Posted on July 14, 2007 in latest news
A lot of research and assessment, irrespective of a particular nation, has gone into studying the primary education systems. And this is because of the sheer reason that primary school is a defining factor in a child’s education.
A major debate on the primary education system has been regarding the method of teaching adopted by the teachers.
Initiatives have been launched to diminish the drastic difference between the pre-primary and the primary levels of education for children. The focus in these initiatives is to:
‘eliminate the feeling of estrangement and alienation the child feels when he/she enters a primary school away from his/her family and build a strong and sustainable pedagogical link between the pre-school program and the first term of the Standard One’
Experts like Om Varma from the Mauritius Institute of Education (MIE) say,
“The change must be done more gradually and within a more familiar environment. Instead of working in the textbook as from the first day at primary school, the relationship should be more interactive and the pedagogy adopted should be done through games, songs and more familiar situations”
Experts also suggested that texts should start only from the second term of the primary school.
But many teachers have problem with this school of thought. They believe that the style of teaching proposed by the experts is time consuming and not up to the mark. They also complain that it is difficult to complete the syllabus with this structure of teaching.
As an answer to these questions the MIE lecturer suggested a softer approach:
“The book should not be a bible and the teacher should not follow it from the first to the last page. Teachers should be free to build their own tools while basing themselves on the books”
Irrespective of the concerns raised by the teachers, the experts stand an inch higher in their structured approach only because of a main advantage – This structured approach will put all pupils coming from pre-primary at the same level of footing to start the second term of education.
There have been programs designed on these lines of structured approach in places like Mauritius which are called ‘Bridging the Gap’ concepts. How far have these programs succeeded to cover whole of the primary education system is yet to be understood.
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