made a mark in Patna. If money is no consideration, one needn’t pack their kids off to strange boarding schools when brands such as DPS, Radiant, and Zee have arrived and unpacked their wares.

Gyan Niketan School Director Anita Kunal attributes the success of the institution to the dedication and devotion of faculty and students to their respective duties. “Team work, utmost sincerity and honesty towards been our USP. We just don’t rest on our laurels and allow complacency to sneak in. We are constantly challenging ourselves to set new but realistic standards,” she says. She denounces too much attention being given to academics alone. “The general tendency is to stress too much on academics once the students reach the 10+2 level. The extra curricular activities and personality development aspect of education which are an integral part of the process are given a backseat. This should be avoided. The idea is to attain equilibrium between studies and all round development, without which education loses its essence.”

Coomar Anunodaya, who runs the Krishna Niketan chain of schools says that the imparting of cultural values and sanskar are the basis of education. “In our schools, we do not stress only on grades, life skills are an integral part of education. The girls are taught how to be good daughters, mothers and daughters-in-law as well. Family values are important.” A similar line of thought is also held by the Premalok school, which has sessions with spiritual leaders as part of the curriculum.

There primary reason why the demand for higher education and traditional courses in the state suffer and students migrate to outside institutions is that little placement assistance is provided by Patna colleges, says College of Commerce (Magadh University) Principal Suresh Prasad. “This deters them from opting for courses from Patna institutions which don’t provide them with access to employment opportunities.”

There is evidence that the benefits of education to individuals and society are enhanced when its quality is high. For example, better learning outcomes – as represented by pupils’ achievement test scores – are closely related to higher earnings in the labour market; thus, differences in quality are likely to indicate differences in individual worker productivity. Empirical research has also demonstrated that good schooling improves national economic potential. The quality of the labour force, again as measured by test scores, appears to be an important determinant of economic growth.
[Photo by FK: Boys in a government shool in Madhepura, Bihar March 2009. This article was published in the Times of India in April 2008]

Author: Frank Krishner

Jaswant Singh at the Patna Golf Club

“People in villages losing confidence”: Jaswant Singh

From Frank Krishner

The country faces a crisis of governance, and this is the root of several problems India faces today, former external affairs minister Jaswant Singh told a section of Patna’s intelligentsia at a private function on Saturday [17 Jan]. Mr Singh, while delivering a talk on “The State of our Nation: Our Challenges, our Response” to an apolitical gathering at the Golf Club reminded his listeners that India still lives in her villages, and when the people in the villages lose confidence in governance, the administration ‘loses control’. The rise of the Maoists in parts of the country is the consequence of this loss of faith in governance, he said.

The challenges before us are economic, diplomatic, and political. Our legislators treat Parliament and the state legislatures as perennial election platforms, the veteran parliamentarian pointed out. Several statutes in the law books are out-dated, he remarked.

Touching on the November terrorist attacks and the aftermath, Singh, who briefly held the portfolio of Minister for Defence in 2002-03, spoke of the changing nature of security and national defence requirements. He also pointed out that legislation alone – the creation of more ‘anti-terror laws’ – is not a solution, and may prove problematic in the long run. He expressed his anguish over what he clearly perceives as India’s tame diplomatic strategy following the Mumbai terrorist attacks.

Reflecting on his tenure as Finance Minister of India, he dwelt on the initial challenges he faced at a time when the country was in the throes of an economic downturn. He realized that the key to economic resurgence was to enable the ordinary housewife to feel that she has some money in her hands – “it’s a tactile thing,” he affirmed, looking towards the ladies in the audience,” the lady of the house should be able to feel the money in her hands, money that can be spent for school fees, or food, or groceries.”

Dr. Shanker Dutt, Dr. Muniba Sami, Mr and Mrs. Tapan Ghosh, Mr Manik Vedsen, Secretary Golf Club, friends of Mr Raghvendra Singh IAS Principal Secretary to Jaswant Singh organised the talk. In the distinguished audience were Mr Justice Shiv Kirti Singh, Mr Justice Sudhir Katriar, Mr Justice Samarendra P.N. Singh, former LNMU Vice Chancellor Dr J.P. Singh, and Industrialist Mr S.P. Sinha.

Mr Jaswant Singh was his affable self, and despite his discomfort from a previous lumbar injury, aggravated by ‘Patna road conditions’ chose to speak from the podium.

Speaking in an informal manner, he gently drew attention to the deterioration in public life, and the ills affecting even the judicial system, especially among the lower judiciary. The ordinary citizen has begun to perceive the legal and administrative system as onerous and frightening, he stated, and indicated that the challenge for all would be to make the system citizen friendly.

Earlier, Dr Shanker Dutt while introducing Mr Singh, spoke of his various accomplishments: author, academician, army officer, polo player, parliamentarian, traveller, and golf enthusiast. The President of the Patna Golf Club Mr Justice Ajay Tripathi proposed the vote of thanks.

It was a pleasurable experience to listen to this distinguished speaker and Parliamentarian. The question session that followed was lively, and though the audience steered away from colouring the evening with ‘politics’, it was evident that the alumnus of Mayo College and the National Defence Academy didn’t think much of the current central leadership, though he was gracious enough to admit that the present problems were the result of low quality governance over the years and the rot spans across the political divide, bringing within its ambit parties of all hues and men of all persuasions.

Author: Frank Krishner