Written by Shruthi
When Goa Small Grant Programme (CSDS) invited proposals, Our Ma’am decided that we should present our proposal. The theme of this programme was ‘Conflicts over resources in Goa’. The title of our proposal was, ‘LITERACY: A Conflicted Resource in Content and Context of Learning amongst Young Learners in Goa’. Our team consisted of Alia, Melcom, Krupa and myself with Sujata Noronha as our mentor.
We started preparations just four days before our presentation as initially we all were unsure about how to go about it. As our mentor Ma’am Sujata and team member Alia were out of station, all our discussion happened via the phone and emails. The pros of being a part of a technological world. We also discussed with others and gathered their opinions and understandings on this topic. This helped us understand the topic on a deeper level. I realized that this was no longer a mere topic for a presentation for me to understand but also the present scenario of our educational system. As we discussed the topic more deeply, we all shared our school experiences wherein very few opportunities were given to us to share our views and opinions on understanding of any particular subject. Sadly the scenario still remains the same even today.
Our presentation tried to put forth the view that we need to focus more on content that connects to the context of the children and not the language to impart knowledge. If undue importance is given to a particular language which is not understood by the children, how will the children understand and connect to the context? If a new language is imposed on children, they will not be able to impart their understanding of the subject or be able to put forth their views. This seems to be one of the main drawbacks of our educational system as we are unable to grasp what our young learners want and how much and what they know.
Sadly, our presentation was not selected but it did put a fresh perspective in front of us to ponder about and it was an experience worth learning.