MIGRATION, 4As OF EDUCATION  AND ADVANCED TECHNOLOGICAL SOLUTION

Few days ago I got an opportunity to interact with a group of migrant laborers at IRMA. Many of them were from Odisha. These people had migrated to Gujarat in search of job.  They used to arrive at IRMA early in the morning, around 7:45, and leave the campus in the afternoon, at around 5:45 pm. They were accompanied by their family consisting of husband, wife and the kids. Sometimes if the kid was very young then an elderly person used to come with the kid. After arrival the laborers used to move to respective sites for work and the kids used to move around the campus and play. At around 12 “o” clock all of them used to gather for their lunch.

A couple of days later I observed students at IRMA had started an open school for these migrant kids. During afternoon, once their classes got over, these students taught the kids. I started attending few of these sessions. I observed the teaching process. It was very difficult for both the parties to communicate. But gradually I found these kids developing the skill to imitate the languages, Hindi and English, taught to them. They wished “hello” anyone coming to their class and said “bye bye” to people leaving their class. They sang songs, “ macchli jal ki rani hei, jeevan uska pani hei” without understanding the meaning of the words. But they very well understood the symbols and thus enjoyed the process. However, I could notice the difficulty of using English or Hindi as a medium of instruction.  Looking at the difficulty of few of their teachers I just thought, “What could be the possible alternatives to teach these kids? Which language could be used effectively to teach these kids?”  And, for a while I started thinking, “is it justified to teach them in English or Hindi?” Because making them learn Hindi or English may lead to demise of their native language skills since many of them did not get the scope to read, write or speak with their friends and relatives back home and got no scope to use the native language. Alternatively how could an instructor, belonging to a different language group, teach them effectively and easily? The communication was really difficult during the process of teaching as because the teachers, a few of them though were from Odisha, didn’t understand the language being spoken by these people.

 In an attempt to explore more about this issue I started talking to some of the parents. The parents were enthusiastic about their kids’ education because of two reasons. First, it kept the kids occupied during the afternoon so the parents could do their work without any tension. Second, the kids got the scope to learn. However, the major concern they raised was that of the continuation of education. With their meager income, they thought, it was impossible to afford higher education or even primary education for their kids. Besides, the migratory life had complicated the accessibility of education for their kids.

Now these queries raised two issues before me. One, what should be the course content for these kids? If we continue with the present content, which is similar to that of the formal education content, then we may not be able to motivate the parents to continue the education of these kids. Because the formal education would prepare them for some job as an engineer, or a doctor or a bureaucrat, etc. For which further education is required and the poor laborer family may not be able to afford this education.

Hence, is it possible to design some curriculum which can help them overcome not only the issue of illiteracy but also address the issue of livelihood and affordability?

Furthermore, these kids moved with their parents from one place to other. I got the information that some 4-5 laborers had already left the job at IRMA construction site during last one month period and gone elsewhere. Besides, I found a family who used to work at Rajkot had shifted to Anand few months back and had joined the IRMA construction work. Now this leads to a different set of problem. Formal education in the existing system needs to be a continuous process. But a nomadic life could not help these kids get the education on a continuous basis.

So, is it possible to develop a system to track the movement of these kids and organise resources at   these places to ensure continuation of their education?

To summarise I raise three issues,

1.      What should be the course content for these kids? (The Course Curriculum  in terms of language, content )

2.      How should these kids be taught? (What should be the pedagogy; activities to teach these kids?)

3.      How can these kids be tracked and continuation of education is ensured at places they migrate? (Where should be taught? How to track these kids and continue the education from where they have left?)

… But my first question is, “Can advanced technological solutions help us overcome the barriers of acceptability, availability, affordability and awareness?”