India's Education Exports

Today, it's dawned on me that the Indians who excel in America's (and other western nations') institutions of higher learning, are perhaps not a major portion of the product of India's education system.  It appears that the country's education "exports" are among the minority of students in the school system here.  By contrast, the majority attends schools that need everything, often including teachers who themselves could use more training to make them more effective for the young minds they so influence.  I'm learning that India's education system is a complex consortium of organizations, governing bodies, and entities that keep the country's public, private, quasi-private, and government schools open.  It is a gigantic machinery that, while it is serving some students well, particularly those who can afford to pay exorbitant private school fees, it is actually in many ways "leaving some children behind."

For the past two days we've been paying visits to get a first-hand look at how some schools are run, and how students are being served.  Tuesday (June 9, 2015) we visited the Government Higher Primary School in Vasanthnagar.  One hundred twenty students, all from impoverished backgrounds, are enrolled in grades 1-7; they are taught by 7 teachers who are supervised by a head teacher.  Only a fraction of the student body was present.  This is the beginning (first week) of the new school year, and we were told many of the children simply have not yet returned to school.  This school serves a migrant population because a large percentage of the families lack a permanent home structure.

All children are taken through an assembly of chanting and repetition each morning.  During our visit it was led by a student.  Reading also takes place from the newspaper because it's a way to keep those who can understand informed on some of issues of the day (parents are often illiterate or simply cannot afford media of any kind)

7th Grade Language Arts with students who were attentive to a person, and a teacher who showed such dynamism despite few resources 

What was most impressive was the richness of print all over the classrooms here..you are looking at Kannada, a language spoken mainly in the state of Kanataka in which Bangalore is located

The kids were delightful!  They were polite, eager to learn, happy, to a great extent, despite the obvious need for some day-to-day necessities.  It was hard to accept how few resources there were; classrooms were tiny, allowing little if any room for a teacher to monitor cooperative  group activities; they were poorly outfitted, but students were so very proud to have us visit.