Reading is basic to democracy

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STUDENT-10
Contributed By: Mr. Prem Kumar
Basic IAS Academy
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Reading is basic to democracy
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The teaching of reading during early childhood
— when attitudes, habits and skills acquire life-long
foundations — assumes crucial significance for the
efficient functioning of democracy.
1.Literacy is the foundation of school education
but in our country the term ‘literacy’ is used almost
exclusively in the context of adults. This is not surprising,
given the embarrassingly large share of India in the global
count of adults who can neither read nor write. Why
India’s share has not dwindled significantly is partly
related to the fact that the years spent by children in
primary schools do not necessarily make them literate.
Many who acquire a tenuous grip on literacy during those
years fail to retain it in the absence of opportunities to
read, compounded by elimination from school before
completing the upper primary classes. Even in the case
of those who acquire lasting literacy, schooling fails to
impart the urge to read as a matter of habit. Those who
learn to perceive reading as a means to expand knowledge
and awareness are a minority. Sensational surveys of
children’s poor performance in reading tests throw little
light on the deeper problems that the teaching of reading
in India suffers from. If these problems are not addressed
in an institutionalised manner, the newly enacted law on
the right to education will remain ineffective.
2.The ability to decipher isolated letters of the
alphabet is not a promising beginning in the child’s
progress towards becoming literate. However, this is
precisely what conventional wisdom tells teachers to
focus on. The wisdom is based on millennia-old practices
which enabled a few children to become literate. When
we apply this wisdom today, we forget that the method
worked in a socio-cultural context which was altogether
different from our context now. When literacy was
confined to a thin upper strata of society, the teacher
demanded from his wards a mastery over letters and
sounds for its own sake. It took years to acquire such
mastery, and the methods used to ensure it included
oppressive drills and a punitive regime that can have no
place today. When people feel nostalgic about traditional
education, they forget that it was based on a view of
childhood few would approve today. Moreover, the
traditional system had no intention to cover all children.
The methods it used for the teaching of reading are
unsuitable for a universal system of education. The
traditional approach does not recognise the child’s nature
and agency, nor does it respect individual differences.
3. New approach
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STUDENT 10
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4.The traditional methods are incompatible with the
modern psychology of childhood and the knowledge
available today on the acquisition of language-related
skills. Contemporary expertise is based on the premise
that children have a natural drive to explore and understand
the world; hence, reading should give them the opportunity
to make sense of printed texts from the beginning.
‘Making sense’ as an experience involves relating to the
text, generating a personal engagement and interpretation.
If children are not encouraged to relate to the text, or if
the text they are given has little meaning or relevance,
the outcome will be a crude kind of literacy, which will
remain isolated from their intellectual and emotional
development. If this wider meaning of reading is applied
to make an assessment, our system of primary education
will arouse far greater concern than children’s test scores
in achievement surveys do. Persistent effort under the
pressure to perform does make children capable of reading
aloud a written text, but they fail to find any meaning in it.
And the ability to decipher a text mechanically does not
encourage children to actively look for new texts to read.
The anecdote narrated by ChinnaChacko, a former
member of the NCERT, in a paper she presented at the
International Reading Association in 1971 continues to
hold true. When she asked a child to read aloud, he asked:
“With the text or without the text?” Reflecting on the
methods used in Indian schools for teaching children how
to read, ChinnaChacko wrote: “Many things are done the
same way they have been done for centuries and, as a result,
our primary teacher-training schools and primary schools
are like museums in which old ways are carefully preserved.”
5.The cost of this museum-mentality is high, if we
take into account the role that a reading public plays in a
democratic order. The practice of democracy assumes
both the habit and the capacity in all citizens to engage
with matters which transcend personal or immediate
reality. We can call it the metaphysics of daily life under
modernity. It compels every member — without exception
— to share a collective anguish and to respond to it in
one way or another. Engagement with this expanded
universe cannot be sustained without the tools of literacy,
in addition to — and not as a substitute of — the oral
means of interaction. In this model, reading serves as
more than a skill; it becomes an aspect of culture. It must
enable citizens to reflect on what is going on, not merely
a skill to decipher printed texts. From this larger
perspective, the teaching of reading during early childhood
— when attitudes, habits and skills acquire life-long
foundations — acquires crucial significance for the
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STUDENT 10
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efficient functioning of democracy. This perspective
implies drastic changes in the currently practised
pedagogy of reading in pre-schools and the primary
classes. Instead of letter-recognition and mechanical
decoding, pedagogic effort must focus on building bridges
between words and meanings, and on nurturing an
interpretive stance from the earliest stage. This kind of
pedagogy requires meaningful texts and a sustained use
of children’s literature. The texts used for the teaching
of reading should treat the child with dignity, showing
respect for the child’s inner drive to interpret and relate.
The sociology of the text content is equally important.
We need texts that make children excited about the social
and cultural diversity that they encounter in their ethos.
We also need kind and affectionate teachers who are
themselves habitual readers and can encourage each child
to perceive reading as a means to pursue his or her own
interest.
6. NCERT’s role
7.A 40-part series of books for beginner readers,
published by the NCERT, successfully responds to these
various expectations. Entitled Barkha, this series was
prepared by the department of early literacy and libraries
under a special project of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. The
little books included in this series mark several innovations,
including those in design and illustration, and not just in
the conception of child-centred narratives. In place of
the usual patronising attitude towards children that we
see in educational literature, the Barkha books present
real children, doing the kinds of things ordinary children
do at home and in the neighbourhood. A radical attempt
has been made in these books not just to move away
from stereotypes, but to challenge them. It is the first
time in India that a graded reading series, with a literary
approach to reading, has been introduced. The early
literacy department of the NCERT, which created this
series, has been working with several State governments,
encouraging them to develop similar material in their
languages and to train teachers to adopt the imaginative
approach to reading what Barkha represents.
8.Strangely enough, the NCERT has decided to
close down the department that was promoting this
approach. This is not the first time in India, or within the
NCERT itself, that a distinct attempt to focus on reading
and libraries has been prematurely abandoned.
Institutional vicissitudes are much too common to require
comment. One can only hope that the Ministry of Human
Resource Development, which controls the NCERT, will
review this decision and restore early literacy’s academic
identity. Strong institutional leadership is required to
motivate State governments, NGOs and private publishers
to take children’s literature, especially its neglected
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STUDENT 10
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 STUDENT 10
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aspects like design and illustration, seriously. The
illustration copied here from a children’s book recently
published by the National Book Trust shows how
insensitive even a reputed publishing house can be towards
violence on women. After decades of advocacy for
gender-sensitive material for children, the larger scenario
remains quite alarming. Many NGOs have now taken to
publishing for children, and in the absence of expert
guidance and institutionalised review processes, they are
churning out poor quality material, often with explicit
ideological bias. State governments purchase such
material with the copious funds that the SSA provides for
classroom libraries. The NCERT does need to play a
leadership role in this anarchic scene.
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PRACTICE QUESTION FROM THIS ARTICLE

Courtesy : - The Hindu

Disclaimer: This article has been translated exclusively for IAS Aspirants convenience and study purposes.
Author doesn't take responsibility of view expressed or accuracy of the content."

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