INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE

Of

ALL INDIA ASSOCIATION FOR EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH
on
IMPROVING RURAL EDUCATION
on
10-12 OCTOBER 2005
at
ANGEL MATRICULATION HIGHER SECONDARY SCHOOL,
THIRUNINRAVUR, NEAR CHENNAI, TAMIL NADU

ABSTRACTS OF THE PAPERS

Role of Rural Teachers for Development

 

Babu,R, Professor &  M. Soundararajan, SG Lecturer, Department of Education, Annamalai University, Annamalai Nagar - 608002

 

Rural education, like all education, should not limit itself to the processes of the school, but at every stage from primary level to higher education level should insist that pupils and students shall learn also from the great traditions of common life. The role of the teachers in rural area is fast changing that they need to be conceived as a “change agent” and not as a mere transmitter of knowledge and culture. The teacher best serves his pupils through his knowledge of and skillful use of psychological, sociological and other factors which bear upon their social and intellectual development. The teacher’s usefulness to them is directly proportional to awareness of the educational needs and their knowledge of how these might best be served. While democracy requires well-qualified men and women in position of importance and authority, yet government by and for the people requires also that fine resources of culture, leadership and wisdom shall be maintained with good distribution throughout the population. The teacher should not only be a communicator but also a motivator and coordinator. The emerging concepts like discharging society, education without frontiers, life long education, distance teaching, open university, etc,. should attract the attention of teachers – both present and future; rural and urban teachers should be at the fingertips of every educational programmatic is true that the future manpower requirement is a dominant element in the planning of education. The rural schools should be given finance for its infrastructure, teaching aids, etc,. discovery of better ways of selecting materials and of distributing and using them for the enrichment of teaching in rural schools will do much to improve the standard of education. The teachers must know the resources of their communities. The teachers must keep the parents informed about the school. IT is necessary to ensure that the pattern of education in rural schools should have greater impact on younger generation and on the development. The social framework should be such as to provide opportunities for the weaker section to display initiative and to stand on their legs.

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Improvised Aids For Effective Science Education In Rural Schools

 

Babu Kochamkunnel, P.K.M. College of Education,  Madampam, Kannur

 

We are now in the age of science, information and technology. Rural schools of backward and developing countries like India, which cannot afford even the basic physical facilities needed for educational institutions will have to rely mainly on human resources. Every effort is necessary on the part of the science teachers to make the science learning interesting and stimulating and make the learners realize the values of science for better understanding and living.. Science teachers should make full use of the available learning equipments and improvise the necessary learning aids using locally available, low/no cost materials to understand the concepts of science more effectively. Every laboratory may not possess costly equipments and lacks some pieces of apparatus which are useful in conducting experiments. Not only have the prospective teachers, even the experienced teachers apprehended to use the costly laboratory equipments in science process. It may be due to fear of failure or chance of breakage while using in the classes. Learning science is Doing Science. Therefore, resourceful and ingenious teachers and students make improvised learning aids using readily available materials. Critical thinking along with creativity and attitudinal changes are the inevitable out –comes of this dynamic aspect of science education. The present activity based child centred science education can easily be functioned using improvised materials. The paper also suggests few important improvised aids which can be easily developed and used in the science education especially in Indian rural school set up.

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Role of Mass Media in Training Rural School Teachers through Distance Mode

 

Balaiada R. Dkhar, Regional Institute of Education (NCERT), Bhubaneswar-751022 E-mail: [email protected]

 

India has made rapid strides in the field of science and technology and every attempt is made to apply it in the field of education. Distance Education is one such innovation. The pace, at which it is marching, also caters to the needs of teacher training in rural schools. It has immense significance for the educationally underdeveloped and developing society in general and for the emerging learning teachers in rural schools in particular. It is perceived and emphasized that in this age of explosion of knowledge, expansion of students and advancement of technology, it is the intellectual capital-trained manpower teachers rather than financial and physical capital, which will give the society strength and prosperity when knowledged people become important strategic resource for development in the 21^st century. The rural scenario on each level indicates the need for teacher training. The distance mode plays an important role in imparting effective teacher education programme by making use of latest information technology.  Therefore, we have to think on innovations using technology and networking in order to disseminate information on a larger scale to teachers in rural areas. The paper intends to highlight the role played by distance education in teacher training, importance and contribution of mass-media in the field of distance education and its impact for extending  educational opportunities to people of all walks of life without any restrictions based on age, sex, occupation, caste or creed etc. Hence, with education at the doorstep, tesachers are able to grow professionally. As higher qualifications enable them to acquire higher status, the distance mode has become popular even among the rural teachers. The growing interest is an indicator of the need to strengthen mass media for catering to the training needs of teachers of rural schools.

