Dear Ms

August 2, 2002 Ms. Amita Sharma, Secretary Elementary Education & Commissioner Rajya Shiksha Kendra, Government of Madhya Pradesh, Pustak Bhawan, B-wing, Arera Hills, Bhopal (M.P.) Sub.: Hoshangabad Science Teaching Programme and future collaborations between Eklavya and the State Education Department. Ref.: (i) Your D.O. letter No. 367 dated 18.07.2002 and D.O. letter No.403 dated 30.7.02. (ii) Our letters of July 8^th, July 11^th, July 28^th and July 31^st, 2002. Dear Ms. Amita Sharma, Thank you for your letter dated July 18, 2002, the annexed note as well as the internal report relating to the impact of the Hoshangabad Science Teaching Programme (HSTP) in Hoshangabad. In continuation of the dialogue we wish to state the following:

We have noted the offer made by the state government regarding a possible collaboration in teacher training and capacity building. We would be happy to contribute to the state government’s efforts in improving the quality of science education in the state. This is what we have been doing over the past 20 years under the aegis of the SCERT with active participation and collaboration of the state education department at all levels. We assume that you are not inviting us to train teachers in transacting the existing curriculum since we have reiterated on many occasions that we are against its rote learning methodology that negates all principles of science teaching. In fact, as you are aware, HSTP was developed as a viable and successful alternative to the existing curriculum, with the active support of the state education department. So we assume that your offer indicates your willingness to incorporate the positive aspects of HSTP into the current state science curriculum, as has been stated on several occasions by the Chief Minister. Since the teacher training techniques we have developed are in the context of an experiment-based, discovery oriented methodology of teaching science, we assume that you would like to introduce the element of experiments into the existing curriculum. This is a welcome step. We have gained a lot of experience in incorporating an experimental base in the existing CBSE and state science curriculum through our work over the last few years in several prestigious private schools in Indore and Mumbai. We would be willing to share this experience with you and train your teachers accordingly. However, this step requires several additional inputs in the form of science kits, training of resource persons and organisation of regular teacher meetings and follow-up to schools. More fundamentally, an evaluation system that discourages rote learning and encourages all round development of experimental, analytical, problem solving, comprehension and articulation skills in children and seeks to test conceptual understanding and development rather than information recall needs to be put in place. If this is accepted in principle, then its field level modalities can be worked out. Hence we need to discuss these matters with you and formulate a proposal to undertake a teacher training programme of this nature. If you already have such a proposal in mind, since you have been stating quite consistently in public that you have invited Eklavya to participate in teacher training, then we would be glad to go through the proposal and come to some common ground so that we can move ahead from the current stalemate. However, there is one residual problem that also needs to be sorted out before this can be done. In your internal assessment report, you have stated quite unequivocally that you looked upon Eklavya as a tenant in the house of the government education system. You went on to state that our tenancy was ‘illegitimate’ and that Eklavya 'was seeking to alter a space that it does not own'. We find that this mindset marks a change in the government’s attitude to collaborations and partnerships with voluntary non-governmental groups. We do not look upon ourselves as tenants, nor do we have any desire to take over the education system. Nor is our presence in the house illegitimate. The formation of Eklavya was supported by the government, both at the centre and the state, to help improve school education in partnership with the education department. We have done so willingly because it is the right and duty of every concerned citizen in a democracy to be concerned about the quality of education that our children are getting, and work for improving it. We have always been partners with the government in all previous efforts to introduce innovative programmes at the elementary school level. That is because we have a shared commitment to common goals of improving school education. We have both agreed in the past that school education, particularly in science, is in a parlous state and requires immediate attention and corrective action. Thus our collaborations and partnerships have always been on an equal footing. And that is the way we would want things to continue. So if this problem of attitude and approach is cleared up satisfactorily, we can sit together and chalk out a programme of teacher training that would help make science education in Madhya Pradesh more experiment based and, hence, more in line with what has been stated in all educational policy documents since even before independence.

We would also like to extend the teacher training programme to subjects other than science. As you are aware, our Social Science Teaching Programme has evolved an innovative curriculum for Class 6, 7 and 8 in History, Geography and Civics that emphasises development of skills of historical analysis, comparative studies, data compilation and analysis, mapping skills and application of principles to everyday life. Children are encouraged to compare their social environment with that obtaining in the past and in other lands. Similarly, in our Primary School Programme, Prashika, the emphasis of the curriculum, integrated in the first three years, is on ‘opening up’ the child to remove her/his fears so that the learning process is joyful. It concentrates on development of motor skills, the ability to observe and express oneself, reading and comprehension abilities and basic mathematical and mapping skills. Eklavya would be very happy to contribute to developing teacher training and curriculum renewal programmes in these areas also.

We have shared your 'Assessment Report' widely with a large number of educationists, scientists and evaluation experts and have already received reactions and comments from many of them. Some of them have written directly to the Chief Minister himself. They are largely supportive of the stand taken by us in our letter of July 8, 2002. We will be submitting a detailed response to the additional points raised in the report shortly. For us the ‘assessment report' is not an adequate basis for the decision to replace the HSTP package with the mainstream curriculum and we continue to protest this decision. The offer of using the package as supplementary material is administratively as well as academically still unclear and will have to be spelt out if it is to acquire an implementable form. We again urge some immediate action to redress the impasse created in Hoshangabad district. Similarly, a decision on the continuance of the Social Science Teaching Programme is urgently required in order to facilitate a proper expert evaluation of the programme by the State Government. We also urge immediate and definitive action to reverse the confusion created in Harda and other districts regarding the continuation of HSTP in schools in those areas. The letter of July, 30, 2002 to the Managing Director of the Madhya Pradesh Text Book Corporation, signed by Shri S.D. Rukmangad, Coordinator, Rajya Shiksha Kendra, is not clear about the situation in these districts nor does it direct definitive action to be taken by the Text Book Corporation in these districts. We are also not aware of any communication to the Collectors/ CEOs/ DEOs of these districts clarifying the confusion and directing them to rectify the orders already passed by some of them. In anticipation of a positive response to our suggestions and queries, we remain, Yours faithfully, (Kamal Mahendroo) for Eklavya group.

Copy to: Shri Amar Singh, Principal Secretary, School Education for information. Shri R. Gopalakrishnan, Secretary to the Chief Minister. 3. Shri D.P. Dubey, Commissioner Public Instruction.