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Prevention of Child Victimization through Networking of NGOs and Primary Schools in Rural Areas

 

Beulah Shekhar, Faculty, Department of Criminology & Criminal Justice, M.S.University, Tirunelveli

Education systems in rural areas have the potential to contribute to the elimination of child victimization in several ways. It is essential that education, particularly primary education, to be transformed if it is to successfully meet the rights and needs of children and prepare them for a socially productive life. They can teach children about children’s rights and responsibilities. The schools in rural areas are understaffed and the available teachers are overworked. So, it is suggested in this empirical paper that   the NGOs network with the schools in rural areas to ensure that the children are made aware of their rights and this knowledge will empower them to safeguard themselves from various types of victimization that endanger their safety and security. This educational will have a positive effect on children’s growth and development. In addition, teachers and others connected to the learning environment can monitor how the text book knowledge and life skills of survival improve the lot of these otherwise vulnerable children. It should be seen that in rural areas children are very vulnerable, naïve and susceptible. Whenever the media reveals some kind of victimization of children in the city the victims are children trafficked from the rural areas. Districts like Tirunelveli, Tirunelveli and Kanyakumari are in the southern most point of Tamil Nadu are also the homes of many an unwary child victim. Though the Government plays a lead role in promoting and implementing awareness and relevant education for all children, it cannot do so without the social mobilization of all sectors of civil society like NGOs, community leaders, media, families, and children themselves. Most importantly it should be seen that if properly supported and motivated, the efforts of teachers can have a powerful ripple effect in creating a desirable and empowering environment for awareness of the rights of children among families and communities in general and the children in particular. There is no dearth for well-intentioned laws and schemes to improve the lot of children in India, but it is only lack of awareness of these laws. The fundamental issue in prevention of child victimization is to see how the law can be taken to people and bring them to own it and practice it as a scheme of social control complementing the enforcement of law by the State. The very notion of crime as an offence against public law raises the question of the extent of acceptance. What institutional options are available that could complement the deterrence effect of law enforcement in extending the area of acceptance. The search for options must look for community-based approaches. The issue may be approached from both the enforcement and acceptance perspectives. Ensuring partnership at all levels and in all sectors, this joint venture must be created and sustained at all levels to change education systems and structures so that rural education is part of the solution to child victimization  and not part of the problem. 

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Present Status of Indian Rural Education & Some Innovative Approaches

Bhavin D. Shah, Shri Jaykorbai Vidhya Mandir,  Kherva

The illiterate population in India is estimated to be over 400 million of, which 75% lives in rural areas. And of the literate population, a Significant proportion lack basic vocational skills and training. India is a developing country for which that is more important to prepare manpower with basic and useful thinking, application and problem solving skills. While India has developed a few world-class institutions of higher learning, such as the IITs, IIMs and medical colleges, they are isolated from the larger community and society. Most of their graduate goes to western countries to live and work. Thus, the structure of India education has left a weak and tottering foundation, which if not strengthened quickly, will become huge drag on social and economic development of the country. This article explores the current status of schools and teachers in rural areas of India, and what types of innovations should be implied in that education environment. Innovations should be taken in hand for improving rural education in India is given in three sub branches of educational system.

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Strategies for Enhancing Rural Teachers Development

 

Bina Baruah, Jorhat Assam

 

Teachers form the single largest force that run the whole system of education. Classroom is a complex micro –social system which is designed for transmission of knowledge, skills and abilities. In recent years it has consistently been found that the attainment of children from rural background tended to be substantially inferior to those of urban children. To enhance the situation, the program of teacher education must take into account. Teacher education assumes the most crucial significance in the whole programme of educational improvement.

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Essentiality of Metacognitive Strategies in Teaching Physical Science

Binulal.K.B &  Dr. K. Chellamani, Lecturer, Department of Education, University of Madras, Chennai - 600 005

 

The paper on ‘Essentiality of metacognitive strategies in teaching physical science’ emphasizes the relevance of application of metacognitive strategies on enhancing the physics problem solving skill. The Present scenario of learning physics concepts in class rooms are also discussed in this paper. With the help of metacognitive strategies, the students can be motivated towards the process of problem solving. Metacognition can be defined simply as ‘thinking about thinking; or ‘cognition of cognition’. Metacognition is the knowledge and cognition about cognitive phenomena. The role of theoretical concepts while solving a problem is also discussed. For the application of physics concepts, theory should be learned along with problems, at school level. In solving problems the students need to have clarity over theoretical concepts. Hence it is essential to apply metacognitive strategies in solving problems. Through a systematic procedure the author narrates the steps to solve problems in a metacognitive way. Thereby the importance of metacognitive behavior in learning was explained.

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Role of Parents in Rural School Education

Bipin T. Savaliya, Research Scholar, Dept. of Education, Saurashtra  University, Rajkot & Dr. Parul C. Dave, Lecturer, T. N. Rao College of Teacher Education, Rajkot (Gujarat)

It is inevitable for a developing country like India to propagate and spread education at its every corner. The Government is sanctioning financial aid in its ‘five years scheme’ for more and more spread of education and tries its best to implement as many schemes as possible which can increase literacy. But the development of education is not possible only through financial aid or the implementation of schemes in the country like India which a big nation and full of diversities. For this people’s awareness and cooperation is mandatory today. It’s a moral duty of the society to maintain good health of education and develop it. When it is an inseparable part of the society. A class directly connected to each school is of guardian/parents of the students. It becomes a moral responsibility for each parent to stay connected actively with the school, which along with educating their children, takes care about their all sided development. For this the parents should always be informed about the curricular and co-curricular activities going on in the school. Not only this but they should also be helpful in such activities along with their available tools. In addition to this if these parents are associated with any local social organisation, they should try to make the benefits of such organisation available to the respected school. Thus some of the suggestions – how parents can be helpful physically, financially and in terms of men power to the school education – are tried to present here.

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